My experience of towing 4,700lb travel trailer, which now weighs closer to 5,000lbs… maybe.

Awesome post! We are fellow RV’ers but are not traveling like you do. I (not so much the wife) hope to spend more time on the road in the near future.

 

Does your system have a digital level display internal to the camper? Isn’t that something you would have noticed when dry camping?

 

Yes, that’s how the wife noticed it, however when I say dry camping I mean dry, like no water, even in the water heater. We had no reason to check when we stopped at over nighters as there was supposed to be no water on board.

 

Do it, these cans don’t hold their value so you gotta use them to get value, this is a huge country with so much to explore!

 

For the record I hate Hwy 95 between Needles and Las Vegas… both times I've driven it, both directions I've had a 20mph head wind on the 3500ft climb.

The taco for sure doesn't love that situation!

 

Wow, that's pretty extreme. What speed were you able to hold? I assume you were able to keep TC locked in 4th for most of the climb?

 

I dig your posts - keep them coming my guy. Always cool to see other's adventures.

 

I couldn't agree more. I miss Mark posting his adventures.

 

I’m finally decompressing after our little adventure this past fall.

Currently in Bend, OR. The camper is in storage and we are in a 2,000 sqft rental and very much enjoying the space and king size bed. The trailer was getting smaller and smaller throughout December.

I will finish off my little write up soon but am a bit preoccupied with a very pregnant wife and a baby due March 1st. Buying lots of baby stuff as we have none!!

Just about to go for a drive to test these Cooper AT3 4s in the compacted snow, had 16” the last couple of days with another foot due over the weekend

Happy new year to anyone that reads this…

 

And proper inflation. I saw an article in the past that said a majority of TT accidents are because of low tire pressure in the TT Tires. Cheap insurance.

 

Please correct me but in all of the cars I’ve owned in America none have advised the proper inflation of tires when fully loaded, only the recommended pressure of what I presume is for just the driver is listed.

Here’s a shot of a tire pressure reference decal from a BMW 3 series back in the UK. The rear tire for example is 2.6 bar (38Psi) but when fully loaded with passengers and luggage the pressure should be 3.3bar (48psi).


That’s 10psi difference. This is why I always increase the tow vehicle pressures when towing. The tires are then at the right pressure to be able to handle the added weight.

The max pressure listed in the sidewall of a vehicle tire also coincides with the max load the tire can handle.

Typically with trailer tires you can go to the manufacturers website and find a load/pressure chart. Depending on how heavy your rig is fully loaded you can then determine what the correct pressure the tires should be.
https://www.goodyearrvtires.com/pdfs/rv_inflation.pdf

 

I’m back!!

Currently our little girl is 5 weeks old and growing quickly due to the constant feeding. Man ‘o man the first few weeks of caring for a newborn are no joke!

I had to reinstall the single seat in the back of the truck for her car seat, this leaves my 6ft lanky body with considerably less room in the cockpit. I’ve left the seats out on the passenger side rear because our dog has severe arthritis and the platform is a good 4/5 Inches shorter so it’s easier for him to get in from the ramp.

The RV is still in storage, haven’t even seen it for 4 months now! Will likely sell it soon as the setup doesn’t really work for our situation now we have an extra family member. Probably won’t buy another one until I upgrade the tow vehicle which probably won’t happen for a while… we’ll see.

 

Nope, that is where locking up in 3rd would be really useful.

Unfortunately that 3,500ft pull is pretty constant and a good grade so with the headwind I was floating between 4th and 3rd for most of it and 2nd when the trans pan temps got too high (200’) from being in 3rd. 2nd gear gets the revs up in the powerband and with that the engine works less and so does the transmission. Sure it’ll drink fuel and be noisy for a bit but at the same time it’s moving the transmission oil through the rads quicker which helps with cooling.

The only reason we drove that route (Hwy 96) from Las Vegas to Phoenix and return vs Hwy 93 is my wife recently freaks out when she drives over bridges and the one over the Hoover dam is a good one!

The rest of the drive back to Bend OR from Las Vegas was straight forward. We headed into the middle of nowhere past Area 51 along the terrestrial Hwy, across to Tonopah then up to Winnemucca, Burns and down hill through dense freezing for for the last 100 miles to Bend.

When I picked up the TT in Nov ‘21 I had never towed before. And with that we lived in it from that first day and set out on our adventure.
I tallied up just shy of 15,000 miles towed in 2 years through 21 different states. 3 oil changes, one alignment and a new set of tires and zero problems

Crazily my truck has pretty much towed a 5klb TT for half of its total miles driven!!

Toyota said - Let’s go places - and that we did…

 

Congrats on the baby girl Mark. No doubt the addition is a HUGE change to life.

You have created such a wonderful thread of knowledge here. It's been some time since I've read back through it but I'm grateful that you have shared your experiences here. I also appreciate the answers to the questions I've had along the way. It's pretty inspiring that you bought the TT and lived in it from day one. I don't have much of a desire to do the same but I have been inspired to get out and tour the country some more. Tonya and I have pretty much enjoyed every outing we have taken.

 

Awesome, glad it helped.

I have to say hands down the most special place we unknowingly stumbled upon was Valley of the Gods, Utah. 3 nights there and one on top of the gorge in Gooseneck state park over looking the San Juan river 1,000 ft below… highly recommend spending some time in this area.

 

Interestingly the other day I checked to see what my 2020 DCLB OR value was and KBB said private was just over $38k and guaranteed dealer sale was $33k. I then got phone calls from 3 different dealers offering a better deal than the $33k. Now it's got me thinking how much I'd get as trade in on a 4th Gen or a Tundra.

Whilst I was servicing my mountain bike in the driveway yesterday I saw my first 4th gen, it was a dark grey OR, I have to say my first thought was wow that looks good!

Cars that I would love to own are Tacoma, Tundra, 4Runner, LandCruiser or a Defender (especially the old gen, but could settle for a new one)

 

I see you're in Bend currently, but Sumner RV is our 'go to' for most anything RV related, and has been for years. I'm still local to the area. I haven't read through all the posts in this incredible thread yet, but scanning for tips on towing with a Tacoma (I have a CCLB 4th Gen) vs the full size trucks we've had in the past.

 

Hi, Sumner have been somewhat useless apart from putting together a good deal.
I fully intended to install the WDH myself in the parking lot but the sales guy said let us do it… the mechanic who installed it told me I’d be better off with something that had sway control too. Ultimately he didn’t know what he was doing.
Also had some warranty work done, they had the TT for over a month and forgot to do some stuff and someone took a big dump in the toilet and didn’t flush or lock up the rig when they were done.

If I could do this trip again in a 4th gen I’m sure it would have been even more pleasurable with that 4T.

Congrats on the new truck!

 

So Carista is the dongle, but you use an app called OBD fusion to read and display info from the dongle?

 

That's correct. FYI, getting the display setup took me a lot of determination get through. I just didn't want you to think it will be easy, haha. I had to build my display. Also, last I heard Mark(OP) planned to sell his Taco and move up to a Tundra due to he and his wife having a child.... so he may not respond.