Looking at a camper... too much?

Looking at an RV trailer... is this too much for my Taco in Colorado mountains and roadtrippin?

 

i towed a https://trailmanor.com/2518series/ with my 99 Taco EC 4x4 4 banger with out issue
my 2009 towed it very well with its v6
I have not taken it on elevated steep grades like out west and it did well on the hills around here.

 

I'm assuming you have a V6. If stock, you should have ZERO issues pulling that thing all over the country. Big tires could hurt it's ability to pull or get anywhere near decent mileage while towing. The low profile of that trailer will definitely help though.

Don't forget a brake controller.

Do you have more details on your truck?

 

Well, I just realized that thing has a deck on the front for cargo. The picture I found had a quad on it. Do you plan to put a heavy ATV or lots of cargo on that platform? That is gonna make the tongue weight pretty high. Could max out the trailer tongue capacity and leave you with very little payload left for your truck (if you're wanting to stay within that).

 

Other good references for anyone looking at trailers and towing:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/towing.34/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-tacoma-towing-bible.4031/

 

I used to tow a 500lb snow machine with a 300 lb. Alum trailer up over Berthoud Pass with my 1 st gen 6 cyl. and I was in 3rd or 2nd to the top, manual shift. Any load on a 6 cyl Tacoma up hill at elevation is going to be grandpa driving.

 

1st and 2nd gen must be a lot different with their V6. I've definitely needed 3rd when climbing passes, but that's with a truck at GVWR plus 4000 pounds of trailer. Now that I've re-geared, 3rd is rare. Mainly if I want to accelerate, which I can still do even uphill. Obviously my gas mileage is atrocious, lol, but no trouble pulling.

 

2012 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab-V6 Base 4WD


Looking at getting a 2 inch leveling kit and electronic brake control installed too.

 

Trailer brakes are SUPER easy install. Buy controller with Tacoma Specific pig tail cable, find the connector behind the kick plate to the left of your left foot in the driver seat, plug in, and screw controller to your dash. I've done a couple. The hardest part is finding the connector behind the kick plate. Mine was taped up with some other wires. The rest of the install takes about 2 minutes if you know where you want to put the controller.

Leveling kit is going to just exaggerate how much sag you have in the rear with that trailer. And the tongue weight on it is going to be pretty darn high, meaning a LOT of sag if you have stock suspension. You will probably need airbags or something to help out or you will most likely be riding your bump stops. Leveling kit will be fine as long as you also address the rear's ability to handle the tongue weight.

 

I towed a ~5,500lbs trailer with my truck (2014 v6 4wd). Make sure you get a brake controller like others have stated but also I don't think I could've done it without a weight distribution hitch. Pretty sure I used a "Husky Center Line TS Weight Distribution Hitch".

I drove all the way to AZ from CO with that. On the way there I took i70 and went over Eisenhower tunnel, Vail pass, etc., on the way back I went through New Mexico. Truck drove perfectly fine after having those two things BUT the engine was struggling bad and my gas mileage was absolute garbage. Don't get me wrong it was doable but after that I decided if I was going to tow anything heavy a long distance I'd need a full size truck just for more power. Luckily I was just renting the trailer so I turned it in after I was done and sold the weight distribution hitch. Not doing that again with the Tacoma personally.

This trailer is a bit lighter but you'd be surprised how fast weight adds up when you start putting stuff in the trailer so you may not be far off from where I was.

 

I shoulda suggest WDH as well, thanks for the reminder. These are far better than just airbags or stiffer leaf springs, as they're able to actually transfer weight to the front axle of the truck.

 

Yeah, it's insane how much a difference they make. Night and day.

 

That's only a hair heavier than my pop-up.

Send it.

 

I think my main struggle was aerodynamics, I was towing a tall travel trailer like the one OP is talking about. Cruising around at under 50mph was totally fine but trying to get to 65-75mph with a 15ft tall brick behind me had the truck sitting at like 4,500-5,000 rpm in third gear and it was just chewing through gas. Of course when the drive time to where you're going is 14 hours at 75mph no one wants to go 50mph, that'd take forever - that's when you want more power like a v8 has.

I would probably take a travel trailer like that a couple hours away in the mountains but I'd never do it again that long of a distance, it was pretty miserable and I was stopping for gas constantly.

Oh one other thing I forgot about, if you have an auto don't let it hunt for gears or you'll overheat your transmission real fast. Lock it in 3rd or 4th or wherever it needs to be to stop it from shifting much. Also, make sure you have a trans cooler, I think mine would be toast at this point if I didn't have one.

 

23 states, coast to coast, North to South, and counting. I'm going to add 24 and 25 over next months vacation. I think. We'll see where the wind blows us when the time comes.

... If it was a tall hard-side that required hookups into the grid wherever we go, I'd have abandoned it years ago.