Girl Taco owner - new to towing! Need advice and experience, please!

I know, I know - the Tacoma is limiting when it comes to towing! But I do delivery for a living and will continue to work while I am RVing and driving a V8 as my personal vehicle just doesn't make sense right now. I will do anything I can to make towing as enjoyable as possible by modifying my truck or just living a very ultra-lite lifestyle. I really won't know how it feels until this weekend. I don't think I can handle miserable lol but I will also be planning short (less than 200 miles) travel days and 3 weeks at a time per park.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

THANK YOU! All of this is great advice. I bought my Taco used with extremely low mileage. I am about to hit 50K just this week! So it sounds like my shocks should be ok for now...but thanks for the recc for the future replacement. I will do as you suggest and get it home and see what it feels like once I have my gear loaded into the trailer.

Re: my brakes. I did what you suggested and sure enough, my front breaks were crap (15%) - they had started squealing a month ago so I knew they were going. So front brakes are new (and broken in!) and rear are at 60% so good enough for now.

Thanks again! I cant wait until this initial tow home is behind me. it's all theory right now ha!

 

HA!! I love this. Some of us were meant to wander lol I have driven cross country 6x by myself but obviously not towing. I appreciate your confidence in me. I know I'll be alright but I am anxious to get the experience under my belt so it can go from theory to reality. I'll for sure let everyone know how it goes!

I am hitching her up on Saturday, staying at an RV park Sat night, towing her around 200 miles and parking/sleeping at a friend's house then towing the last 200 miles by myself.

I have named my rig Taco Shell and Casita Nomadita. The Casita brand is GREAT but a bit outside of my budget so here we are lol

 

[QUOTE="
#4 everything you load up in the truck lowers weight/ towing capacity even your weight, topper weight, luggage, all lowers you trucks capacity, most don’t keep that in mind.
#5 if trailer has breaks make sure they are adjuster properly! Electrical breakers should be adjusted for the load you’re carrying in the trailer. Surge breaks check to see if break fluids full and again on your first stop recheck it.[/QUOTE]

1. Any suggested brand for mirror extensions?
2. I did the math and I am trying to stay as conservative and light as possible when it comes to adding stuff into my TT!
3. My trailer has brakes and I got the brake controller installed but I will ask John (the guy selling the RPod) to help do the initial adjustment towing it unloaded home.
4. what does surge brakes mean? and I dont know where my brake fluid is! Should I buy some to have in my truck?

 

1. Any suggested brand for mirror extensions?
2. I did the math and I am trying to stay as conservative and light as possible when it comes to adding stuff into my TT!
3. My trailer has brakes and I got the brake controller installed but I will ask John (the guy selling the RPod) to help do the initial adjustment towing it unloaded home.
4. what does surge brakes mean? and I dont know where my brake fluid is! Should I buy some to have in my truck?[/QUOTE]



3. Adjusting is pretty easy. Your brake controller should have a plus and minus, or way to turn up or down how quickly the brakes engage. Normally what I do is get going about 20 or so mph and squeeze the brake lever (most brake controllers have a way to engage your trailer brakes separate of you hitting the brakes in your truck). If my tires lock up on the trailer, I lower the setting on the brake controller. If they don't lock up, I turn it up until they either do lock, or I feel a really strong brake action from the trailer that I'm happy with. This might take 2 or 3 attempts, but I do it regularly when I take my trailer out. I'm often going from unloaded trailer, to adding 3000 pounds, so I have huge swings in needed brake gain. If you aren't altering weight much, you don't need to check/adjust as often. But once you are used to doing it, it takes no time at all.

4. Surge brakes are common on boat trailers, or uhaul trailers. Instead of electric current from your vehicle telling the brakes to engage on the trailer, surge brakes have hydraulics. When you hit your brakes in your vehicle and your truck slows down, the trailer pushes into your truck. That pressure pumps fluid to your brakes to make them engage. These work without the need for a brake controller in your vehicle (which is why Uhaul uses them), and also means no wires to corrode when you put them under water regularly with a boat trailer. I don't know of any camping trailers currently offered that come with surge brakes.

 

Also Surge Brakes are a pain to back up, a little to much skinny pedal and the brakes activate (down a boat ramp, gravity mitigates it)

 

Something I wish someone would've told me about, ( #1) to make driving a little easier is using an Anti rattle hitch.

I have surge brakes on my pop up that I pull. I can adjust brake sensitivity by the adjusting star in the drum. As you break, the weight of the trailer is pushed forward and the piston compresses and pushes the brake cylinder in. Like you pressing on the brake in your car.

I only pull a light 1300 lbs pop up. Total weight including two peeps and gear, maybe 2000 lbs
Doing this for about 12 years now.
Around Arizona ( Grand Canyon say 7000 Ft )and some Mexico ( Sea Level)

I installed a Hayden 678 on my 2021 TRD Sport because it didn't come with an external Trans Oil Cooler. Since I live in SE AZ, where we had 108 days over 100 F in 2024, I pinned the T-Stat. My 2006 Pre Runner had one. In June 2024, this set up, I drove through Phoenix in the afternoon, 1:30 PM, from Grand Canyon to Tucson, when it was about 106F outside. My torque Pro App showed about 180 at the Torque Converter and Pan. Never higher that that

I drive in S when towing and don't go into overdrive, which is 6 on the 6 speed trans that I have. I cruise in S-5 on the freeway and go down to any gear when going uphill, from S-5 to S-3.

In S-5, I can go 65 when towing, getting up to about 2000 RPM on the flat freeway. I get pretty good mileage between 17 and 19 mpg. But remember, I have a light unit.

An item that helps when TOWING is an Anti rattle hitch. You can get them from Walmart of Harbor Freight. Its a tightener/stabilizer that stops that annoying bump you feel. It stops a lot of the start/stop, up/down, and left/right bumping you feel. I really like it. Keeps the towed item more under control. Feels soo much better, too. Lots of types to choose from.

I made up/down and left/right shims using roofing flashing to insert between the receiver hitch and the ball mount shank to take up any slack. I do like this set up.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Anti-Rat...-Mount-Tongue-Tow-Truck-Bar-Trailer/437122215.

Not feeling all that tail movement is great. This one item has made my towing MUCH, MUCH, MORE ENJOYABLE . I really like it.

I'm glad I got it.

 

I did it!!!!! My first time towing…384 miles total over 2 days!

I still have to get it up the mountain to my house. 2k feet in elevation in just 3-miles

 

Woo, hoo!

 

How was the drive? Any specific things concerning you? Any questions like "is this normal when towing?"

 

You got some great advice here. Funny that you should mention Grass Valley, CA. My nephew lives there, Max. Does work for the Forest Service.
My other baby ....

 

First, glad you made it alright! Hopefully the climb up to the house isn't bad.

So looking at this picture, and the axle placement on the trailer, I want to counter someone else's comment about loading stuff in the front of the trailer when good camping.

You want the trailer axle to carry the weight, with only 10-15% on the hitch. Based on the axle placement, if you load the trailer evenly along it's length, you should be close to the proper weight distribution. If you just blindly through everything in the front, you could end up ass down in the truck, which is not how you want to tow.

On the leafs / airbags comments, I'm not sure ~400-450 lbs of tongue weight is going to kill your springs, especially with a weight distributing hitch. But now that you're home, you have plenty of time to dial in the distribution part and see how much sag there is on the truck.

 

Congratulations! Looking great!

The truck doesn't appear to be squatted too much.. perhaps not dialed in perfectly but good enough obviously. : )

 

Your owner's manual recommends shifting to S4 (it works to keep the transmission fluid cooler) and it says to press the ECT power button (it changes transmission shift times and helps with braking). The engine will run faster but will not have to work as hard. Somehow gas mileage will be about the same. I have been passed slowly but the CHP mouthing "slow down" and flashing 55 with one hand while towing at 65. Glad you made it so far.

 

I love my RPod 192! Her name is Casita Nomadita

Every question I have is "Is this normal when towing"!!! LOL

Yeah, the hardest thing is not knowing what is normal, what is "not good" and what can be adjusted to make towing better.

My plan is to try to hire a mobile RV tech to come out and do an inspection, some maintenance and then help me determine the right settings for the hitch and the WD bars.

The old owners donated their hitch and the WD bars but the sales guy didn't know what kind of tow vehicle they had so the first thing we had to do was lift the hitch ball up for my truck.

Now, I am pretty sure the WD bars need to be adjusted as well.

I still do not understand what exactly a WD hitch is vs sway bars bc the things I have are actual bars but the guy is calling it a WD hitch!

Towing on Highway 99 and basically all highway towing was fine but my Taco's steering wheel did seem to wobble and feel unsteady. Almost like an alignment problem. So I don't know if my truck needs an alignment or if towing is supposed to feel wobbly and unsteady. Oh and I put it in S5 while going down the highway the whole time simply bc that was the advice.

I felt what a little wind or a TT tractor trailer blowing by felt like and that was different then what I was feeling in general with the wobblyness. All in all it wasn't bad and by day 2, I could relax enough to eat or take my hands away from 10-2 position lol

Let see - going up the grade to the Tehachapi Pass. The Tacoma did ok I think. I was averaging 45- 50 mph for the entire grade.

Going up from 4K - 6K over 3 miles: The Tacoma struggled. I put it in S4 but someone told me I should have put it in S2 or S3. I went 12 - 20 mph for 3 miles. The temp never shifted. The truck did shift gears a few times on the steepest turns but RPM never went above 4000

Mostly, I still feel kind of clueless. I am hoping the RV tech is willing to give me some towing lessons and teach me about transmission, suspension, shifting gears etc

 

This won't be the best explanation, but I'll try to explain a weight distribution hitch.

Tongue weight at the trail ball presses down, which would lower the rear of your tow vehicle from the weight, which in turn would make the trailer tongue where it attaches lower as well, tilting your trailer downward. By tilting the vehicle and the trailer lower where they meet, the bars under the trailer tongue would get further and further apart. Red arrow is tongue weight on ball, and the direction the bar ends would move. But by chaining the ends of those bars to the tongue, the tongue is pulling those bars upwards (green arrow), lifting the rear of your vehicle and pushing the front end down. There's a lot of tension created to do this. The combined forces level your vehicle and transfer more weight to the front wheels of your truck.




It's possible adding more tension to the weight distribution hitch would help with the wandering feeling you were getting in your truck. When there isn't enough weight on the front end, it likes to go side to side and be harder to maintain a straight line. I towed my trailer once with the load too far forward (way too much tongue weight) and i couldn't drive over 40 without it being uncontrollable. I stopped and shifted my trailer load rearward and after that I was able to drive much more comfortably.

 

For sway control, there are multiple types. But usually how they work is slowing down how quickly your tongue can change angle compared to your tow vehicle. Some are like a shock absorber, where if you turn slowly it would compress and expand slowly and you'd never know it was doing anything. BUT, if the trailer were to start swinging quickly side to side, the shock absorber tries to slow down the swing. The "shock absorber", or tension device, is the Sway bar in the image below. You can see it added in addition to the Weight Distribution hitch. As the trailer tongue turns in relation to the hitch, you can see how it would extend or shorten based on direction turned. It just wants to slow that motion down to keep trailer from going wild left to right.

 

Not supposed to feel wobbly, but the added weight on the back will make the front lighter, making the steering feel loose / light. Dialing in the hitch should make this better.

I'm surprised they raised your ball height; the taco tow hutch is fairly high to start with. But I'm sure the tech will be able to give you advice there, if anything seems off.

 

Some of these trailers have pretty high tongues. This is the "baja edition" jay flight that has a couple inch lift over the standard version. I usually use an 11 inch drop on my high clearance bumper when towing. I had to have the weight distribution hitch on a pretty much straight/no drop setting for it to line up.

 

I will respond with more thoughtful questions but I just want to say THANK YOU!!!!!

This forum is literally saving me and your patience in explaining things and the visuals are helping me immensely!

I have to write a talk today and I'm also in the middle or a search and rescue mission for a doggie that came home from the shelter and immediately bolted after chewing through her leash but I just wanted to take a moment to tell you how full my heart is...

ps: now I can see the difference between a WD hitch (bars) and sway bars!!!! yay!