7mpg?!

That's pretty darn good. Mine only gets 19 unloaded. Just towed my 21' hard sided TT (est. weight 4500lbs loaded) from Atlanta suburbs to Chattanooga and back - averaged 10mpg.

 

Wind load on a camper is high my camper is a good bit lower then yours and 1500# lighter and my mileage is in the 10-12 range speed has a lot to do with it and so does the kayak and the topper. Use 5th if you can and slow down a scan tool will help you see what you need to do to increase the mileage.

 

Are you using 91 octane when you're towing? I think that makes a big difference when you're towing not only with power, but with gas mileage as well. I towed my trailer around town in Denver using 87 octane at first and I could tell that my engine was working hard. Once I put in 91 my engine sounded a lot better. I chose the hard sided pop up because I was trying to get better than 10-12 mpg towing. The two most popular hard sided pop up trailers are the Trail Manor and the Hi Lo.

My Tacoma normally gets 21-22 mpg on the highway, but only 15-17 if I do a lot of city driving, make a lot of stops, etc...

 

I thought in the Tacoma manual, it states to use 4 when towing.

 

4th gear...

 

Out of the owners manual:

● In order to maintain engine braking efficiency, do not use fifth gear
(5-speed manual transmission) or sixth gear (6-speed manual
transmission), or do not put the transmission in “D” (automatic
transmission).

As you see the excuse is for stopping not for cruising. When I tow down mountain roads I slow down and shit into 4, and sometimes 3, from D. This is more for slowing down the wear on the brake pads. On flat ground I don't even worry about it especially if I have trailer brakes.

 

I leave it in D or 4th most of the time, if it starts to hunt in D I'll put it in 4th. If I need to slow on hills I use the truck/trailer brakes. Brakes are cheaper then transmissions.

 

lol wow, way out of left field.

 

+1. I've used both 4th gear and D when towing. I use D on straight/flat roads where my speed is pretty consistent. I use 4th gear when I tow through mountains, in the city, or heavy traffic area, and when there is a lot of stop and go traffic. I don't think that towing in D is bad for your transmission if it's not hunting for gears (downshifting & upshifting a lot). Basically you should be towing in 4th most of the time unless you're driving on a long and flat freeway. As far as breaking goes, if your trailer has breaks then you shouldn't have any trouble stopping. If your trailer doesn't have breaks the Tacoma should easily stop it because usually trailers without break are pretty lite.

 

37psi sounds low for trailer tires pressure; the tires on my trailer (Keystone Passport 195RB) requires 50psi per tire.

 

I just towed my trailer and got about 10 mpg. As I'm heading up the mountain (doing like 45) I'm really wishing I had a Tundra. But you have to think about what 3-4 mpg's really cost you and how often you tow. Just like buying a diesel. When will you realize the payback.
But on the other hand, I hate driving that slow. Personally, I need more power.

 

^Wouldn't bother with a Tundra at this point. Whereas the Taco's competitors have all but exited the market, the Tundra's competitors are getting new engines/transmissions every 2-3 years. Ford Ecoboost is the way to go.

 

A prerunner is going to get better mpg overall compared to the 4x4 whether it be daily driving or towing.
So if someone posts great numbers here it usually means stock truck or mildly modified and a prerunner.

I never ever got great numbers towing an enclosed trailer all winter in the mtns w/ my 4x4 DC V6 auto. The truck towed good but when I went to a larger trailer I moved up to a full size. My towing numbers went from 10 to 13-14 w/ the tundra. This is with a stock 4x4 & slightly larger tires.

As far as the ecoboost I have read in many of the snowmobile forums owners not happy with the towing especially with large enclosed or large boats. They all complained of the tranny hunting.

From a snow mag review-

"While towing the heavy boat (7,000) we observed 7.7 mpg. While the transmission worked well to maximize engine power, we felt the power disadvantage. The engine was in peak power much of the time. Though the truck never felt overworked or that we were asking too much of it, it was easy to distinguish that it carried less under the hood from other half-tons towing the same load.

During our snowmobile trailer towing test we observed 10.9 mpg. It wasn’t obscene, but we expected better. While we would expect to achieve better towing performance (and mileage, perhaps) with the 3.73 axle ratio, it would come at the expense of mileage during normal driving where the F-150 redeemed itself. Our overall non-towing, observed mileage was 16.2 mpg."

 

Just took our new trailer out on it's maiden voyage.

Truck: 2009 Tacoma DC longbed TRD Sport 4x4. Prodigy brake controller. Borrowed weight distribution hitch (Eaz-Lift....NO sway control).

Trailer: 2012 Lance 2185 travel trailer. 22 foot long box, 25 feet overall length. 4900 pounds empty, max gross limit of 6000. I would estimate we towed it at 5500 pounds.

Towed from Tacoma, Washington to Port Townsend, Washington and back. Total of 180 miles all on the freeway or country roads. Flats and rolling hills. 60-65mph on the freeway, country roads 45-50 (probably only 20 miles on country roads). Stayed in "D" the entire way.

After spending much time fretting about the need to potentially buy a bigger truck, I am happy to report, that the Tacoma exceeded all of my expectations! The trailer towed true and straight, never once had any sway at all, engine power was more than adequate. And.....I got 11.2 mpg which again, was better than I thought it would be.

And just yesterday, I pulled up some much bigger and longer hills that were 6-7% grade. Transmission hunted a bit, so I shifted down. Seemed like plenty of power, I even accelerated up some of them from 50 to 60mph. Going down hill, I experimented with shifting down to 4th or 3rd to see how well the engine could keep the speed under control. That too, worked quite well. I do not have the mpg numbers from this pull.

The biggest down side of these towing experiences is with the mirrors/tow mirrors. I attached some universal towing mirrors made by Cipa. They vibrated pretty badly, slipped down so they were pointed at the ground, and were not mounted out far enough to see past the trailer very well. I guess this is the downside of towing an 8 foot wide trailer behind a skinny little truck. I am considering installing the Dodge Ram mirrors found on this forum.

 

The V6 Tacomas have more towing power than some people think. My trailer is only about 3000 lbs and my truck tows it well. It's nice to know that your truck did well towing almost twice the weight. I would have liked to have more power towing through high elevation mountains, but overall the Tacoma does fine.

Did you use regular or premium unleaded when you were towing? I use premium and my engine responds well when towing,

 

I used regular.