Towing TT with a 2.7L 4 cyl Tacoma

Hello everybody,

I've been eagerly reading through posts for the last few days. I've read the entire towing bible and am taking it to heart.

I am wondering what to do with my truck in order to get it ready to tow at around 500lb less than its tow capacity. Its a tacoma 2.7L 4 cylinder 2WD. The trailer in question is a 22' travel trailer (coachmen cadet) and it will be stripped down/basically primitive setup. It has no bathroom or oven in, its basically a place to crash out of the sun/cold, a bed, storage areas, cooking area (coleman stove), propane heater.

I am going to put a transmission cooler in the truck.

I am replacing all of the ball joints/tie rods (one broke recently and I had to replace it so I think its time to replace all of them - truck is around 200k miles).

I am also replacing rear shocks since one is busted anyway.

I definitely need help on the hitch. There has always been a hitch on the truck but it doesn't look anywhere near as beefy as some of the hitches you guys are talking about. I'm guessing this is a stock hitch option and I need a beefier one? Do I match the type/size ball hitch with the type of hitch on the trailer or vice versa?

Thanks a lot! I will post pictures if you need to see anything for clarification.

 

That tranny cooler is a must. Your hitch should be ok if it is one that was made to fit a Tacoma to begin with and mounts onto the frame with at least 4 bolts. At a minimum I would inspect the bolts if not replace. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a weight distributing hitch. If not a WD hitch then a simple sway control setup. You will want to make sure the trailer has brakes and that your truck is set up for trailer brakes since TT have electric brakes. Othe than that just your basic maintenance and safety inspection.

 

How much are you going to be pulling this trailer? How far? I guess I'm just going to come out and say it... you are going to have a hell of a time with that truck pulling that trailer for any real distance. I had the 4 cyl 2.7l motor in my last Tacoma and the most I would ever pull was a 2 place enclosed snowmobile trailer. Probably a 500lb trailer, and 2 sleds maybe weighing 650 lbs if they were full of gas. Sometimes I would put some gear bags in the front, so lets say 2200 lbs most. It was utter hell in the mountains, and this is New England, we don't have mountains like some other parts of the country. The truck would pull it ok, but it was wound out big time going up any hill at all and the gas pedal was on the floor, no kidding. And if it got windy... uggg. The truck just isn't heavy enough to make it comfortable. Now mind you, I would pull my trailer an average of 1000 miles a month in the winter, so maybe I was a heavier user than you will be? Maybe not though. Can not tell you how much better the V6 is for pulling the sleds.

 

The hitch is generally (if it was installed correctly) dependent on your truck and the GVWR. If it's a stock option it should be able to handle the max GVWR of your truck and trailer which is 3500 lbs if I remember correctly? That is a class III hitch and will have a 2" square receiver. Basically, measure the size of the receiver. If it's 2" it's at least a class III and is a 5000lb hitch. It should be a class III.

 

hehe well here's the thing...I was planning on driving it across the USA and then down into Mexico (for 4 months) then back to Colorado.

Is this impractical???? Damn its discouraging thinking about all the modifications I would have to make! The trailer is a good deal but all these mods are really adding up and digging into my savings (which is modest not tiny but not infinite of course).

 

There's a ball hitch on my truck that is a 2" ball hitch. This is mounted directly onto the bumper with ONE bolt. I am assuming (based on the first reply to my original post) that this is not sufficient (do I need a reese hitch or something similar)???? Can I just change out this ball hitch for a 2 5/16" hitch (what the guy selling the trailer says it would need)?

Is this unsafe to tow on this type of setup???

Guy also won't let me hook up the trailer and tow it to test the setup...not sure if that is normal selling practice or he is just freaked out that I want to tow it with my tacoma.

 

If the mileage you're talking about is legit, you need to seriously think about how much strain you're putting on your truck. This is a pic of the setup I had for about 6 months before I needed to upgrade to a 2011 4.0L V6 to feel close to comfortable. The longest I ever pulled with this setup was from Phoenix, where I bought the trailer, to Farmington NM, where I live now. I couldn't comfortably drive over any mountain passes. The 2.7L 4 cyl. just couldn't cut it. Trailer dry weight was right below the towing max: 3450 lbs, and I had 5 leaf Alcan springs w/ Bilstien 5100's all around. I didn't want to tow that trailer anywhere but to a couple campgrounds within 60 miles.



Do you have a Prerunner? Or a base model 2wd?

 

Oh, that ball on yOur bumper is not a hitch and you are looking at too much towing for an old 4cyl. Your trip will be miserable, also you can not put a 2 5/6" ball on your bumper.

 

22ft?

I would not tow more than a teardrop with a 2.7 Tacoma.

What 22ft travel trailer comes in at under 3500 and 350 tongue?

 

Man, you need to scratch that idea. No way is it practical to be towing at the vehicles max weight rating for that long.

 

No no no no- do not tow on the bumper. I wouldn't tow a pool toy from the bumper.

 

The bumper is fine for towing IMHO up to 2000 pounds. It actually is quite stout when you look underneath. I regularly tow a popup with it. No problems.

 

Just trying to realistic with you, not sure if you have been to Mexico before, but the roads there sucks. They oil the roads a lot and no signs and if you get sideways with your truck and that big of a trailer, game over.....wrecked your truck in mexico and that's it. With 200k miles on your truck with that much weight, do you think it will hold up mechanically? I know plenty of people who go to mexico, including myself that have had vehicle issues down there and it is a shitty situation.










So maybe you should think of doing a test run to see how everything works before fully committing on a long trip like that.

 

Scratch the whole idea. Get a tiny trailer or a bigger truck. Please.

 

+1

Terrible idea.

 

I guess when mine was new, maybe. But that damn bumper corroded so much I was worried about resting my beer on it let alone a trailer.