Towing a HEAVY load with my taco

i need to tow an antique truck (62' Studebaker) about 150 miles with my tacoma. I have the tow package and 4x4....so i'm able to tow up to 6500lbs according to the specs. The truck is 5200lbs by its self, i'm not sure what the trailer for uhaul weighs but i'm assuming the whole package will be slightly over 6500lbs. What do you guys think...is this a safe venture?

i've heard people on there towing up to 7000lbs...is this still a safe weight? I currently tow my boat (21 foot) which with trailer and half tank of gas is around 5000+ lbs, and the truck handles it just fine. so i'm thinking that i should be ok....but i dont wanna blow out the transmission or damage the truck in anyway.

any advice?? also a side note....are there any "cheap" upgrades to improve towing capacities?

thanks in advance

 

Check this out.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/4031-tacoma-towing-bible.html

 

UHAUL auto transport trailers are heavy as hell.

From the uhaul site regarding their auto transport trailers

Capacity
Max load: 4,000 lbs.
Gross vehicle weight: 6,000 lbs. max
Empty weight: 2,000 lbs.

So you're going to be at 7200 lbs.

Perhaps another rental place has lighter trailers?

If you go with Uhaul tell them you are towing a 60 VW bug. They are pissy about their weight rules which go on for nearly half a page on their website.

Should you do this? No. Can you do it safely? Probably. Try to find a lighter trailer, and in either case KEEP YOUR TRANNY OUT OF OVERDRIVE

The link gdawg25 will take you to my towing bible. everything else should be covered in there.

Good luck and be carefull.

 

I just towed my '69 Camaro with my tow package equipped prerunner using a UHaul auto transport. I kept it slow and had a 2hr highway drive, no problems. I would give that tacoma towing bible a quick look before you go, there were some good tips. It think you'd be able to handle it, but I bet your '52 is a little heavier than my camaro.

 

according to the bible i shouldn't do it but the man who wrote it is telling me i'd probably be fine i think it'd be ok plus its only about a hour and half drive and its only one way. i would mostly likely keep it in 3rd and 4th. does anyknow know if uhaul rents those flat bed trucks with the wenches on them? maybe i'd be safer going with that.

thanks for the info

 

Have fun.. my travel trailer weighs about 5000# fully loaded. There's no way I would want to pull much more than that. If you don't have a weight distribution hitch for that car trailer as well you're going to put too much weight on the rear of that hitch as well. 60% of any trailer weight should be in front of the axles of the trailer and at least 12% on the tongue to prevent trailer sway. 650# is the max recomended weight on the factory class IV hitch for our trucks when using a straight drop hitch with no weight distribution. Oh and hills.. at 7200# you're going to be awfully slow on any grade. I'd do it for maybe 20 miles but 150.. no thanks.

 

i think you'll be fine as long as you have the proper equipment(trailer brake controller, and some knowledge), go easy with her and dont do it too regularly. heres a pic of our backhoe that i've hauled around behind mine on occasion. she pulls it fine, just keep plenty of room to stop, and dont expect to get up to highway speed too quick.

 

thanks xtreme450, that picture helps me judge how much people are towing. This definitly wont be a common thing, i'm just towing this truck down one time to my uncle to get it up and running. Can you tell me roughly how much that backhoe/trailer combo weighs?

The only thing i dont have is the brake controller. I have the standard towing package from Toyota. i know the uhaul and budget trailers have the inertia brake systems. I know i'll need to keep safe braking distance....but would this be a no-go if i dont have a brake controller? Is that the only thing you've added to your taco to make it be able to tow that backhoe?

thanks

 

You won't need a brake controller for a Uhaul trailer. Because as you said they have surge brakes which make no use of any input signal from the truck itself and are completely self contained (when they actually work that is) (no insult towards surge brakes, just toward U-haul's ability to maintain them)

After you pick-up the trailer, go to a big empty parking lot and accelerate up to 20 MPH or so and then stomp on the brakes pretty hard, you should be able to see/feel the surge brakes lock-up. If they don't and you feel like you are being pushed by the trailer, go back to uhaul and demand another trailer.

 

Bring a credit card for the gas. Mine like's gas towing.

 

Doug, I was trying to find some info on the truck and found this article; 1961 Studebaker Champ
Thought you may like to read it if you hadn't already seen it.

 

as maveric said, the uhaul trailers have a surge brake system so the brake controller wont be necessary on their trailer. If it were a trailer from a friend of yours, then you would need one of them since it most likely would have the standard 7pin coupler requiring a brake controller for the trailer brakes. as maveric also stated, check out the brakes on their trailer before hauling your load, you dont want to get pushed around by the trailer- nasty things can happen. as far as the weight of my load there, id estimate about a thousand pounds for the trailer(its aluminum) and then about 6000 for the backhoe. hope this helps ya. one more thing- make sure to keep the speed to below 60mph when towing, otherwise the trailer can start to swing back and forth, and if violent enough could lead to losing control. usually the amount of tongue weight on the trailer is what keeps this under control, make sure theres enough.

 

I'm sorry. I must be lost. I was searching for missleman's thread and entered 'wenches' and was brought here

 

You should be just fine. I towed my jeep wrangler on a u-haul with 650 pounds of extra stuff in the jeep and 1700 pounds of stuff in the truck. I towed it from Clarksville TN, to Fayetteville, NC with no problems except for the fuel mileage. I only got about 13 miles per gallon while towing.

I even went up a huge mountain or two with no issues, it slowed down to about 55 mph but kept on chugging. then i was able to maintain the normal 70 mph after that for the trip.

Total trip was close to 900 miles.

 

I had to tell UHaul I was towing a Ford Fiesta as a Chevy Lumina was even too heavy according to their computer. Also had to get them to read the door tag (which said 5450lbs) to correct their computer which said 4700lbs for a 4x4 DC. Can't imagine what they would've said if I told them I was towing a 79 ford ranger or ford custom....

 

You might want to pm piercedtiger, he towed an old ford and could give some real good advice, also check out my pix in the gallery, it shows to the taco pulling the truck.

 

He's hauling a '62 not a '51. Different truck entirely but 5200# still seems high. A 4x4, DC, long bed, automatic Tacoma is 4145#.

 

Wench


Winch


I have never seen a wench on a U-Haul trailer but I'll keep looking.

 

I prefer this version of the wench, I believe this is wench 2.0.


I have seen wenches in lots of places, I am pretty sure that they have been spotted on Haulmark trailers before at race tracks usually, so I am sure that it would not be out of the question to see one on a u-haul trailer, but I do agree that I have also personally never seen the two together either.