No power towing camper?

I just bought a 62 Winnebago tow behind camper and my 97 Taco V6 seemed to be towing her fine until the other day. I was parking the camper into a tight, muddy and uneven spot. Initially I had it in 2WD. When reversing my engine started smoking and smelled horrible. I thought my tires were rubbing. I put it in 4high and after much back and forth parked the camper. The smell lingered the next day especially in reverse (no tow). When I hooked up my camper yesterday to tow into town the Taco will pull her okay in 1st and 2nd gear. 3rd gear is great but when I try to put it in 4th with my rpms at 3200 I drop from 50 mph to 40 and I can't push my rpms past 2000. This is very different from previous. I'm not sure if the events are related. Any thoughts? Clutch? Transmission? Stuck caliper and old plugs and wires? I just feel like I do t have the power I had 3 days ago.

 

CEL? could be clutch burnt up

 

What did it smell like exactly? burning clutch smells just like burning breaks.

When you go into 4th gear and you slow from 40 to 50 to the RPM's go up? That would sound like the clutch is slipping. How about 5th gear?

 

Be helpful if you described the smell, do you have a manual trans? If so, did it smell like burnt paper? Then it's probably the clutch, especially if there was no power...could have been the clutch sticking.

 

Buy a Terd Gen. We gots minivan motors

 

Any camper-trailer built in 1962 is pretty heavy, certainly too heavy for a 3.4 be it standard or automatic. Sounds like your tranny or clutch finally has had enough.

 

Sounds like you cooked the clutch with your parking of the camper.

It got hot you just kept at the moving back into your spot no doubt riding the clutch .

This is a great time to have it in Low range

Now when your going down the road clutch starts to slip

Have you ever weighed this camper loaded up for using it ??

 

"put it in 4th with my rpms at 3200 I drop from 50 mph to 40 and I can't push my rpms past 2000"

This indicates the clutch is not slipping...quite the opposite actually. If the clutch were slipping the RPMs would increase. I drove my last car on a worn out clutch forever. You could barely touch the throttle and it'd slip until I finally replaced it.

 

Thank you everyone for responding. It was true my clutch was not slipping, though I had definitely overworked it by trying to park it in mud in 2WD. I will never do that again. I pulled the wheels and one caliper was frozen and the others were stuck but I could move them with a screwdriver. We replaced front calipers and pads.the truck pulls it just fine now. The camper weighs 1,100 pounds and the truck does alright pulling it. I had to unload the gold bars and lead weights though. I am still smelling burning brake fluid and I've driven it about 70miles. Not sure if that is from the brakes still or the clutch.