towing trailer

There is "TOW RATING" and there is "CARGO CAPACITY" and the 2 are related. Most Tacoma's will easily TOW 5000 lbs with a 150 lb driver and nothing else in the truck. The problem is that tongue weight eats into "CARGO CAPACITY". Each truck is somewhat different, refer to the sticker on the driver door. But my Tacoma has a 1200 lb CARGO CAPACITY. A 5000 lb trailer with a WDH is about 750 lbs leaving me 450 lbs for cargo in the vehicle. I weigh 220, so that only leaves 230 lbs for my wife and any other gear inside the truck.

If a 2000 lb trailer makes you feel like you're driving a trampoline something else is wrong and I suspect you're overloading the truck, not the trailer.

Very, very few trucks will actually tow the amount they are rated for. It is the cargo capacity that runs out before tow rating. My truck is rated for 6500 lbs. With a WDH I'm at almost 1000 lbs before I get in the truck with a 6500 lb trailer. With me in the drivers seat and nothing else in the truck I'm overloaded. About 4000-5000 lbs is a more realistic upper limit for most Tacomas. You're close, and that is as much as I'd want to tow. But you'd better be careful about what you put inside the truck, that is where you'll get into trouble.

The 1/2 tons can generally haul more because their cargo capacity is usually closer to 2000 lbs. That gives them an extra 800 lbs or so for tongue weight and cargo inside the truck. But even they run out of cargo capacity before towing capacity. Most 1/2 tons realistically will only tow 7000-9000 lbs even though many are rated for 10,000-12,000.

 

What is stoping a Tacoma from safety towing 12,000 lbs?

 

You'd be a few thousand pounds over the Gross Combined Weight Rating, which is what Toyota publishes as the maximum combined weight of your truck and trailer. For example, on the 2017 DCSB, the GCWR is 11360lbs. The max Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) is the truck with a bunch of stuff in it, which for the 2017 DCSB is 5600lbs. Quick math and if you're maxed out at GVWR then your max trailer would be 5760lbs despite the tow rating being 6500 (with tow package) for the 3rd gen. All these numbers are in the manual for your truck.

Could a Tacoma tow 12000lbs? Probably. Is it a good idea? Probably not. The mechanical parts of your truck will be working much harder leading to more wear. Handling, stopping and accelerating will be seriously compromised, and, if you get into an accident your insurance would probably leave you holding the bag. I'd have no problem doing it occasionally on flat private property if I could keep the tongue weight within spec, but there's no way in hell I'd do it on a public road.

 

You didn't answer the question. You just quoted data from manual
Is it:
Not enough power?
Brakes not big enough?
Suspension too soft?
Truck too light?

 

Perhaps you should have done a better job phrasing your original question

Look at the issues people have with the drivetrain and suspension just from going with larger tires and driving offroad. Look at the issues people have with braking and the upgrades that they do on here (bigger brake kits, different pad compounds, etc). I know that on my stock DCSB I can hit the bump stops just going over a speed bump with 100# in the bed. The frames on the Tacoma aren't exactly known for being beefy either.

The rule of thumb for tongue weight is between 9% and 15% of trailer weight. This is for safe handling and keeping the trailer under control while towing. 9% of 12000 is 1080lbs. So that's 1080lbs hanging off of the end of a leverage point that's meant for approx 700lbs (varying with model and trim). You're now at least 50% over what it's rated for. I've had a chance to get a good look at the frame rails on GM and Ford trucks that are rated for towing 12000lbs and more. The Tacoma frame is less than half the size in almost every dimension. It's just not the right tool for the job.

 

I believe they have a different leaf pack but not positive. After loading my truck up on several occasions the stock springs seemed to get softer. I've replaced them with Dakars and haven't had any issues since.

 

Welcome to TW!
Read the towing bible. There's a link around here somewhere. There it is:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-tacoma-towing-bible.4031/
A Taco with factory installed towing package is rated (by Toyota) for 6500#. W/O towing package it is significantly less. You'll be close.

 

Thank you. The thing I failed to mention is chassis strength. So in all the factors mentioned, the Tacoma falls short in all of them. The Tacoma is not overrated. How about the new F-150 which weighs only 4200lbs? What makes it able to tow 12000 lbs?

 

People who tow heavy like that with light weight tow u it's should be run off the road and have their ass kicked for endangering others. You have no business being on the road .maybe walking.

 

Marketing? Looking through Ford's very convoluted spec sheet, none of the lightweight F150's are rated to tow that much. They top out between 5000lbs and 7000lbs, which isn't much different than the Tacoma's. To get to 10000lbs towing you're looking at a curb weight closer to 5000lbs. Granted, that's only approx 1000lbs different, but imagine if you were to add almost 1000lbs to the frame of the Tacoma. Also, the trucks rated to tow that much have lower gearing, 10speed automatics and almost 100 more horsepower.

Here's where I'm getting the numbers from Ford:
https://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/2017/models/f150-xl/?gnav=vhpnav

Going back to the adding weight to the Tacoma to bump up the capacity... you could probably fully box the frame and bump up a gauge in material thickness for less than 500lbs. That gives you 500lbs to improve power and drivetrain. But now you're getting into a truck that's more than what the North American market seems interested in.

 

My buddy had an F150 with the 3.5 ecoboost. He didn't like how it towed. He sold it and bought a Nissan Titan with cummins motor. That truck weighs 6800 lbs and tow I think 12000 lbs also. Much more stable towing truck

 

The DOT and your insurance policy.

 

I asked this question to open a discussion on the differences between trucks and engineering thought.
As far as laws go, they do not stop anyone from doing anything. Just listen to the news and you'll see I'm right.

 

Get in to an accident while you are towing well over your listed GVWR and see what your insurance company says though. Those bastards will do anything they can to not pay out on a policy. That's all I would worry about.

 

In Ontario, unless you have a "CVOR" (a yellow sticker in your windshield) your combined weight cannot exceed 4500 kg (9900 lbs).With that yellow sticker comes annual safeties and daily vehicle checklist. I'm not getting involved with that with my midsize truck. My truck and empty trailer combined weigh 2500 kg so that means I can haul 2000 kg or 4400 lbs on my trailer. I'm ok with that.

 

That’s right, it’s allowed to tow 3500 kg (7700 lbs) with many mid-size pickups/SUVs, but this is also limit for bigger full-size truck like Ford/Chevy/Dodge 2500/3500.

We don’t have any kind of weight distribution devices, the tongue weight is limited normally to 100 kg (220 lbs). The trailer axle(s) are quite near to the weight center, not as far back like in your trailers. So less weight on the nose.

I have 2000 kg (4400 lbs) 1-axle caravan trailer (body length 22 ft) which I used to tow with my FJ Cruiser. But it’s ok to tow with Skoda Octavia 2.0TDI too (just at the maximum weight), my friend help to move it when my FJ was ”under construction”:

 

I agree, max payload is often going to be a limiting factor. I tow a 19 cc boat that weights around 3400 pounds fully loaded with trailer. With 340 pounds of tongue weight, four people, and a loaded cooler in the bed I am at around 1000 pounds payload on my gen 2 DCLB. That's why the reduced payload of the gen 3 is a disappointment. Chevy got it right with the Colorado in terms of payload and towing.

 

Probably everything and quite a bit more. I don't think there is a simple x = y answer.

It's not simple weight. If just being heavier was the fix, just add a ton of weight into the bed and its a semi. But that's actually a bad thing. Just suspension? Replace the springs with steel rods, and it's a semi again. Silly examples, I know.

But start from ground up. Tires, rated for x pounds, car tires carry less than lt, which is less than heavy truck tires etc.

Brakes can only take so much heat before they're worthless.

Axles, only so strong.

Gears only so strong.

Remainder of the drivetrain.

Frame can only support so much weight.

Etc etc.

And the physical size, wheel spacing etc etc again.


If you want to safely increase what a vehicle can do you have to adjust every variable, not just one. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link kind of thing.

Take the world's best tow vehicle, replace it's u joints with duct tape.... silly again but put too much weight behind any vehicle and you have a similar result, except actually using duct tape will be safer. Because it will fail immediately instead of when you're on the interstate. Any complex machine is really a house of cards. It only takes 1 tiny thing to fail to have a disaster.

 

Well said Indy. I agree. My beef is with those that consider the Tacoma light duty and shouldn't even tow what it's rated for and yet an F-150, which is actually lighter than the Tacoma, can tow 3 times as much and that's cool. Exactly what features on the F-150 are 3 TIMES as strong that makes it that much more capable?
Does putting more air between the sheet metal make a truck that much more capable?

 

From a personal experience, I pulled the same load with my 1st gen extended cab taco, a same year extended f150, a quad cab f150, and an older f250. This wasn't for comparison, just happened to use different vehicles hauling the same camper. It was a popup, well under the taco tow rating.

The tacoma sucked donkey. It sucked like a black hole. Ignoring the lack of power in the 2.7, towing, in the high mountains, everything sucked. Brakes were in good shape with lots of miles left, subpar with a trailer. I let a truck engine brake their way down a mountain and only use the wheels when needed. Even so the tacoma brakes stunk and faded fast. The trailer did not have brakes as it was too light to require them, but the taco really needed a trailer with brakes. The truck itself was barely in control, wth trailer really wanted to push it around even when going slow. And 1 memorable turn going downhill REALLY sucked as I had let the truck creep up to the amazing speed of 50 mph. It was a Looooong trip.

Both f150 controlled the trailer with no issues. Engine braking no issue and the brakes never faded. They weren't used nearly as much either, not needed. Easy trips.

The 3/4, long trip but for non towing reasons. Radio sucked and the ride quality sucked. Old 460 under the hood so mpg sucked, turning radius if the titannic sucked... it would have been a lot easier to get where I was going and just buy another f250 that was already pointed in the right direction than turn that thing around. The only time I even thought about the camper, backing a short trailer with a really long tow vehicle really tests your patience. Super easy tow.

The taco just made for a really bad tow vehicle, worst I've had in 20 years, and the math doesn't matter. I had a single cab 1st gen as well, never tried towing with it though. I liked the tacoma in the mountains, I liked it on the trails, on the pavement etc, just hated it with a trailer behind it.

Going the other direction, same quad cab, pulling a 23' camper into the same mountains, similar but not as bad as the taco with the popup. The trailer ws well within specs, power was mediocre, brakes were ok, a semi passing knocked us around etc. Not a horrible trip but not an easy one either. Put the exact same trailer behind my buddies 3/4 diesel, 0 issues. Power was obviously no issue (duramax) but everything was better.

As a side note, I ended up with a 5th wheel that on paper was in tacoma limits and I really considered making the 2 combine. It would have been a quirky thing to do, legal to do, and likely a complete nightmare on the road.