The Tacoma Towing Bible

I lifted mine about 2-2.5", i have the controller but no airbags. I went to old man emu leaf springs, have a cap on the truck, and use a weight distribution system. It rides great!

 

huh but just a 4 pin trailer connector, which just provides trailer lights, no brake control or any provision for trailer 'house' battery charging. most factory hitches on trucks/SUVs have 7 blade RV sockets.

 

I have a quick question for anyone with a 2015 4 door TRD 4.0 V6 , and yes I traded in my new 2016 year old for a 2 year old 2015 V6 4.0 TRD .
What is the longest travel trailer you can tow safely ? I am staying in the 4500 or less empty weight and probably a max box length of 21ft. + 4ft. tongue . Anyone have any in put ? By the way I caught a lot of grief from my better half for not buying a full size truck so any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Ok , I started reading the thread backwards. Half of gRoss vehicle weight !

 

I think your in the ballpark. 21ft / 4500lb dry weight sounds about right at max when you consider that its going to be loaded and so is the the truck. So tell us why you traded a 3rd gen for a 2nd gen?

 

Towing ability and DC. Plus the limited was a lease. I had 26,000 miles. I almost bought a Dodge 4x4 1500 with 16,000 miles on it.
Thanks for your reply HB , looks like you are all ready in the neighborhood we intend to go camping . Lol

 

We got the trailer ! No pick up date yet but very cool . It says 3900lb. dry / 21 ft. Rockwood Ultra Lite.

 

Whats the gross trailer weight?

 

I think it said 5256. I am going to go as minimal as I can in camping gear and 1/3 on water.

 

if you dry camp for a few nights with a wife/girlfriend, you're going to need sufficient water for a couple showers each. biggest problem with my Casita is the fresh water and grey holding tanks aren't big enough for more than 3-4 days unless we're hypercareful with water usage. I can go a week taking sponge baths and using very little water if I'm solo.

it *is* always a good idea to travel long distances with the tanks relatively empty. I dump the black+grey at the first available dumping station when I break camp, and I fill the water tank as close to my destination as practical.

 

Right , agree'd . We hope to not do to much dry camping.

 

yeah, if you're always in full hookup RV parks, then you don't need to carry any water in the RV tanks, although having some in there is handy if you want to use the bathroom while on the road. Me, I've found we're dry camping at least 2/3rds of the time, and only in RV parks with hookups some of the time.

 

I don't know for sure but one destination that we have for summer on the coast should have full hook up but it's like $70 a night. We will wait to fill the water full for dry camping until we get close.Thanks for the reply's LeftCoast !

 

I did pick up the trailer and towed ok lite even pulled a hill. Not going to be going fast. I don't know what the recommended rpm is but I kept it around 3000 rpm.

 

I have a silly ?. I just picked up a Gen3 TRD Off-road 4x4, the boss and I have been talking about getting a TT or pop up. This will be our first camper. So given all the math in the Bible, what dry weight TT should we be looking at to ensure we stay away from overloading?

Before reading the Bible was thinking 4000#, but now I am thinking 3000#. I want to make sure we start looking at the right size without going overboard

 

i've been towing a 3500 lb trailer with my gen2 TRD OR 4x4, its just fine, and I wouldn't hesitate to tow up to maybe 4500 lbs. above that I'd be more cautious. note I'm going by GROSS weight, far too many people list the empty weight of their trailers.

 

I am new myself but did do some research. There are lots of light trailers in the 18 ft. And under range. Wolf pack by forest river and I think Coleman come to mind and then there is the tear drop type. The guy at one of my local dealers was say 4000 empty no more than 1000 lbs of supplies. Might be a bit heavy I guess.

 

if there's just max two of you camping, you also might look at the fiberglass trailers, like Casita (17'), Escape (17, 19, 21), etc. Casita 16/17 are max 3500 lbs fully loaded (about 2200 lbs dry +/- options), I'm about to look at an Escape 19 thats 4000 lbs max.

remember, 10-15% of the total actual weight of the loaded trailerr should be sitting on your hitch, and this has to be subtracted from your vehicles payload, which is about 1200 lbs on a 4x4 Taco Access Cab (I think the DC's are even less because the body weighs more). adding airbags or overload springs in the back of the taco hugely helps the ride at/near the max payload.

 

Thanks for this awesome write up (Bible). I just added my transmission oil cooler last night. I added a magnetic filter in the return line. No leaks! I'm going to install the 7 pin and trailer brake assist later today. I have a tow package four flat dealer install in a 2010 4L 4WD auto 4 speed (no plug and play harness at drivers floor). Your write up helped me greatly to determine this. I just got an dual axle enclosed v nose trailer for the winter that has two sets of brakes. I've been towing my boat for a couple summers and a flatbed trailer in the winter. Just a new chapter in my towing adventures.

Check out @Sandman614 post about his ""Factory" 7 pin harness installation". You guys together cover it all. Shout out to everyone here at TacomaWorld! Shout out everyone who is on here sharing the gospel!

 

I've been reading this Tacoma Towing Bible on and off for what seems like a couple of years now...learning about all the things I've done wrong towing over the years...

Started out towing a 14' enclosed cargo trailer will all kinds of vending equipment with a '01 DC Pre-runner...trailer brakes, controller, but none of the other recommended stuff. Probably exceeded recommended weights, balanced improperly, etc. and survived to tell about it. Now that we are older and more safety conscious, we want to make sure we are being responsible and safe.

Just want to run some numbers by the forum here for feedback.

Short range objective is to travel with the wife from PHX to Baja for fishing and surfing. Wanting to get at least halfway down on the Pacific side...about 1500 miles r/t. Some of the intended areas are off grid and wanting some amenities to keep said wife happy.

We've got an '07 2.7L AC, 133K miles, Ride-Rite bags, a Leer cap and diy bedslider...

I realize we are limited with the 4 banger, but was hoping to find a double axle travel trailer due to lack of shoulders and pull out areas on Mex Hwy 1 should we encounter a blow out. One 250 mile pothole-strewn stretch from Catavina to Guerrero Negro has been taking its toll on vehicles.

Have been researching the Winnebago Micro Minnie that has two axles, dry weight 2,980, dry hitch 300, GVWR 7,000, 31G fresh h20...

I realize that only leaves a margin of 520 lbs. before maxing out the Tacoma tow rating. We'd really like to upgrade to a Tundra (and intend on doing that down the line despite the limited payload), but can't figure out how to swing that financially right now.

We would definitely install oil and trans coolers, brake controller, WDH and anti-sway device (looks like Anderson for that), scangauge II (or similar system) on our Tacoma.

Some specs on the 2.7L:

GVWR 4,850
GCWR 8,100
GAWR Front: 2380 Rear: 2685
Max Tongue weight: 350

Towing the micro minnie, would we be within the allowable limits for our vehicle?

We also need new tires before the trip and were leaning toward p-metric (for everyday driver comfort) all-terrains (Falken Wildpeak AT3/W, Michelin LTX AT2 or BFG KO2), but after reading from p. 78 back to p. 50 it seems some recommend LT for the stiffer sidewalls.

Would LT tires be needed in this scenario?

Also, looking at upsizing from 215 70R15 to 235 75R15 for more AT tire options. It sounds like we will lose some low-end torque. Will that be a problem? Any way to mitigate loss of torque without a re-gear (i.e., computer chip/software)?

The last thing that is a bit confusing is our Tacoma manual states the the towing capacity w/o towing package is 3,500 and with towing package is 6,500. Why is it showing a 3,000 lb. difference in towing capacity?


All feedback is appreciated.