The Tacoma Towing Bible

Having the axle father back increases the tongue weight. Higher tongue weight decreases sway. Lighter tongues tend to sway more. The "optimal" tongue weight is 10 to 15 percent of trailer weight.
Boat trailers have the axle set back because boats are tail heavy (rear engine). The axle location of sets the rear ward weight by increasing the tongue weight to a towable level.

As an example my teardrop weighs 3500 lbs fully loaded. When I first built it, it had a 580 lb tongue weight. That's about 16.5% of total for tongue weight.
We moved the axle forward 4 inches and tongue weight dropped by 120 lbs to 460. Tongue weight is now at about 13% of trailer weight.
With these percentages sway is not an issue. I can tow this trailer at highway speed easily.
In case you haven't seen it here's a little video demonstrating light vs heavy tongue weight

 

This thread is incredible!! I got through the first 8 pages before realizing it was over 86 pages!!! Yikes!!
I am new here, but am an original member of TundraSolutions since April 2000.

I have a 2006 Tacoma Prerunner 2WD 4-door, Long bed. It does NOT appear to have the factory towing package, but it does have a (dealer installed?) receiver hitch with 4-pin flat connector. There also appears to be a long radiator running on top of, and all along the bottom of, the factory radiator. I have not seen mention or photos of one such as this.

I have never towed. I am looking to rent a u-haul 4x8 or 6x12 for a point to point cross-country trip of approximately 2,000 miles. Household stuff. Couple couches, a couple cabinets, a coffee table, few boxes of clothes and kitchen/bathroom stuff. Nothing like a refrigerator or a gun safe or anything massive.

Can I safely tow a trailer like one of those above with my current set up?

Thanks!

EDJ

 

you should be fine, I bet that trailer is not over 3000 lbs loaded. the one to watch is the trucks GVWR, as your tongue weight is sitting behind your back axle. a prerunner with the factory tow is rated to tow around 6500 lbs, but if you had a 6500 lb trailer with 15% tongue weight, you'd be putting 975 lbs on the hitch, and you likely only have a 1200 lb total payload including driver/passenger. I undoubtedly went over my payload on extended road trips, but I have LT load range D tires and airbags so I don't think I was ever /that/ unsafe. For sure add more air to your rear tires than the door jam sticker suggests, while staying under the tires max pressure. if you're running heavy, downshift on downgrades to save your brakes.

re the cooler, see what the hoses go to, but I bet its an upgraded transmission cooler. I just stepped out to my driveway and popped the hood on my 08 with factory tow and oops, oh yeah, no cooler cuz, duh, its a MANUAL. hahahahah.

 

Thanks LeftCoast, that's reassuring. I took these pics a few minutes ago. I do not know if that is an oil cooler or just a collar/lip to catch spills when changing out the oil filter. Also, the pix show the supplemental radiator atop the standard one. The door sticker shows a GVWR of 5350 lbs (2426KG).

 

Thats the air conditioner condensor (see the black cap labeled "hi" on the far right out of focus on the 3rd pic? thats the high pressure side fill port for refrigerant)

 

Is there any way to keep the transmission from downshifting in S Mode? I am constantly driving in the mountains and towing and the downshifting is driving me nuts. Is there any way to be able to lock the tranny in a gear so you can step on it on the uphill without a lurching downshift? This is an especially big problem when towing our drift boat, which is pretty lightweight, but still causes downshifting problems.

 

if its downshifting, you're in too high of a gear. back off on the throttle and manually downshift yourself.

 

I scanned as much of this thread as I could to find my answer, but didn't see exactly what I was looking for. One of the first "rules" for towing with a taco was "don't even think about using overdrive". What is the specific reason, beyond the obvious that your effective drive ratio will be much higher (numerically lower). Like others have said, if the engine load is too high, the transmission will downshift. I realize that this may cause a good bit of shifting between 4th and 5th given enough towing load, but what if the load isn't all that much, relative to the max allowable? Is there a breakage issue in the tranny if you tow heavy loads in OD? At 65-70 mph a downshift from OD to 4th would only happen on an extended hill or if I was trying to pass someone. I plan to run at or barely below posted limits , but I don't want to be a hazard if everyone else is 10 over, like they usually are.

This is my situation. I have a 5x8 cargo trailer, max allowable weight including trailer is 2500 lb. I'm getting ready to haul a load of bedroom furniture from NC to South Florida (Miami-Dade area). That's 800 miles of interstate, speed limits 65-70 all the way. I've towed this trailer on the I-state before for short distances with a total trailer weight of maybe 1300 lb (trailer weighs 850 empty), and the trailer follows well, no wobbling, swaying, etc.. Given the recommendation not to use overdrive, I towed in 4th, but at 65 mph, I'm running at 3000 rpm or so, gas mileage sucked worse than usual, and I don't know if I can stand 1600 miles of 3000 rpm +. The trailer should weigh around 1500-1600 loaded going down there. The return half of the trip will be with an empty trailer, so the load would be even less.

Given the lighter loads, would it be acceptable to tow less than 2000 lb in overdrive? Aerodynamically, the trailer has a V-nose, (it's a Leonard, if that matters), so drag is less than it could be, and the truck is a fair bit wider than the trailer. Truck is a 2011 DCSB SR5 4x4, 4L V6, 5spd auto. I certainly don't want to destroy the tranny, but can it really be that bad for it, given the load?

 

Its to keep your automatic transmission from "hunting" going back and forth between overdrive and 4. If you are towing a lighter load using overdrive probably isnt a problem. I do it all the time. The only time I would not use it is if I notice the transmission is starting to hunt which would cause over heating and damage to the transmission.

 

That's what I was hoping. There's a picture in some guy's threads showing a busted gear, with a caption about "this is what happens when you tow in OD" or something like that. He sounds very knowledgeable, and I imagine it could happen easily enough with the right abuse, but I don't like testing the limits of my gear any more. I used to do it a lot in my younger days, and I got tired of fixing stuff that shouldn't have needed fixing.

I have no issues with running in 4th in situations where I would expect frequent shifting; I actually run in 4th most times when the speed limits are 45 or less for that very reason, but engine rpm is generally 2K or less then.

 

also on many automatic transmissions, the OD gear is much smaller than the main gears.

OTOH, my 2002 F250 diesel says its fine to tow up to the full tow load limit of 12500 lbs with OD as long as its not hunting, and you let the TC lockup work. but thats a truck built for towing. I anticipate hills and shift out of 'OD' manually before i'm on the grade, that gives the TC a chance to lock up in 3rd before you're on the throttle.

 

once you're in gear and the TC is locked, it should /stay/ locked until its ready to shift again. I find on OD -> 3rd shifts with my Ford, at least, the TC won't lock up in 3rd unless I back off the throttle for a second, and if you're in cruise, this won't likely happen. my tacoma has a 6-speed, so I have no idea how toyota automatics behave under load.

 

When I was watching temps, this was what I experienced. The tranny temp would rise quickly in OD, even though it wasn't hunting. Put it back in 4, and temps would come right back down to "normal"

 

Don't know if you've made your trip or not, but I can offer a couple of observations on a similar trip. I mentioned above that I was towing a 5x8 foot cargo trailer, loaded with similar stuff to yours, on a 800 mile trip to Florida (and then empty coming back). I ended up driving the entire trip in 4th, I tried for about 50 miles to leave it in 5th (auto trans), but it was continually hunting between 5th and 4th. It's not so much how much weight you're pulling as it is the aerodynamics of the truck/trailer combo. I had the same performance, both in pulling ability and gas mileage, on the loaded and empty portions of the trip. The total load wasn't anywhere close to the towing limit of the truck, I was pulling maybe 2000 lb when loaded, less than 1000 coming back. The trailer is a V-nose, but sticks up about 2 feet taller than the cab, and the drag was significant.

I've pulled a 4x6 U-Haul cargo trailer and it was probably about 1800-1900 lb loaded. I hardly knew it was back there, pulled it on the I-state and stayed in 5th most of the time, much less hunting and shifting than on the trip to Florida, which was all interstate. The U-Haul trailer wasn't as tall as the cab of the truck, so it apparently didn't create as much drag. Take that into consideration when you make the trip.

 

the square/flat back of a trailer like that creates an enormous drag, regardless of the shape of the nose.

 

This was me about a month ago..cross-country (2,220 miles). I-40W mostly all the way.
6X12' trailer loaded to the gills (~2Klbs trailer+2Klbs my junk+300lbs in truck)
kept it out of OD and she ran great (~2,400rpm@cruise, Trans temp 160-190 with occasional bump up to 210-220 during stop and go traffic. Worse was when i went up the I-40 pass through needles in the early morning and the temp got up to 240 for a minute climbing that b of a pass) OAT was 85F @3am.
Inflated my tires up to near max for the load (48PSI) max rated @ 51PSI.
No swaying of trailer if loaded properly.
MPG: I got a range of 200 miles to the tank with a good 6 gallon buffer.
Note: I had tsb leafs + Icon progressive 3 leaf with overload in this setup.

 

I tried some reading in the third Gen. I just moved to a new place and am having trouble finding a place to live. I think I'm just going to get a trailer and rent a spot.

What would be the most ideal (comfortable and roomy inside) trailer that I could get?

I'm just having a hard time thinking about buying something to live in and also have the option of towing somewhere if I want to go somewhere.

 

most trailers sold as RVs are not suitable for full time living. the mobile homes that are built for full time living are known as 'park models', and they aren't very mobile.

as far as comfort goes, thats highly subjective. some folks feel the need for 36' 5th wheels that weight 12000+ lbs with slideouts everywhere to increase the floor space (and require a 1.5 ton dualy diesel truck to tow).

Me, I'm quite happy camping in my 21' fiberglass Escape, but I dunno if I'd want to live in it full time.

 

If it was just me and a dog I could live in it to coachmen apex ultra lite 245bhs but not with my whole family

 

I have a 2002 3rz 4x4 MT extended cab. Outside of hp and torque what separates the 1st gen 4cyl from the 6cyl towing capacity and tongue weight (3500<5000). Diff springs? Diff diff? Bump stops?