I tried to tow and it sucked

It's the 4wd that throws people. For many it doesn't cross their mind that a 4 and a 2 stop exactly the same way. The heavier vehicles get moving better usually and feel a little more planted, right up until they end up in the ditch. A larger vehicle carries more energy than a lighter, which makes them harder to stop. Physics, she is a bitch sometimes.

Oh, and if you drive a dodge 3/4 ton 99% chance you drive like an asshole in the snow My last hunting trip, horrible weather in the mountains, my taco got passed by probably 20 3/4 ton dodges that week, and we found 15 in a ditch shortly after being passed. We even got stupid and took some really nasty runs through some deep snow covered hills and crawled up and down with no issue. It was really stupid because we were out on our own in the middle of no-where and the temps were -40 so stuck might be dead. After we got done had a club full of Dodge show up and try the same hills (so we wouldn't have died but didn't know that at the time ) and fail miserably to get a single truck up. It was hillarious. They were digging out (again) when we got bored watching and left.

 

Bottom line sounds like the op has 4 options
1) continue to complain
Or
2) deal with it
Or
3) get a bigger more powerful truck
Or
4) get a smaller lighter trailer

 

4,500lb dry weight, towing in the Sierra Nevada Mtns (house is at 4,500ft and the passes I tow over are 7-8,000ft), can maintain 55mph heading over the passes (wound out in 2nd). After 4 seasons towing this I have no intention of trading the taco for a bigger truck or getting a smaller trailer.

 

Done Thanks for all the feedback.
I'll let you know how it tows.
Tacoma remains my daily driver, and heavily abused vehicle..
So no love for it lost.
The van is a multi-purpose vehicle, one of which will be towing.
P.S. It's a V10 362 hp/457 lb-ft

 

I have no problem towing my toys. Definitely would not tow much more than this. I put a dirt bike in the bed, hook up to the trailer and go. I have towed this stuff all over the US. Buy a bigger truck if you want to tow something that is much bigger.

 

Took the van for about a 20mi roundtrip today through the mountains.
It's definitely better, but I also see what some folks were saying about expectations. I can't say it was like a walk in the park.
While the van is about 2x horsepower, and close to it in torque, you could certainly feel a relatively heavy object was being pulled. (my neighbor said something between the lines of, "you didn't expect this to pull like a diesel, didn't you?")
Getting to about 50 uphill w/o very high RPM was doable, but acceleration uphill requires patience.
I may look into some 'towing tunes' for the engine/transmission in the spring. For now a 200mi trip into the mountains is in the plans.

 

With all due respect, maybe your previous expectations of what towing the travel trailer would be like were unrealistic? That van should be a pretty good tow vehicle, and it might even alleviate some of the issues with the traileres larger frontal surface area.

 

quite possibly.

In my presence, this trailer was only towed by one of those newer diesel F350's that can tow just about anything, and I was a passenger.

I've certainly towed, but much smaller objects with a tacoma, although a few times I am sure it was on the heavy side and uncomfortable to tow (and no trailer breaks).

My worst towing experience (with tacoma) was pulling a trailer with wet stone for a mile on light hills along the river. This was true abuse of the Tacoma and I had to drive it in low gear (and gave up after it was obvious this was a poor substitute to a dump truck)

Prior bad (and maybe my first?) experience was blowing breaks downhill on a red light towing a compact tractor. Nobody was hurt, and manual transmission allowed to move the truck to mechanic w/o breaks. It was an older GMC2500HD.

 

Brakes not breaks. Grammer nazi!

Towing changes the entire dynamics of a vehicle. You're no longer just 4 wheels. You're 6+ with huge lever cranking on your rear end with every bump, passing vehicle, or change of speed.

That lever changes how you stop how you turn. Everything.

 

in that case, grammar, not grammer.

 

And Nazi, not nazi. (Unless trying to be ironic.)

 

I r a genius.

 

After my 250mi round trip through the Appalachians, I am relatively satisfied with the performance.
The van actually downshifted to 1st gear a few times on some relatively steep inclines, and into 2nd gear a lot more.
I think it's only a 4 speed and geared 3.73

 

1. Aerodynamics do play a factor.
2. K&N makes great air filters to increase power which helps.
3. Did you calculate the weight of passengers and stuff in the truck with you?
4. Was your load balanced. Trailer even with truck.
5. Hills will always be more challenging than flat land.

My experience has been great but I don't normally get near max weight. I live in West Virginia- mountain state. Moved hear from Georgia and pulled a pretty good load.

Hope this helps.

 

Yeah, K&N... make more power, if you don't mind making less when all the dirt it lets in scrapes the fuck out of your cylinders.

 

V6 Tacos are adequate towing. The heaviest I towed with the 4.0 was a 4k lbs travel trailer. Had the bed and cab loaded up pretty good also. The big deal was I could still pass 18-wheelers on the I70 passes, Vail and Ike. In 2nd gear, tach at 5200RPM getting close to redline, but still could accelerate albeit slowly.

When I tow I don't give a damn about the sedans behind me, too bad for them, when I'm done passing 18-wheelers I'll move over. My motto is "Watch out, Toyota coming through."

 

How many rapes per gallon is that van capable of?

 

I bought my 20ft single axle trailer with a gross weight rating of 3750 lbs then got a truck to pull it. No regrets with the 2018 Off Road. The most weight I’ve towed to date has been 3100 lbs with about 800 lbs in the bed. Handles it all very well. The right truck for the job at hand. Plus, I only have enough space in my parking garage for the short box mid size.

 

Negative, being that slow on highways or even other roads with a speed limit of 50 or over is not safe, in this instance slower is not safer, because of the speed differential you're more likely to be in an accident or cause an accident. There's a reason my state has posted Minimum speeds on highways.

 

Wrong.
Nobody said to go under the minimum speed in the fast lane.