So, I bought my first travel trailer and...... questions...

Looks good, thank you!

 

Mrkabc, that is the cleanest install. I chose not to pull the cubby out because I’m thinking I’ll remove the P3 when not traveling and I didn’t want the open hole. But this setup is slick. I may change mine to go this route, after I get back from my big trip next week.

however, I went onto Meso website and couldn’t find those. I only saw what looks to be stock panels. Is there more I need to know? Long lead time is no biggie for me since my unit is already installed for now.

 

Good golly I want one of those too. First I've seen of it. Very clean!

 

It's been plugged in since last October. Truck is not a daily driver. (11,000 miles on it now, it's a 2017).

Battery is fine.

https://mesocustoms.com/collections...ducts/3rd-gen-tacoma-custom-made-switch-panel

Sign up there to be notified for when he takes orders again.

 

I’m sorry, I just noticed you did say your truck is a 2017, thus of course Gen 3.

thanks

 

Great post up Roscoe and discussion!

I think my WDH is close to 50lbs and I figured it to the tongue weight.

Funny, I was just thinking I should check back in here and see if I could find anything else on pulling a travel trailer with the Taco. We just bought this trailer last Monday and along the way over the trip, I only saw one other Taco pulling a TT and it looked like a 16 footer.

We sold our pop-up trailer in May and had been thinking about buying a new TT. We put a deposit on a 25' airstream but backed out at the last minute due to cost, size, etc.. We started looking at smaller trailers with bunks for our two kids. We have a parking spot behind our house and felt like a 20' trailer was big enough for us and would fit in our parking spot, as well as, we could pull with our current rigs. 2019 VW Atlas, 2016 Tacoma (lifted, sliders, front bumper, 33s) and our 2001 Land Cruiser also lifted, armored, 33s. BTW, we will never pull anything with the Atlas.

We picked up our Flagstaff E-Pro E20BHS in Salt Lake City, Utah. I could not find any of these locally in Colorado, actually most were sold out in neighboring states, as well. Its the cousin to the GEO PRO line.

It's dry weight is 3500, the dealership filled the 37 gallon water tank for delivery and I was planning on not doing that for towing but after the brain damage of the purchase and the wife complaining the sink was too small, all I could think about was hook this baby up and let's roll..

We choose the Taco for the maiden voyage, as I already had installed the brake controller under the hood release, when pulling the pop-up. I also have the Fastway 8K rated WDH. I just don't see how you can pull without one of these WDH deals. Really amazing tech.

Anyway, the Taco already goes into 4th often on the highway's of Colorado, so it was no surprise it jumped right into that mode leaving Salt Lake and headed to Bozeman, MT. That was tough. Averaged 8 MPG all the way to Idaho Falls for the night. I have not regeared but now thinking that might be a lower cost option to try first before buying a new truck.

There are times when the Taco pulls this trailer just fine flats and down hill but man add a modest grade and it is slow going 65-70 miles an hour at best.

Coming home thru Wyoming, 7 mpg ugh... So many rolling hills and climbs, once back in Colorado on I25 I was back up to 9 mpg.

All in all, I think it is a lot for the Taco but it handled it and I will probably do it again. Next trip we are taking the LandCruiser to see how she does with it. When we pulled the pop-up with the LC, it damn near was un noticeable. My 13 year old son in the picture for scale, he is 5'8".

I love this truck, even though the engine/tranny is stupid under gunned..It is super functional for us and we use the heck out of it. I can see how a bigger truck would make more sense and be easier to tow but I am not really drawn to full size US pickup trucks and the Taco did not feel unsafe. I did have to increase the brake controller to 8 though for better stopping. I have 59K miles on the brake pads, so thinking I should have those checked at next oil change.

 

Towing is the only time I really feel like I need more gear too. Also on 33’s but no armor, and pulling a pop up not a hard side, but in the rolling hills and meandering 2 lane highways of Alaska more grunt would be very welcome.

 

@Roscoe Taco it's Monday! You're journey has started yes? Let us know how you're doing.

@ChrisSandstorm that's a nice TT! Congrats!!!

 

We drove from Las Cruces to Colorado Springs today. Tomorrow morning, we’ll drive up to Greeley to pick up the TT. Excitement and anxiousness now. Hopefully get a good sleep. Big day tomorrow.

 

Great thread. We just bought a No Boundaries 19.5 last weekend. I’ll pick it up some time this week then begin prepping for a trip to Utah on Sept 3.

 

Here it is! Our very first night of RVing. I told my wife, we are officially trailer trash now. Ha ha.

the Taco handled beautifully on the drive down from Greeley, Colorado, where we purchased this morning, to Fountain, Colorado, just south of Colorado Springs. I maintained 65 mph most of the time, even 72 once or twice and even with all the ups and downs, the revs only went above 5K once. When cruising, it was often around 2800. 4th gear and ECT of course. And the darn outside temperature here today was 98. Holy cow! I had the AC set at 72 and the temp gauge never went higher than normal. I am stoked!!! Tomorrow though, here to Santa Fe will be the test. 5600 feet elev here. Over 7000 there.

I’ll send pics next time I post. Don’t have WiFi tonight. Maybe tomorrow night.

Cheers,
Ron

 

I am late to this but Popups are like condos, you only buy one once. Get a trailer at abut 35 to 3800 unloaded and you should be fine.
We have had a used and then a new popup. Way too much work to set up, hope it don't rain when breaking camp -- but easy to tow. Get a pop up with slide out and your work will double. Chalet or hard side has no storage at all. Better off with those TAG trailers or something like that.
I pull a APEX NANO 193BH thousands of miles. The best thing is a good WDH. Fastway E2 is the bomb and easy, easy easy....

 

I was able to use my phone as a hotspot this morning, so here’s the pics I promised from yesterday. I’ll update again tonight, after we’re set up in Santa Fe.

 

Don't think a regear will really help anything on the highway. For free you can just drop down one gear lower for the same results.

 

The gears helped but it won't fix the crazy shifting, after learning for awhile the trans gets so bad my truck shifted 11 times to get up some tiny crappy hill by my inlaws so I flashed it from stock to ovtune and I think it shifted 6 times on the same hill. Gears will help with your torque overall but TBH OVTune us probably a better choice for "Shifting issues".

 

Congrats on the No-Bo! Those are great trailers.

 

Has anyone checked out the Bushwacker Plus tear drop trailor? Has a dry weight of 2360 and gross weight of 3k. Tounge weight is only 320lbs. Yalls thoughts on how the Tacoma would do pulling?

 

I've been inside one, it's kind of the "house brand" for RV Country stores if I recall. It's a price point trailer for sure, you wouldn't be super excited if you compared side-by-side a Bushwacker to a Nucamp T@b. As far as towing, that's a great size & weight for the Tacoma.

 

Yeah i know its not as nice as a nucamp but its more in my price range and it fits all of our familys needs i was orginally looking at the regular bushwacker, then stumbled upon the plus version which had the shower and toilet.