Tacoma and camping trailer

I’m thinking of purchasing a Tacoma, but want to know if it can pull a small camping trailer dry weight about 4,200 lbs. Thanks

 

Which Tacoma are you looking at? You’re not going to want to push past 5,000lbs with a top of the line Tacoma, comfortably. That being said you’ll want trailer brakes and a weight distribution hitch and possibly a suspension upgrade for the long haul. What makes you want a Tacoma? There are much better options out there if it’s for a dedicated tow rig.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-tacoma-towing-bible.4031/

Also, welcome to TW!

 

The tow rating on the V6 models is around 6500, so yes, in theory. However, about mid way through 2020, they discontinued the auxiliary transmission cooler for some unknown reason.

The above thread is a good resource, but it mainly applies to 1st and 2nd gens. There's still a lot of good information in there, however.

 

The Tacoma isn't a great tow vehicle, it's payload capacity is lacking, by the time you add family members and all their shit, you're at nearly capacity. It also depends on how much time you have, how far you're towing, and where. If you're retired and have to the time to drive 55 mph, and take breaks, then great.

 

Perhaps the above comments are not from actual towing experience with a Tacoma. We had a 2006 V6 double cab FWD and towed a tandem axle trailer from new. After 250,000 miles it still towed the trailer just fine. The drawback was a great reduction in mileage from 19 or so without the trailer to under 12 mpg when towing. It never felt as though it lacked for power though we didn't push it on long grades. Our trailer dry weight was 3425, loaded I'd guess a bit over 4,000 with a 300 lb hitch weight. We used an equalizing hitch. We now have a 2019 Tacoma, same style as our 2006 and towing is still easy, mileage towing still isn't any better. We've been happy even when the big Dodges and Fords go whizzing past us with their 40' toyhaulers.

 

We bought a travel trailer last spring that had a GVWR of 3944 lbs. Pulled it to northern Ontario twice last summer. What didn't appeal to me was having to carefully plan the packing strategy for a trip to keep the weight down, Listening to the motor roar in 4th gear at 2,600 rpm for the whole trip, occasionally a big hill it would need to drop down to 3rd gear & rev out to + 3500rpm just to maintain 45mph, not an option to bring along a grandkid or two & their luggage, traveling highways & accumulating a long line of traffic behind me because I can't go any faster. So I very reluctantly traded my 2016 AT Tacoma for a F150 w/5.0 engine.
You'll get lots of opinions on here. Some have more tolerance than I do towing with a truck that clearly is not meant to be a tow vehicle.

 

That's the upper limit and I would not. Load it with gear and fuel and water etc and its not gonna be an awesome time

 

Kind of a rash assumption there. No one ever said it was impossible or impractical but buying for the sole purpose of towing is not ideal. We don’t know any of this info though as OP was brief in description and hasn’t returned. Your setup is pushing the heavier side than what the Tacoma is comfortable doing but still just as capable. Driver experience, frequency, and location matter too.

 

Go check out the towing section. There are a bunch of us who do just fine.
See you at the campsite!