Towing capacity

I'm looking at a travel trailer rated at 3449 lb unloaded, 4800 loaded. Too much weight to safely pull? We will be doing a lot of mountain driving. 2017 TRD off road.

 

Will it do it? Yeah, for sure. Would I want to in the mountains?? Not particularly. I tow a 3500 loaded travel trailer and when I'm in the mountains, I spend a lot of time in the 3500pm-5000rpm range to maintain speed up the really steep grades.

 

Welcome to the forum

You will find a lot of information here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/towing.34/

 

I don't think the op would have any issues. I recently did a 50 mile trip picking up a 3,500 lb boat for a relative till he gets his full size truck in order to do it. Everything in the tacoma's tow package worked perfectly with the boats trailer. I used ECT, and S4 for the first real time on some larger hills. Pulled it like a champ in 4th gear all the way. I flipped to S5 on the flats with no issues. He was pretty impressed how well the truck handled it.

 

I tow 5100 on a regular basis and have no issues. Brake controller. WDH and KDMax Pro+ tune. And over mountain passes in ID and MT.

 

That’s not too bad as long as you set your expectations appropriately. The Tacoma is a dog when it comes to towing but will safely get the job done on a trailer of that weight when paired with a good weight distribution hitch and properly set brake controller.

 

Safely? Yes. I don’t think the taco would get a 6800lb rating of it wasn’t safe to tow 4800lb. Will you enjoy it? YMMV.

Note: you likely need trailer brakes on something that heavy. Also learn how to use engine braking in descents with s-mode

 

Check out page 16 of this PDF. There are payload, towing and tongue load numbers by trim and cab configuration.

http://www.tfltruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2016-toyota-Tacoma-Technical-specs.pdf

 

You will run out of (legal) payload very quickly with that truck if the tongue weight is 480 lbs. Basically with 2 adults and say 2 kids in the truck and nothing else in the bed you're at or over the payload limit for most SB 4x4 Tacomas.

 

Yeah, assume the op's gotta have a brake controller. You don't wanna leave home without it.

 

I tow 5k semi regularly 300-600 mile trips with a brake controller, never tow without one these days. Tongue weight is a huge concern with heavy ish loads for tacos and speed. I have trained myself to always stay under 70 on any road and 65 on any grade. Its a hard thing to do but I had running such high RPMs on pulls. Wind resistance will effect how hard you work your truck when towing, 5k boat trailer vice 5k camper are different animals with wind.

 

VERY much so!