Kansas City Tacoma Crew - 816/913

Agree with you on the rabbit food. Seafood is delicious though

(pass on the snails...)

 

I can handle veggies. I'll take shrimp and octopus, you can toss the rest though.
I gotta get my cholesterol down or my doc's gonna make me take meds for it. I got 3 months.

 

More cherrios and less jerky for you

 

So the wife and I are considering buying a camp trailer. I am sure there is a post about it somewhere in the forums but I thought I would ask you guys first. The Towing capacity on the 21 tacoma pro seems to be 6k. I am not looking to pull that much. We are looking at Wolf pups and such maybe max 4500 lbs. I have only pulled a small utility trailer with it and it did fine but I have heard that they struggle and that the motors are not up to the task of having constant load. What do you guys have and what do you pull with it. Its a manual transmission as well if that helps with any opinions.

 

Add the 2lo mod and you’ll be set. I towed 10,000+ miles with mine with a variety of weights and it did fine.

I swapped the rear shocks to fox 2.0 and it put a stop to any oscillation I got going down the road when I’d hit bumps

a tune also makes a diff, especially on the low end, in the MT if you’ve not already done that

I pulled my trailer out west, through the mountains, 500+ mile days. Zero problems.

 

I didnt even know there was a tune for the manual transmission. I am still learning about these trucks. I think my trim has fox shocks already. I need to figure out exactly what I have in it to be honest. Its a 21 pro.

 

Oh you’ve got a pro. Yeah you’ve already got them, you can ignore that part

yep I had mine tuned since late 2017

 

The manual is a big help. If you upgrade tires at all and are still wanting to tow you're definitely going to want to re-gear Your diffs to 4.88.

However that is expensive and if you keep your tire size at 32-in or the factory 31 in, in the manual you will be just fine

As far as weight goes, 4500 lb is a good place to be. 4500 lb dry is going to end up being over 5,000 when fully loaded with water and gear and everything else. That's what you'll start seeing the taco push itself.

And finally... There are too many nuts who try to tow with a time 75 mph into a headwind and complain about lack of power and mileage. Keep your speed down to 55 or 60 and you'll get good mileage and have plenty of power on tap. Also remember that 5th and 6th gears are overdrive. When towing these should be used sparingly unless you are going downhill and don't need to stop at the bottom or are on a long flat surface without a headwind. These simple tricks make towing with a taco enjoyable as opposed to a pain

I suppose I should also state that in my manual sport I have towed overloaded U-Haul trailers all over the Midwest and been just fine so long as I wasn't trying to go over 65 mph.

 

was going to mention that (bold text) with my little trailer it weighs 500lbs unloaded before what i did to it.. now its closer to 800 and about 1000-1200 loaded down and overall the tacoma pulled it fine but going up hills mine you could feel it tbh. now the heaviest ive done is a 2klb car trailer with a 2200lb car and i hated towing that... the truck did it but it wasnt the most fun tbh in an auto maybe a manual would have made it better? but unsure

agreed on tires much bigger and it will struggle dont care if its 2nd gen or 3rd gen it will struggle without a regear with larger tires

driving slower while towing is kind of a must tbh trying to drive like its not there ends badly

 

I appreciate all the input. Its all good stuff I dont plan on going with larger tires. I went on a trailride and put it in places I wouldnt have if I had not been with a group of more experienced people so I feel like what I have on it will be fine. I threw on a set of wildpeak at3s and calling it good. Do you think I need a trailer break? I dont plan on taking the trailer out west at first so mostly nearby until im more comfortable with it.

 

You can use 5th. Just not supposed to use 6th. (It’s in the manual)

i actually ran 75 across New Mexico. Usually I’d be 65-70 but i couldn’t maintain up the hills. Bumped up a little and got further into the power band and it was happy

I usually tried to stay 2500-3000 rpm with the manual

also don’t count on engine braking cuz it’s close to non existent

 

If the trailer is 2000+ lbs, yes absolutely get a brake controller. The truck is pre wired for it so you just need to plug it in

I had a tekonsa p3 but I would go redarc if I did it again. Much smaller to try and mount / hide

 

very much recommend a trailer brake.. my trailer isnt that super heavy as i stated buut ive had a few issues where someone has cut me off and i needed to slam them... and that little trailer would push me and it would scare me when that happened...

 

We're pre-wired for trailer brake controllers?

 

Look into weight distributing hitches, I hear a lot of guys preach about them. Not sure if it's applicable to the taco, but I know @EatSleepTacos uses one on his Tundra.

 

I'll also add, I pulled a 16' trailer fully loaded when I moved and the taco was fine on straights and downhill, but uphill it was a dog and with an Auto, it was shifting up and down like crazy till I put it in 2.

 

bUt sEcOnD gEnS hAvE mOaR tOrQuE

 

Absolutely get a WDH, I believe the manual even states to use one if you're towing over 4k lbs. I have the Curt trutrack on my tundra and love it. Once it was correctly set up, it dropped the front AND rear of my tundra 1/2" when loaded with ~1,000 lbs of tongue weight. It also has sway control so I can comfortably cruise at 70-75 and it tracks straight as an arrow.

 

100% back this

 

I was close, the tacoma manual states anything over 5,000 lbs needs a WDH. I would still get one though for 4,500 lbs.