Trailer pulling

Wow, hard to believe everyone is towing such heavy stuff. I must have got a lemon because it struggled mightily to pull my light little kayak trailer with two kayaks on it.Maybe 350-400 lbs max.My previous vehicles pulled it up to Allegheny river, didn't even know it was back there. Pretty disappointed. Made the trip to camp many times with beater 300 6cyl. fords,my beater avalanche that i ran to over 300,000 miles, and my previous 19 ranger,and never struggled, ugh. I just don't get it, I am hoping a tune might fix it, or unfortunately will send this truck down the road, which is a shame because I really like it a lot. But the constant downshifting, turning almost 3000 rpm just to pull a small hill at a reasonable speed is just beyond annoying. And I did test drive and did my research, but didn't think the light weights i towed and hauled would be an issue, that is why i downsized to a midsize a few years ago with the ranger. To be fair, I had forgot about using the etc, but i used s4 and s5, and it still did the crazy high rpm downshifts. I was under the impression that that was mostly fixed in the 20's and up.

 

a tune wlll make a huge difference in shifting.

 

Thank you, that will be my next step I think.Started searching and reading up on tune threads to try and educate myself on what would be a good fit for my uses, and the pro's and cons of them.

 

Disclaimer I am a KDMAX Pro tuner.

I have the KDMax 10.0 and the Anderson Engineering intake spacer. Between the two there is a big difference from stock. The KDMax adds hp and torque and smoother shifting. The spacer moves the torque lower in the rpm range. After adding the spacer it is much better towing in the 60-65 mph range. Holds rpm’s better and does not shift anywhere near as much. I also tow over Lookout Pass in Montana which is fairly steep. The truck can do it no problem. It does rev to 5k rpm but that’s to be expected from a V6. My trailer is about 5100 lbs. and is a large kite. Grand Design 17 MKE.

You can PM me if you want to discuss more about towing.

 

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. There is no downside to using a bigger, more capable truck and no upside to pushing a Tacoma to, if not over the limits. It will do it and as long as everything goes right, and you drive carefully you'll get where you're going. But sooner or later we all have those "oh shit" moments when something unplanned happens. When that time comes, you'll either wish for a bigger truck or a smaller trailer.

I have both a Tacoma and a F150 and pull the same trailers with both. Even with a lighter 4000 lb trailer there is no comparison. The Tacoma will pull that much with ease, but the Ford does everything better. Unloaded the Tacoma beats the Ford by 1 mpg, but the Ford will get 13 mpg pulling a trailer the Tacoma gets 10 mpg pulling. If nothing else the 36-gallon fuel tank vs 21 gallons makes a bigger truck the better choice.

Love the Tacoma, I like it better than the Ford. But I believe in using the right tool for the job. I'm not going to pull the guts out of a little truck trying to make it do something it wasn't designed for.

 

Thank you!I appreciate the info and your offer.