Correct gear for Towing

Owners manual doesn't give what gear for pulling and Towing 2011 four-wheel drive V6 five-speed automatic. the 07 I owned in the manual said drop it down to four I didn't see in my owner's manual for the 2011 to do that, any info tips appreciated

 

Always want to tow in 4th gear. Towing in overdrive will destroy a transmission over time due to high heat and stress on the clutch packs. Many vehicles with high towing capacity have a tow setting that disables overdrive for that reason. Now if you're just towing something light like a jetski or motorcycle on a flat road you can get by in OD.

 

Yup what MA said

 

Put it in 4th gear

 

Great thanks already on the road, probably have around 1300 lb on the pull behind trailer, thousand pounds or more in the back of the truck nothing it shouldn't handle, it definitely reduces the breaking power but I was a little bit leery wonder why the owner's manual didn't have it unless I passed it up geez thanks

 

1000 lbs in the bed + the weight of the driver, other passengers and other gear is most likely over your payload. Then you add the tongue weight of the trailer. Move as much weight as possible to the trailer.

Most Tacoma's are rated for around 6500 lbs towing with 1000-1200 lbs payload. 4000-4500 is a more realistic amount to be towing. But you have to make a choice; you can't tow a trailer AND haul much weight in the truck. It needs to be one or the other.

As a default use 4th gear. If the trailer is on the light side, on fairly level terrain you would be OK with just putting it in "D". If just a 1300 lb trailer I might just use Drive. But with a 1300 lb trailer + another 1000 lbs certainly drive in 4th gear.

 

With 3500 trailer attached, I just put in D and go

if its down shifting a lot or hilly terrain, then drop to 4th

 

Thanks for the response we really didn't do our homework but I had a 8000 Generac generator slid towards the cab in the bed I have a commercial toolbox had some things in it but had some monument stones over center of the axle on the trailer we we're going to install some monument stones Eastern Kentucky so we had plenty of hills but didn't want to put bags of concrete mix on top of the monument stones so we put a couple towards the back of the trailer some on the front of the trailer which was just above the tongue of the trailer then about 11 80 lb bags in back of the bed, I had a chance to get a 10-ft trailer but I didn't want to transfer the monument stones needless to say a Lowe's trailer wasn't ideal I heard some sounds I did not like you joints were changed and carrier bearing a few months back but up hills there was some squealing going on so not sure but I put it under some definite strain, by the time we got to the cemetery way up in the hills of Eastern Kentucky the Lowe's trailer where the tongue runs back to the middle brace was bent. After getting the weight off of everything headed to the motel the squealing was just once in awhile. we got the job done I had planned on a 10-ft U-Haul but did not know what the distance was between the gate post at the top of the hill live and learn . now to take it in and get that transmission flush I had mentioned previously I'm a little over a hundred thousand miles on it now

 

you sound possibly overloaded

do that trans flush ASAP if you have been towing or loading heavy

 

Towing without a real trans temp indication is foolhardy. Grab an Ultragauge or Scanguage for a $100 bucks to protect you $4k tranny.

 

Yes I plan on scheduling the flush ,I don't drive it much through the week, drive the little 06 2 whl taco , so it will be a relief to get the tranny flush ,there's a co called auto Alternatives, lex ky, highly recommended for toyotas, rather than steelership

 

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