TOWING QUESTION

2007 Tacoma V6 automatic 127,000 miles. I'm towing a Geo-Pro 20 foot 3500 pound camper.
Question, it does fine on flat ground but hills present a challenge. Is running it in 4 th gear pushing 3000 rpms going to dog my truck out ?
Thanks in advance.

 

She is happy to hum at a higher RPM so you are in the Horse power range.

But you gotta watch the A/T temp and the Coolant Temp when towing.

 

Believe all towing should be done in 4th

 

We don’t know how much weight you have in your truck (passengers and equipment) nor do we know the loaded weight of your trailer. Generally add 1000 lbs to determine gross weight of the trailer. So you are towing 4500 lbs or so plus weight in the truck. That is doable but is a lot of weight for aTaco. Don’t know what you mean by dog your truck out but on hills you are going to be slow and struggling somewhat. Drive in the right lane and get use to people passing you. Keep your truck out of D 100% of the time while towing. Repeat do not drive in D while towing that trailer. Drive in 4 and on steep or long grades and winding mountain roads you may have to drop down into 3. Keep your rpm’s up. When your truck is doing a lot of gear hunting drop it down to 3 or even 2.

 

It hasn't hurt mine.
I do it all the time when towing.

 

No that is perfectly normal. In fact there may be times when your truck will go to 3rd or even 2nd gear to get up some steep inclines.

3500 lbs should be fine with a couple of caveats. If you're planning on towing at altitudes over 5000' your engine loses power due to the lack of oxygen in the air. At around 5000' is where you start to notice the lack of power. If you ever get to 10,000' or more the difference is huge.

You also have to watch the weight in the truck. Tacoma's have a pretty limited payload and the tongue weight of any trailer eats up a lot of it. When pulling a trailer, you have to really limit how much weight you also put in the truck. Sometimes a driver and 1 or 2 passengers will max you out without anything else in the truck.

 

See:
The Tacoma Towing Bible | Tacoma World

You have a Prerunner does it have the towing package as saw a post about 4-7 pin you posted. Hope so or you are over your limits.
A weight distro hitch (torsion bars) helps and if a lot of sag better rear springs help also. A brake controller will handle bringing the trailer and Tacoma to a stop and also if you get trailer wag from semis.
Too much weight on the rear tends to eat the rear wheel bearings over time if you do lots of towing.

 

3K RPM is my average towing a 3500# off road travel trailer ('21 DCSB TRD Sport Auto). I have driven 12-14 hrs/day at 3K RPM average through TX, OK, CO and WY without issue. As others have stated: transmission temps are more important... stay out of the overdrive gears as the Tq Converter is not locked in 5th and 6th. You're good.

I change all my fluids before the factory intervals just for piece of mind. I change ATF, oil, differential, and transfer case fluids at half of what the manual calls for. Some may say this is a waste of money; I disagree.

 

Only thing I’ll suggest is getting a secondary trans cooler very simple add on to protect your transmission especially in the summer months on those big hills.

 

I sold my Jayco 154BH Baja at 2,600lbs. dry weight after only 3 trips because my 2006 Tacoma Prerunner V6 Automatic just COULD NOT haul it up long grades. (Yuma to San Diego on Hwy 8) I really liked the Jayco and I did not
overload the trailer with a lot of equipment, water, etc. nor my Tacoma. Just me at 230lbs., my petite wife, 100lb. German Shepherd and another smaller dog. I felt like I was abusing my Tacoma. Sold the Trailer and bought a Winnebago Minnie Winnie. I love these ongoing posts and answers about towing..."oh yeah, I pull a 3,500lb. trailer no problem". "No, you don't need an electric brake controller"

 

We had a Toyota Minnie Winnie for years. Wish they were still available.

 

The truck could live in 3rd gear doing 70mph @ 4k + rpms no problem. 4th @ 3k isnt even breaking a sweat.

That stated, weight distribution hitch, trailer brake controller are an absolute MUST, and likely some air bags out back to help keep the truck level.