The Tacoma Towing Bible

I appreciate this towing information. I am two weeks old, as a Tacoma owner and love my 2022. My teardrop is around 2,000 lbs without adding water and other essentials. I would never have thought to keep it in 4th gear and didn’t last weekend going to Ft. Gibson Lake.

 

All hooked up just have to add the sway control bar tomorrow. How’s this WDH setup look.

 

2K is not a significant amount of weight. For me the decision to keep in 4th gear would depend more on the terrain and speed. If the ground is mostly flat and the trans is not down shifting frequently, you could get away with leaving it in OD. If you are in an area with hills and curves then I would definitely keep it in 4th or less depending on the speed limit. With a goal of keeping the RPMs in the 2-4K range without frequent shifting. An example would be driving on a county road with frequent hills, I might choose to cruise in 3rd gear at a steady 4500 rpm, instead of 4th gear that might be at 2500 rpms but it shifts down to 3rd at every other hill. I'm just guessing on the speed vs gear here, but I would not want to try to maintain 45mph if the rpms are at 5K+ in 3rd gear. I would either shift into 4th gear or slowdown enough so that I was not close to the redline.

 

Looks pretty level to me.

 

Picked up my new project this past Monday. 1928 Ford Model A Coupe

 

@maverick491 Thank you so much for putting this together. I am very new to pulling a trailer and this article was very very helpful and useful.
I have a questions about porposing (that undulating motion that you experience when going over bumps with a trailer.)
I had the hitch installed at the dealership. Sway and WD. It was installed on level ground and the truck sits almost perfectly level at its dry weight. As I was pulling the trailer away and getting onto the highway I could feel that motion you described like it was almost pulling on the truck as I went over bumps.

Is that bad for the drive train on the tow vehicle?

Do you think that will go away once the trailer is loaded to its wet weight and is putting more weight on the tongue?
Is that normal for pulling something at it's dry weight? or should I take it back to the dealership to have it adjusted?
If i do take it back to the dealership should it be at it's wet weight? and should I weight all the axels before I do?

Finally, to get just the wet weight of the trailer do I just pull up the to scale and get just the trailer axel on the pad?

Thanks for all the time that you put into this post.

E

 

loaded up a single axle uhaul 5x8
While disconnected

and can’t lift it myself up off the ground (tongue weight)
Is this bad?

For reference I deadlift 400-500
Gonna look for a dolly and see if I need to put more PSI in my back tires Kenda Load D

 

It's quite possible that it could be bad. Your target tongue weight should not be more than 10% of what the trailer axle weighs. How bad it is depends on what your tongue weight rating is on your truck. Most trucks can handle 500lbs on the tongue. If you can't lift it and that is within your strength normally lift 500# then I would consider rearranging the load in the trailer to move some heavier stuff from the front to behind the axle. You do typically want the front of a trailer to be slightly heavier than the back, but not excessively heavier. If you've got a weightlifting set in the trailer, that should probably be loaded centered over the axle, or dido for a lot of books.

 

Pretty much. All the weight is in the front.

not sure if I need a trailer dolly to lift it up, or if re-arranging will make it liftable.

idk if it’s better to counter balance it by moving some of that weight to the back and seesaw it. Like loaded toolbox.
Or like you said maybe focus weight center over the trailer axle.

Probably more like 100/0 balance at this point instead of 60/40


hopefully it doesn’t matter weight left to right.
That or I can move the boxes low and throw light things on top, so they’re spread out more.

 

Definitely reload the trailer. It's better to be loaded 60/40 front to back utilizing all of the floor, verses cubing out the front top to bottom. So, heavy items on the floor, with the most heavy over the axle, and lighter stuff on top of the heavy stuff. Do what you can to load left and right sides equal, just as you don't want all of the weight forward. Neither do you want the weight all on one side, that can cause difficulty with turning issues one direction over the other. The trailer will ride down the road much better loaded correctly, and you're far less likely to be the cause of viral dash cam video...

 

Give me an idea of what settings to use pulling a 4000lb camper using the Tekonsha P3 please!

 

Every vehicle and trailer is a little different so follow the directions below to program your P3. I’d start at about 9 and go up or down as needed, probably up.

To set the programming for your brake controller, pick the boost setting with the picture that most resembles the trailer you’re pulling, (example B1 twin axle trailer or B2) then find a flat open parking lot or deserted street, with nothing in your way, drive forward at about 15 mph and use the brake controller lever on the bottom to apply the brakes on the trailer only, turning up the power level of the brake controller until the brakes are able to slow your vehicle to a stop using just the trailer brakes without locking up the brakes. Then verify your settings again using your truck’s foot pedal from about 15 mph stomping as hard as you can. Making sure that the trailer brakes don’t lock up or pull to either side. If the trailer brakes lock up, dial down the power level until the brakes don’t lock up, and the trailer stops straight with the truck.

 

just towed 2000mi with a trailer
Hope my clutch recovers from this

only had one crap moment where I didn’t rev match a downshift

some slow maneuvering not too much, still really need to get 2LO done to better that

i wonder if 2LO has any other uses

 

Any tow where you don’t end up on a viral dash cam video is a good one.

 

I guess it worked out. Tongue weight seemed a bit high but felt really stable.

as soon as I took everything out it felt way less stable trying to fishtail needed to really reduce speed, despite still a toolbox in front with everything else taken out of the trailer

kinda curious to know the weights but didn’t take the extra time to try sneaking into a truck stop and pay for a weigh in

if that would even work

only other way I’ve seen is portable scales at race car shops usually used for corner balancing

 

I use the scales at truck stops whenever I have a question about my loaded weights. It’s not terribly expensive, and CAT scales have a pretty good app for your phone. I’ve also used commercial weigh stations on the highways when they are closed. Most of the time they will turn the scale readout so it is visible through a window for truckers to see.

 

i cant seem to find the answer. ive got a 04 xtra cab 4x4 3.4 with what seems like a factory hitch and 4flat connecter. i recently pulled a uhaul trailer and had all lights except brakes (truck lights work perfect without trailer). years ago i pulled a similar uhaul trailer and same problem. i vaguely remember that uhaul guy saying i need some kind of special device on the truck to make the brake lights work on the trailer. anybody know anything about it ?

 

figured it out. need the

$55 curt 55379 vehicle-side custom 4-pin trailer wiring harness,fits select toyota pickup,tacoma,black

curt 55379 adapter

 

Just picked up a new project from Baja over the weekend. I was nervous about towing this much weight approximately 350 miles with the GFC, bed drawers, and 33s. Oh, and it was about 100 degrees the whole time. Most of the trip was flat, and that was fine, but the crux was 12 miles of about 5% grade at 108 degrees! She did surprisingly well though, manual trans definitely helped (stock gearing), just kept it in 2nd gear going about 30 mph. In case you're wondering the weight...

Trailer - 2,275 lbs
4Runner - 3,600 lbs
GFC - 275 lbs
Bed drawers + cargo - 150 lbs
Total weight = 6,300 lbs

 

What a fun project! Envious!