Towing with the Turbo 4 Cylinder

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I wanted to say how pleased I was with this truck's towing ability. I have a non-Hybrid, DCLB 4x4 SR5, and I've towed a few Uhaul trailers packed full when I was moving, and my Kubota tractor on a flatbed trailer also, and its been a very solid performer. I'm not expecting full size truck towing capability, but this weekend I needed to rent a dump trailer and HD would not let me get a tandem axle trailer with trailer brakes because I had a "half ton" truck, but was more than happy to rent me the single axle dump trailer with NO trailer brakes.
I don't have scales at my house (LOL), so I loaded the trailer with dirt from an excavation project I'm working at my place, and when it looked like the trailer was close to its limit, I got worried about the Taco since the rear end squat on the truck was more than I was expecting. Not terrible, just more than I had thought would happen vs prior towing experiences with the other trailers.
But this truck handled the load beautifully. I never worried about power, stability or braking power (even without trailer brakes). If I did this every day for a business, I'd have a 3/4 ton diesel, but for my little one day weekend project, it worked perfectly! Very impressed with this truck the more I use it.

 

This truck tows WAY better than any of my 3rd gen’s. Power, suspension, shifting, it tows perfectly straight even on our shitty ass Washington State west side roads.
Extremely happy.

Boat/trailer ~4000 lbs

 

Towed our little Airstream for the first time with the new Tacoma. Definitely tows than the 3rd gen v6 that I previously had. But you can definitely still feel it. I previously had a 5.0 liter F150 and couldn’t even tell I was pulling anything behind it which was nice. But, it was a Ford and had so many little issues and I got tired of dealing with them so I got rid of it and now just use the Tacoma for all my pulling

 

I have a 3400 lb (dry) hard sided popup that likely weighs 3800 after adding in all our gear, food, etc. for an extended camping tour. I towed a larger one with a 2nd gen Tacoma TRD Sport and it had no issues towing the load, which for our prior camper was 4000+ lbs for sure (see picture). We graduated from that Taco to a 2015 F150 Super Crew 2.7L Ecoboost short bed and frankly I really loved that combo. Never even felt like the trailer was there with that drivetrain, and the back seat area felt large enough to hold half the state of Idaho. However, the engine died after 107K miles, after I'd replaced both turbos to the tune of $8K. I changed the oil every 5K miles but that didn't help. Went out and bought my '24 Yoda and I'm not looking back. Long story longer, I'm looking forward to hauling our TrailManor 2720 many thousands of miles with my 2014 Taco. I am not at all worried that it won't handle the load. With the low end torque and the way that the tranny handles the shifting I think it's going to do great. I'll report back after our trip to the Adirondacks and Thousand Islands this summer, where we'll put 3K+ miles on the truck. Not worried about the gas tank too much as we tend to stop and stretch our legs every 3 hours or so anyway.

EDIT: I am curious to see what the gas mileage will be. I averaged 14-16 mpg when hauling like you see in the pic below.

 

Update: taking care of aging parents the past two months changed our summer travels. Will update on long road trips trailering our camper at a future date.

 

Nice rig! I have 1/2 that boat and it tows way better than a Jeep Wrangler U JL

 

I've towed our 5400pd camper setup twice now and here in CO going up long steep grades at elevation the Hybrid just does ok. I have received a message saying reducing power for temp both times towing. The engine temp wasn't even 1/3 of the way between the middle where it always is and the red at the top. After I got the message this time I slowed down to 55-58 from 65 MPH which is the speed limit and it seems to like that better, I don't but oh well.

 

Probably it was due to transmission temp elevation rather than engine temp elevation?

Though technically the 4th gen can tow 6500ish max, if I needed to tow north of 4-5000lbs on a regular basis in mountains, I'd probably opt for a larger truck in large part due to transmission temps.

 

Well I just got this truck and I like it so not doing that, just read in another thread to look into a trans cooler, I'll see what that looks like.

 

Good idea, if available. Possible you cooked your transmission fluid also if you hit the temp needed to trigger the warning light, though perhaps you got a warning at a temp lower than critical. I don't know the alert algorithm. Also, the 4th gen now has a transmission temp gauge available on the dash. If yours isn't currently visible, you might want to look through the settings and keep it visible at least when towing. Previous gens required an OBD adapter and aftermarket device to extract the trans temps.

 

I'm going to do this once I find some aux lights for my dash, I don't have the OEM aux switches.: 2024 Tacoma transmission cooler install

I didn't trigger the light just the reduced power message.

 

I think I'd go with another 2.7 F-150 for towing or at least some half ton over the Tacoma. You got 10 years and 100k miles out of it. I want a 4G myself albeit an Xtracab but have no intentions of towing with it. I look at these trailers and toys people tow around, and the lifestyle that goes with it. You all are in the money to burn category, why not spend less on a half ton that will tow with ease compared to the 2.4t Tacoma? The STX with the towing package is all that's needed anything after 2024 has the 36 gallon tank and a 14" screen you don't need an Offroad to getca rear locker. Factor in the wonky issues with Trailer Blind Spot Monitoring, and the truck thinking there's a trailer attached when there isn't a truck with out any of those issues seems like the better option to me. Now if Toyota offered a ttV6 in the Tacoma with the hybrids axels and brakes that would be a different story.

 

If I only got 100k miles out of anything made after 1990 I'd never buy that vehicle again. Those days are long over.

 

My Tacoma was cheaper than any F150 STX with tow package, and I don't have to worry about the problems with Ford's 10 speed auto.

For all the nit-picking you do on the Taco, I'd think you would be aware of Ford's issues before recommending one.

 

I’ll be towing for the first time this weekend. It won’t be much, maybe 1700 lbs at the most, of just a 5x8 utility trailer with a KingQuad 750, but 250 miles one way. Looking forward to see how it does and what the MPGs will be. Hoping for upper teens.