4x2 Base Truck

I originally bought this camper around the 3500 pound tow rating on my 04 taco with the 2.7L, but after pulling it home from the dealer, I kind of decided that while camping I wanted to be able to still run the air in the truck, and still be able to get out of my own way. So I bought the new truck. I have also always been of the mindset that when you run up close to the tow rating is when bad things happen. (Not in the occasional tow like 007's trip with the U-haul, but with a camper you are kind of towing all the time)

I have also just recently pulled my father's 24' enclosed car hauler empty which is also about 3500 pounds that netted me about 11.5 MPG. It is longer and slightly wider than the camper, but not quite as tall by itself and then there is also no air unit on the roof of the car hauler. Also, with my 04 Taco, I pulled an enclosed 6' x 12' motorcycle trailer with two bikes in it from South Jersey to Upstate NY and back, (about 3200 pounds) and hardly knew it was there, and still got about 15 MPG. (again much less frontal area) Best I can figure is that mostly the milage is a function of frontal surface area and drag.

I remember I was looking at a Santa-Fe some years back, and that listed the tow rating at 1500 pounds "unless you are pulling a boat or pop-up camper" then the tow rating was 2000 pounds. It actually said that in the brochure. I guess atleast Hyundai agrees with me about the drag.

I dunno just rambling.

 

Maverick:
Yeah, i know i have the ability to pull 6500lbs, but i would not want to do it more than a few times. I think the same way you do, good things can't come from pulling your trucks max load all the time. I just assumed our truck would handle 3500 lbs witha little more grace. aside from the poor mileage, how did the truck feel with that size load behind it? any problems accelerating, braking etc....?

 

The truck handles, it beautifully. I have been pulling campers of varrying sizes for many years now. With this truck and trailer combination it is the first time that I have actually enjoyed the trip to the campgrounds as much as the camping.

I really don't even notice the trailer is back there unless I look in the mirrors. It stops confidently, I never feel like I am getting pushed by the trailer when trying to stop, now the trailer has brakes, and I have a really good brake controller in the truck, but I took my father's boat to the shore (no brakes on that trailer) and while it didn't stop as quickly as the camper does, I was not nervous about my ability to stop that either. Plenty of power for merging and or passing, and asside from requiring me to drop it down to fifth to maintain speed on a grade, (frontal area again I think) it really is as comfortable to drive as when I am running solo. Suffice it to say she's plenty gracefull pulling the trailer, it just makes her thirsty.

 

Chevys; I agree with you on the ranger, I have know two people who have rolled them (one of them my future wife) and walked away and a few other people who have put over 200K on theirs with only basic maintenance. The only thing there are more Tacos that make it that far than there are Rangers. I think you should shop for your truck online then go and talk to fleet sales manager, just print out exactly what you want and tell them what your willing to pay, it will end up being more than a Ranger though.

By the way it's nice to see a fellow Mustang owner here, the Mustang/Taco combo is great. What year is your Mustang? Have you done any mods? and whats you quarter mile?

 

Maverick:
glad to hear the v6 handles a load like that with no problem. I'm planning on a boat in the future and plan on towing it alot

 

My mustang is an 03 Mach 1. Ran it bone stock down to the paper air filter with about 1500 miles on it and it went 13.4@105. Im sure I left a little on the table because I know Im not the best driver out there and have little experience with drag racing. Its not stock anymore so I really dont know what it would run. I just enjoy driving them and there is no way to describe the feeling of the torque you feel with these cars. Its really a toy for me but I dearly love these kinds of cars. What year mustang do you have by the way?

Not to hijack this thread I checked on some enclosed 6x12 trailers today and with what weight I will put in them Im looking right at 3200 lbs towed. I know thats getting close to the max but the distances towed wont be too far. I have towed that weight with chevy s10s with the 4.3 and the motors are stout on those trucks. Problem is the brakes and the chassis. You run out of truck before your run out of motor. My biggest worry is the tacomas brakes. I have read a lot of complaints that they feel spongy even when empty. That leads me to considering a trailer with brakes on it but they cost quite a bit more.

 

I don't have the spongy brake problem. I have no complaints about my brakes - just my tires (the Dunlop AT/20s stink).

 

Thanks for that info 007 tacoma. I have not thought about this but I wonder if the brakes are smaller on the base trucks than say the double cab v6 models? Or, are they all the same? This is one area that I have not investigated for some reason and it just popped into my mind. If the brakes are the same then they should be ok assuming you dont get that spongy feeling that some have described.

To be honest and I have towed quite a bit of stuff over the years Im getting close to the point of needing trailer brakes no matter what your pulling it with.
If you really have to get something stopped in a hurry there is a world of difference with trailer brakes. You just cant haul down this kind of weight quickly with a smaller truck.

007 tacoma, did that uhaul trailer have trailer brakes on it?

 

It did have brakes that were engaged hydraulically by a compression lever in the tongue of the trailer.

 

I would not consider you for hijacking the thread, considering I was rambling about trailers for several posts a day or two ago on this thread. To answer your questions...

Brakes are brakes in these trucks (with the possible exception of x-runner which I think gets 4 wheel disc), the 4x2 5 lug has the same brakes as the 4x4 and pre-runner six lug trucks. Where the difference comes in is in the factory towing package, which is only available on v6 access cab and double cab 4x4s and pre-runners. Can you put a receiver, oil cooler, trans cooler(auto trans) bigger alternator and battery, and a seven pin connector on a 4x2 base truck? Sure, but you may want to factor that into your price calculations.

DISCLAIMER I do not advocate towing without trailer brakes.

Now on to the truck's capabilities. I had the 2.7 in my 04 tacoma, and as mentioned in the previous posts I towed lasds similar to what you are describing with no problems. The 2.7 will handle a 3200 pound 6x12, and will be able to stop it, and I am fairly certain that if you only tow shorter distances and or in-frequently you will be quite content with the truck's performance. I towed both the 6x12 motorcycle trailer and boat mentioned in previous posts with my 04 (without a brake controller) and never felt concerned about the trucks ability to do so or it's ability to stop.

I bought the new truck when we bought our camper because that is going to be towed regularly, and over long distances (Maine planned for next year and The Grand Canyon for the year after that), and I did not want to run the truck over those kind of distances sitting right at or slightly over the tow rating. Well that, and I really wanted some of the features of the new truck and had to have the speedway blue, but please don't tell my better half about those reasons.

About the trailer brakes though. You may want to consider the extra money for the trailer with brakes as an insurance policy. Because the first accident you don't have because you were able to stop that much faster kind of pays for the brakes.

 

They are called surge brakes.

 

Maverick: Do the trucks with the tow package have just one oil cooler or does the tow package include a secondary oil cooler that the non-tow package trucks dont have? For some reason i thought all the V6's had oil coolers and the tow package just added one? i may be wrong but i was just curious, and i'm too lazy to go look it up, espcially if you know off the top of your head.

I know my buddy that just bought the Tundra said that his transmission is not only cooled, but in the winter it is heated.... i just thought that was pretty cool.

 

A heated transmission????? This sounds like dealer lies to me. I just researched it and there is a trans cooler, and a tow/haul mode, and a trans temp gauge. Nothing about a trans heater.

The Tacoma brochure and website both say that the tow package gives you a "supplimental" oil cooler. To me supplimental means in addition to so I suspect that on the tow package trucks there are two coolers, but I just went out and quickly looked at mine, and I couldn't see it, so when it stops raining I'll have to crawl under there and look.

 

As far as the transmission goes it could easily be a lie, i dont know why you would need to heat a transmission but whatever, i didn't buy it.

yeah, i think "supplimental" is the word that made me think there are two oil coolers. My old Beamer had an oil cooling unit, which caused me all kinds of problems when the o-ring leaked and i had to try to find another one. Seems like a truck the size of ours towing 6500 should really have 2 coolers. I feel sure there is a second one somewhere or they couldn't really use the term "supplimental"

 

2007 Taco front DISK brakes:
Regular cab 4x2 - 10.83"
Regular cab PreRunner/4x4 - 12.56"

Access cab 4x2 - 10.83"
Access cab PreRunner/4x4 - 12.56"
Access cab X-runner - 10.83"

Double cab short bed PreRunner/4x4 - 12.56"
Double cab long bed PreRunner/4x4 - 12.56"

2007 Taco rear DRUM brakes - 10"

 

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For the trans, the initial cooler is the in tank (lower rad tank) cooler that is submerged in coolant that has passed through the tubes and has given up some heat. Coolant at lower tank can be as low as the outside temp; -20º if it is that cold out, or in hot weather just a few degrees below the top tank temp. The supplemental cooler is in front of the rad/condenser and is in plain view if one opens the hood. The ENGINE oil cooler is on the older 3.4 on driver side of block, on 4.0 it is part of the filter housing. Coolant circulates in the aluminum housing as oil circulates in the same housing but in ajacent cavities. The coolant asorbs some heat from the oil, and in winter the water can actually heat the oil a little; the main objective being the oil and coolant should be close to the same temp, not coolant 195º and oil 275º. Back to trans cooler/heater, I do remember the Tundra specs touting the trans heater, I don't know the exact method, but many older Oldsmobiles and some years of 70's to mid 80's GM pickups would have the return heater hose routed to the return (cold) side of the rad tank (lower on downflow rads, right on most crossflow rads). This arrangment would dump the return from heater core coolant on the in tank cooler adding some heat to the ATF in cold weather, when weather was warm and T-stat open the normal cooled coolant would cool the ATF, of at least keep in close or a little lower than coolant temp. Some vehicles still use a small coolant hose, usually an additional bypass hose or bleed line to the botton tank instead of running it to waterpump to achieve the same. So in some cases the engine ATF cooler is like the engine oil cooler, it strives to keep AFT fluid close to coolant, then it runs through the aux cooler to drop a little more heat. One argument I always see is the question of to bypass in tank ATF cooler for an aux, or run through both, well, unless the in tank is damaged it is best to use both as the in tank in much more efficient being a water to oil type versus air to oil, so as small as it is it cools better than a large aux cooler. Another argument some say is that the intank cooler is needed to keep fluid warm in winter, but if the tank is like a lot of them it has no line supplying warm coolant to lower tank. In vehicle like this the coolant in the lower tank in very cold weather is about the same temp as the outside air, so that does not help warm the fluid. In cold weather the t-stat opens and dumps some 200º coolant in the top tank, but being so cold the coolant has reached the same temp as the outside air when the coolant is prob only 10-20% through the tubes, so when it is -20º the coolant in the bottom tank is also -20º. I have always been supprised that some people think the water in the lowere tank will be hot, the rad is much to efficient for that. Oh well, enough rambling.......

 

I appoligize for the above and stand corrected.

Panama Red, thank you for finding and posting this and correcting the in-correct information I had initially responded with. In light of this new information.

Chevys, not only do I not advocate towing a trailer without brakes, but I think in a 4x2 five lug truck it is going to be required for safe stoping. Again see the referenced last paragraph of my previous post below.

 

Mines a 96 GT with full custom exhaust, rear end gears, CAI, and a few other things. I know what you mean about feeling the torque, it's amazing. My Mustang is my toy as well, I also have a 4.6DOHC motor that I will hopefully have the money to work on soon (expecting to get around 500HP) just not sure what car I want to put it in. I would love to put it in a classic Mustang or a 29-32 Ford.

 

Just drop that badboy in your Taco. You can make anything fit if you have a big enough hammer

 

I feel your pain Chevys. Although I am a strong Toyota advocate, I have to agree that their salesman are dicks and don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. If you havn't already tried, I suggest doing some on-line shopping. You'll be able to better find a dealer willing to accomadate you without doing all the travelling and you won't have that urge to punch anyone in the face.
Best of luck. If you can find the Tacoma you're looking for, I know you'll be very happy with it.