4x4 2023 sr5 pulling 6x12 uhaul trailer

I think it has all been covered here already but just in case...
1. MPG's are going in the toilet. Just know that it's short term.
2. Patience is a virtue. You are going to be freeway cholesterol. Stay right and stay slow.
3. Drive like you play chess - think three or four moves a head.
4. Be sure you load the tongue appropriately to avoid sway
5. Do not over load the trailer - the space will accommodate more volume than the weight will allow.
6. Try to load evenly left to right.
8. ECT on. S-Mode and lock out 6th. You may have to lock out 5th too in the hills.
9. Go down hill in the same gears you go up hill. Do not take advantage of gravity to make good time. Your brakes need to be operated with as much attention as the transmission and engine.
10. Pay attention to the details. For example - I skipped 7 and you never noticed.

 

That's all you need to do.

 

When you’re on these forums, you’re going to get a lot of “purists” on here. The lesson you should extract is your truck can handle it just fine.

 

Was a purdy truck ... dat blue.

 

I know. The body and paint was almost perfect too. Probably better than the paint on my new truck

 

VERY GOOD POINT!
this trailer is big and heavy enough, that if improperly loaded, can manhandle the small Tacoma.

 

Stay to the right. Give two or three times the distance you usually do. Folks are gonna jump in front of you and you have to stay calm and back off some more. Use ECT, Sport mode. Use the lower gears for climbs and downhill. 5 or 5,500 rpm up climbs is normal. The first 10 miles you are gonna be thinking about turning around and getting a U Haul truck and towing the tacoma behind. Traffic sucks, try to gas up outside of town at the Mavericks or what ever you have to travel centers. The goal is to get there.

 

I pulled a fully loaded one of those with my 2015 2nd gen off-road to move my son into college. I put heavier stuff towards the front of the trailer and kept it out of OD on the uphill climbs in Western PA, and it did just fine. Would definitely use ECT in a 3rd Gen on the uphills. The Taco did quite well manuevering with that through Pittsburgh city streets!

 

The computer will not let you destroy the transmission when you play around with the gear lockout aka "manual mode" in the automatic transmission. It will just Toyota Beep at you and fix your mistake.

 

Give the Taco a once over before you hit the road. Raise your tire pressure. And like others have said go easy and stay to the right. It will do just fine.

 

U Haul has a surge brake, no controller needed.

 

yep, under towing tips in the manual:

• Vehicles with an automatic transmission: To maintain engine brak- ing efficiency and charging system performance when using engine braking, do not use the transmission in D. If in the S mode, the transmission shift range position must be in 5 or lower.
  

 

Don’t overthink this. Just leave the transmission in D, use ETC of you like. You have much more important things to spend your brain cycles on. Drive conservative, use your mirrors, take wide turns (watch side view mirror on all turns until you get a feel for it), plan for extra braking distance, use your turn signals, and don’t drive into tight spaces that require tight maneuvering. If you find your self in a jam, have someone spot you. Backing up a trailer takes practice.

 

u-haul trailers are hydraulic surge brakes. nothing they rent out has the connection for a brake controller.

so the recommendation is a waste of money for this usage.

 

Remember now...

 

Plan your gas stops. I pulled the same trailer loaded 250 miles. You'll wish you had a larger gas tank but other than that ECT and a mix of S5 and S4 on steep grades and you'll be good.

 

While not quite as heavy at 1,240lbs empty, I had this trailer overloaded several times moving last year up and over the mountain.



I used ECT mode and to get up and over the mountain I kept it in S3, which for those that don't know limits it in 3rd gear. This particular trailer does not have the surge brakes, but never did I feel un-easy. I used my head and let the engine do the braking for me on the mountain.

 

it's a joke, but i had to do exactly that.

home depot had a rental rep that absolutely refused to allow me to tow this 1,000 pound trailer with the tacoma. that's my dad's hastily borrowed f-150



when i went to return it the next day i had 5 full pages of documentation printed off ready to speak to whoever i had to up to the corporate level that my tacoma could entirely pull it. i start talking to a different guy, and he just laughs, says "yeah, he's an idiot"...

 

Use ECT and you’ll be just peachy. I used that same model of trailer to move to a city two hours away about a month and a half ago and it went very smoothly (shoutout to my gf for the moving help).

 

Uhaul trailers dont have electric brakes, the large trailers like this have surge brakes which have a delay but defiantly work, so no need for a brake controller.
I would recommend trying out the surge brakes before you load up the trailer so you get a feel for how they work.