Confirming trailer weight

In the market for a rv . 2015 Tacoma Prerunner w/tow package. My max trailer weight is 6500lbs? Please correct if I’m wrong. Thanks.

 

Yes your tow capacity is 6500lbs give or take a few lbs. The thing is you want to stay as far below that weight as possible. Also you want to look at loaded weight not dry weight of the trailer. Add about 750lbs onto the dry weight of the trailer to determine approximate tow weight. Stay below 5000 lbs and preferably below 4500 or even 4000lbs .The heavier the trailer the more problematic and stressful towing is.

 

Look at the door jamb sticker to find your body code or frame code. It will be something like GRNxyz

Then you can google that. Or, your owners manual has a full list of towing specs by code..

 

You’ll probably hit tongue weight and GVWR before max towable weight.


Look up your payload on your door sticker. Subtract yourself and others, gear, water, etc. and what’s left won’t be much.

 

Yeah. I’ll be about 4500lbs loaded. I didn’t want to exceed 5k. Will probably add Firestone airbags too.

 

There is a sticker on the driver's door jamb that states; "The combined weight of passengers and cargo should not exceed XXXX lbs", that is your payload. This includes the tongue weight of a trailer. That is the real limit on how much you can tow. That number varies depending on the truck, but most 4X4 DC Tacoma's will be 900-1200 lbs of payload. A Pre-Runner will have 100ish lbs more payload.

Figure 13% of loaded trailer weight for tongue weight. A 6500 lb trailer has 845 lbs tongue weight. A 4500 lb trailer has 585 lbs. Subtract tongue weight from your trucks payload and that is how much weight you can have in the truck. If it's just you in the truck and one more adult 4500 lbs is probably a reasonable max. But if you have kids you have to consider their weight too. And they grow. My son weighed 140 lbs in 7th grade, 240 lbs in 10th grade.

The 6500 lb tow rating assumes nothing in the cab of the truck except a 150 lb driver on level ground and at sea level. The more weight you have in the cab and the bed of the truck reduces how much weight you can pull. If you have 4 large 250 lb men in the cab of your truck you may already be overweight and can't tow anything.

Larger tires reduce engine power. If you're larger than stock size, you need to consider that too. Since your truck has been modified it would be a good idea to actually weigh the truck then subtract that weight from the GVWR to determine your true payload. It will be somewhat less than what is on the sticker

Most gasoline engines lose 3% of their power for every 1000' of elevation above sea level because there is less O2 in the air. If you tow in South Texas where you live this won't be a factor. If you ever tow at 5000' or more there is enough difference to notice. Get into the Rockies at 10,000' or more and the difference is significant.