Data Point: Towed 5,900lb Camper 7,600 Miles to Alaska

I had quite the drive ahead of me. I knew I wanted to tow a camper trailer behind the truck, but I didn't know just how much was reasonable to pull. I had read a lot of the Tow Bible and spent long hours researching the towing capability of a Tacoma. My prior towing experience was fairly minimal with about 3,000 miles with various utility trailers, never a camper with the Taco. Online I found so many different viewpoints, so I decided to get the biggest trailer I thought was reasonable and figure it out on the road.

Bottom line is that the truck had very few problems lugging the camper from the East Coast to California and then Alaska and it performed above expectations. Biggest limiter was speed on the hills, caused by torque output and limited by transmission temperatures.

Truck: 2020 TRD Off-Road
6,400lb tow capacity
All stock

Trailer: 2024 Jayco 210QB
Empty Weight 4,300lb
GVWR 6,000lb
26' with 500lb tongue weight

Numbers
7,640 total miles
11.6 average mpg
58 average mph
190 average transmission oil temp (pan)
78 degrees fahrenheit average temp during the drive (lower 48 states)
A lot spent on gas

Necessary Add-Ons
TowPro Liberty Brake Controller
Curt Weight Distribution Hitch from Amazon
VeePeak OBD Bluetooth Reader + OBD Fusion Toyota Add-on App

My lessons learned: S4/manual gear shifting is a must. Energy state is very important. High power input/torque requests at low RPM would heat the torque converter rapidly, especially in flat, windy conditions. I often found myself downshifting to S3 for hills (or S2 is very slow). Torque converter temp would inevitably rise, but the lower gear allows for maintaining a higher speed. Speed is key to keeping transmission temperatures down. Hottest I saw the pan temp get was on a steep residential hill with speed bumps where I let myself get slow and hung on the engine at 10mph. The truck climbed multiple 11,000 foot passes on I-70 in 80 degrees at the base with no issues other than just a pretty warm transmission. I wouldn't want to tow that heavy through mountains without the temperature monitors, but normal flatland is just fine. I went into S5 frequently during downhill runs which prevents the engine braking and lets you use gravity. If you just accept getting passed by almost everybody it makes the few times you get to pass the 80k lb tractor trailer exciting. Wind is a killer of performance, and towing at night/low wind I could see up to 15mpg through rolling hills. I did not notice a massive difference between ECT PWR and normal mode but I just kept it on. Brake controllers are a legal must, the Liberty worked fine for me. I had squirrely problems each time I'd used a utility trailer, but the Curt hitch (350 on Amazon) locked the camper onto the back of my truck and I never had a single sway issue, even when the semis sonic-boomed past me.

My conclusions: A tow-package equipped Tacoma is a capable towing machine within specifications. I monitored my temperatures and performance fairly closely and I was consistently impressed with the reliability of the truck. A buddy of mine did the same drive with a similar trailer and an F-250, and while he didn't have to hawk the temperatures and slow roll as much as I did, he saw 5-6 mpg doing about 70mph and 11 doing 50. When I pushed it up to 70, the mpg would drop to 9. A slower driving pace paired with energy management (slow uphill, fast downhill) worked well for me. Hats off to Toyota. These are all my opinions, I'm sure there are differing ones, and I probably just regurgitated advice that was written throughout the Tow Bible. However, I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to make this trip with a spacious camper. My taco even got high-fived by a bear for making the trip. Please read and consider all opinions before towing, and as always, adventure safely!

 

Right on.
I tow this all over the US, nothing as big as your trailer, but it has all the comforts of home. Nice truck and trailer you got there, must have been a blast.

 

Pretty nice adventure. Sounds like the truck/trailer worked out well. What are your plans for the truck from here? Was it bought for long term ownership? The trip speaks highly for the newer truck debate.

I liked the mpg analysis/breakdown. Especially side by side with a f250, interesting how they compare. IMO you can never have enough numbers. If you feel so inclined and wouldnt mind sharing a cost per mile breakdown that would be awsome

My son is presently doing a Ca., Nevada, utah, Wyoming and probably a few more random states run. He recently has gone thru 91 Toyota (3.0!!! Ahhhhh!!!) RV. It was a friends in clean and relatively tight condition with only >20k on the clock. I can only imagine his cost per mile so far as he did invest considerable $$$ on prepping it and upgrades pre trip. It is working out so far.

Keep us posted on any truck related future health issues, if any. A good shake down on how the newer gens do.

 

I had a 1985 F250 too. I could get 8 MPG down hill, with a tail wind, towing nothing nor any payload. That was coasting with the engine turned off. Such was the wonderful 460 ci POS.

 

Now with my '16 TRD Off Road I tow 2500-2800lbs and still maintain an average 17-18mpg.

 

Welcome to TW..

 

Hats off to ya brother. I have some big balls but definitely not as big as yours. How was Alaska I was there in 2018 for 3 weeks and fell in love with the place. Glad everything went well for you

 

For the VeePeak OBD Bluetooth Reader, did you get the regular BLE, or the BLE+ reader? The BLE+ seems to have more features, but I don’t know if they are important for towing.

 

1 Limited: My plans are to keep the truck around for a while. A new truck is just too expensive. If you're interested I can post more when I do more work on the truck and watch the health long term. I'm sure it has a few negative implications but I too am curious based on transmission specifically. Cost per mile was roughly 34.4 cents, but that depended on local gas prices. I think it ended up costing me just north of 2.5 grand (ouch) but my F-250 buddy fired off 3 grand (plus the 15k 150-250 upgrade). He definitely enjoyed less stressful towing, for a cost. He also could make better time but at the massive cost of fuel, I could not drive nearly as fast even if I wanted to.

HondaGM: Thank you!

Vidman: Cheers man, AK is awesome. Been getting really into the fishing up here, cooked up some fresh caught salmon in the camper. Plenty to go around.

cvcv: I got the BLE+ but the important thing was the Toyota add on. I'm actually not sure if the + is necessary, but I did pay the extra couple bucks (I believe 15?) for the codes specific to the transmission which is really what I cared about.

 

Towing is a rabbit hole like everything else. I like the Winnebago Minnie travel trailers. Roughly 4k lbs empty. A trans cooler for the Tacoma would definitely help, but those new Duramax 2500's and F250's would provide a much more enjoyable tow experience.

 

Finally real world experience. Not just “I would never tow that or more than a marshmallow in a balsa wood trailer downhilll”. Your experience is very similar to mine towing over the mtn passes in ID and MT. And mileage is about the same. I am about 4,900 lbs and agree with everything you said about your experience and the Tacoma. Enjoy your next adventure! I am heading to Glacier park next week.

 

Interesting how badly your buddy’s truck did. My Ram 3500 on the same trip towing a heavier trailer got far better fuel economy while going the posted speed limit. I’ve towed a lot of miles with Tacomas, including to and from Alaska, and the capability of a full size truck is nice to have. Makes the drive far easier when the truck can handle the trailer regardless of road or weather conditions.

 

Very nice write up, good information. Tacos are actually very capable trucks. I’ve towed a lot of different things with mine no problems. Love my Taco. But for me personally towing that size trailer and that much weight on an extremely long trip like yours, I’d much rather do it with a full size truck like an F250 or something. When I’m towing I’m not really concerned with the mpg. What ever you tow no mather what truck you know for a fact your mpg is going to be crap, it’s just a part of towing. Some more crappy than others but still all crappy.
Great first hand information. Thanks for sharing.