First time towing with Tacoma

I towed a utility trailer that weighed 1500lbs through the mountain passes in excess of 5000 feet elevation. As stated, first time towing with Tacoma. Would it be considered normal to pull the passes in 4th gear and sometimes in 3rd gear at times around 3800-4000 rpms? It had plenty of power, just not used to have to run the rpm's that high. Thanks

 

Hi, yes. Expect to rev it out to make the needed power. Truck can handle the revs.

 

Yes. Were you in S4 with ECT on?

 

Yeah this. Please don't tow in either overdrive.

 

Yes Sir, I was in S4 and when necessary bumped it down to S3. It performed better when I was in S mode and was able to control the shifting when needed as apposed to leaving it in drive. I was not in ECT mode.

 

Next time use S4 and ECT. It probably won’t make a ton of difference but you won’t really need to shift manually. It’ll hold 3rd gear longer when needed.

You did everything right. The powerband is 3500-4200 rpm.

And FYI, S mode drops all of the learning and programming. It’s the mode you want for towing.

 

Yes, let that oversquare engine sing.

 

I tow in S5 and ECT all the time. It's no issue as the tranny will drop gears to maintain speed. Temps are a non issue as the Tacoma will not pull anything in S5 up a hill and downshifts out to a lower gear. Resulting temps are all within acceptable ranges.

Also the manual says nothing about towing in anything other than to avoid 6th.

 

I towed through WV up 7, 8, and 10% grades for hours. My truck ran 5200 RPM to maintain highway speeds for quite sometime to the point of wondering how long it could do that before it popped. Turns out it will spin as fast as it needs to for as long as it needs. 3800 RPM is barely breaking a sweat for the 3.5.

 

Never mind, I was wrong.

 

It will rev as needed, but the candle that burns the brightest also burns the quickest. I forget the equation, but bearing load goes up exponentially with rpms. How exponentially remains a question without the equation, but suffice it to say it graphs as a curve and not linearly. The higher the revs the steeper the curve. Possibly a better illustration for your mind's eye...do you remember those pictures taken over time illustrating the effects of meth addiction on people? Substitute rpms. Your engine has only so many revolutions in its lifetime.

Still, rev the shit out of it and tow that thang. They will make more...

 

Look, peak Torque is made at 4600 RPM, peak HP is made at 6000 RPM. It will run like a scalded dog between those numbers, let it.

 

This I agree 100% with. 3.5 pulls well above 3500 rpm.

 

Towed an open trailer with a single ATV on it up some hills and it revved out just like that. I don't think the truck minds it. You should be good.

 

I wouldn’t totally rely on that assumption for temps. I’ve pulled a TT on some steep grades in S4 and dropping to S3 and had temps flare to 225+. Maybe it was the 4K pounds vs 1500 pounds. But you can definitely get the temps over 200.

 

I’ll second what the others are saying here. I’ve towed our ATVs and side-by-side through the mountains in TN and WV using S4 and ECT and it did just fine. On the longer steeper grades I would drop it to S3 and it had no issues maintaining speed. Just let it rev and do it’s thing.

 

The context of that post was in regards to driving in OD and the usual chorus of temps heating up while doing so. This truck will not pull a load up a hill in OD anyways so it's kind of a moot point anyways.

Highest temps I have ever recorded was in S3 anyways. And yes for sure, you can zoom right past 200 pretty easily.

 

I tow in s4/5 (depends on speed limit, if its over 70mph I use s5) ECT on. 3k lbs, highest trans temp I saw was 197.6f and that was leaving a light. I'm also at sea level, and it was roughly 70f.

 

The point you're missing is to avoid multiple transmission shifts. It is far, far better on the engine and transmission to already be in a lower gear BEFORE the truck starts to struggle and downshift. Remember, just because you have an automatic doesn't mean you have to wait for the transmission to choose the best gear. The vehicle is reactive. It only changes gears AFTER the engine starts to strain. This causes overheating of both the engine and transmission. If you are proactive and put the truck in the best gear to get up an incline BEFORE it starts to strain everything works better.

 

Im not missing anything. I monitor my temps, I monitor my speed and gear. I have 58 k miles on my truck, I have a good idea on how it works and what it likes. Thanks for the info.