First time towing with Tacoma

Me too. Wifey might be trying to slip something in the supper or tweak my gear to fail and cause injury.

 

My auto correct channeled its inner grandpa there I guess.

 

How are you folks getting accurate temperature readings. Do you have an additional gauge? My factory gauges do not show analog values.

 

I use a bluetooth reader and OBD fusion to display the pan and converter temps on my smartphone.

 

OBDFusion.

 

Scan Gauge II for me. Gets both available trans temps if you wish.

 

OBD fusion. I towed our +/- 4000 lb trailer all through the Cascades in S5 ECT, only breaking 200F on the LONG 3rd gear ascents. The truck rarely drops to 5th-only on the descents coupled with a speed of 55 or less. Any faster and it grabs 4th.

 

Never trailered at 5k ft, most at 2k, but this sounds pretty normal. I've pulled my 5x10 aluminum utility trailer loaded up using mostly S5. Tried ECT with this load...really didn't need it. My truck just sucked more gas...seemed S5 was perfect. I trailer my 2k lb boat that i've had to use S4 on steep grades. No problem, most i've seen is about 3k rpm to maintain the 45-50 mph speed limit on these roads here.

 

Id like to fully understand what s mode does and what ect does...ive read that ect lets the gear be held for 500 rpms more ...ans that s mode it will.not be learning anything ? It can prevsnt the upper gears and u can pick which gear u want manually etc etc but what does using them both at the same time do??? Would using s mode and ect still let it go 500rpms higher if I let s mode shift up itself?
I sometimes have ect and s mode on at the same time and when I take ect off I notice.no difference...maybe I need to pay attention more and do some tests ....all I know is in d mode the truck sucks. I cNt take it for more then 2 miles before I'm pushing ect. I did notoced at idle I'm usually at 500rpms and read it should be 700-800 for automatics...maybe clearing the lv and at would let the rpms get higher in every mode and theredore d mode woulsnt suck so bad??I'm not sure but im pretty sure even in d or s moxe my idle is at 500. Every once in While ahen I come to a stop light my trucks shakes bc the rpm is low . ive debated if maybe if I get the lv and at cleared and only.drove in d mode for a few thousand miles it would get better? Question is does the transmission shift according to rpms ? Or speed? Or both?? In d it usually feels.like its bogging and shuddering .any experiencd or advice is appreciated

 

RTFM

 

This is a good towing resource thread. I tow ~3000 lb boat in S5, typically, but will get a lot of TC unlocking/relocking and the occasional drop into fourth going up gentle grades. I have begun to preemptively shift into S4 when a downshift is likely and, when a headwind or steady incline is in play, just keep it in S4 despite the rev whine. I almost never use ECT except when accelerating from a stop.

 

Last month I towed this trailer for the first time. (I built this trailer for a lifted Jeep TJ that typically doesn't go over 70 mph.)

I drove through Illinois, Iowa, and across South Dakota where I-90 is 80 mph. Like my Jeep, although a few more miles, I felt like all I did was stop for gas for a trailer that's 1100#s. It has plenty of power and it hardly felt like the trailer was back there, just that the fuel economy was low (although my Tacoma's mpg is pretty low anyway). Still, I can't imagine towing even a small travel trailer? It mostly ran in 4th gear everywhere, and 3rd on hills. Running in 3rd at high speed does seem to be a bit tiresome for me and the Tacoma. Even if I tried to run in 5th gear it wasn't going to happen unless going down hill.

Lowest mpg was driving westbound at 70 mph through Iowa with a 30 mph wind from the southwest (11.7 mpg).

 

ECT and S4 here, 3800 lbs trailer plus full truck (generator, fuel, supplies). I tow out to the desert.

S5 can be used in slight downhill grades or fully level. Here in CA the speed limit is 55mph for towing so that means that S5 will "hunt" a lot due to lack of torque. I use a SGII to monitor temps and 200°+ is the norm no matter what gear, grade, RPM.

MPG is routinely crap. Expect 11-13 MPG no matter what.

 

Driving around the midwest, doing just 55 mph would get a person run off the road. Semis run the slowest at typically 65-70 mph. (Nice trailer, btw!)

 

What does rtfm stand for?? I'm not up to date on internet lingo

 

"Read The F**King Manual".

Essentially a rude dismissal of your question.

 

Ahhh I see. Yeah thats pretty rude...ive looked and I dont see anything as technical as what ik trying to find out .if its there I would appreciate someone to point it out if they know of it

 

Incorrect. It means Read The Fabulous Manual. Normally I add that part because most people’s minds are completely in the gutter like yours.

The manual does state the function of both features and is pretty clear about. It has also been discussed ad nauseum here since 2015. There are literally 100’s of threads on the subject.

But apparently nobody bothers to do any research anymore. Or read the fabulous manual.

 

Well maybe I havent been here since 2015 and I'm still getting used to the forum? Maybe I saw some people talking about something that I'm curious about and figured its a forum about the very trucks we drivewhat else is a forum used for other then to learn from each other about our trucks ...i have looked in the manual that came with my truck and i am sure that I may of missed something just like anyone else does here or there but I have also tried searching online and tried downloading the service manual.my luck the one i downloaded has no index so trying to sift through all that is like trying to find a needle in a haystack .the questions I asked I dont believe are covered in the regular manual in my glovebox and i also wanted to hear other peoples experiences .if someone could point out where it tells you what ect and s mode does when they are both on at the same time it would be appreciated.

Gotta love the internet where people can be a dick or a smartass bc they are behind a keyboard .GFY.

 

ETC holds gears and make the throttle touchier. Both help when towing.

S mode limits the highest gear the truck will go to.

Towing you should always use ETC and typically S4 or S5 depending on terrain, wind and shape of what you are towing. Weight plays less in the equation than you would imagine, untill it comes time to stop anyways.

Both on at the same time makes the truck as good as it gets stock. I find without ETC the throttle feels like molasses so you can feel the difference.

I have almost 59K miles on my truck with probably 30K of it towing. I'm on my original tranny and motor too.