First time towing with Tacoma

Agreed. But call me old school, I’m not an early adopter of new technology. Now I just watch and let others deal with all the recalls and bugs to be worked out before taking a serious look at purchasing with my hard earned cash myself. Yes I know all about Australia, but that's there and this is here. I'll see how the twin turbo ranger does after 5 years or so and then make comparisons. But by then we may be looking at electrics.

 

I'm not even talking about Tacoma vs Ranger, if it comes to towing I'd rather have power than a simple or basic engine design. If my wife had made any comments about us ever owning a camp trailer before buying the Tacoma I would have bought a bigger truck. The Tacoma isn't a tow rig and while it will tow a small trailer even with more power it has some serious limitations. I have told myself I will keep the Tacoma for at least 3 years, if it looks like we will be doing more camping or traveling further with a camper then we will decide if it's worth upgrading trucks to something bigger that is better suited for towing.

 

My camper is well under 3,000 lbs all told with gear, driver, passengers, etc. I sized the truck to the camper, not the other way around. With the tow package that came with my taco it includes transmission cooler, oil cooler, larger alternator, tow hitch, seven pin connector, wiring in place for trailer brake controller, and trailer-sway control, so towing is not an issue at all. Also, I’m not towing every day. Maybe 30 times in a year. So there’s no reason for me to have a full size truck siting around most the time except to go to the grocery store. But to your point, if I was going to tow much over that weight I’d go with a Tundra, a V8, or a diesel, with a tow package. The max tow capacities listed by manufacturers are just that - the maximum. It doesn’t mean you can fly over the continental divide at 65 mph at the maximum weight. If going on long trips I recommend no more than 50% of the max capacity.

 

Do you have the Transmission cooler? It was removed in 2020. Depending on when yours was built. As for the rest, yeah, the Taco does fine as long as you aren't gonna go crazy towing or expect to do 75+ everywhere. I tow a lot but buying a new truck isn't in the cards. My next rig will most likely be a larger Diesel.

 

Church = Choir


Does it have the trans cooler behind the grill ?

https://www.toyotapartsdeal.com/oem/toyota~cooler~assy~oil~w~h~32920-04040.html

 

Yes, it has the ATF cooler. My build date is March 2020, and is a V6 4x4 SR. 2021 SRs also have ATF coolers. It's the new TRD Pro that has no cooler on the AT.

 

It wasn't just the Pro's that lost the external cooler. In early 2020 they dropped the external trans cooler. The Towing package still lists a trans cooler but it is the one built into the radiator.

 

thats exactly what to expect.. and you are only towing 1500 pounds.. should try 5000 pounds and see how bad it revs..lol

 

it doesn't even have to be 5k lbs. Once it is 7+ feet wide it creates enough wind drag to become a hinderance. The difference between a 3400 lbs dry trailer and a 4500 lbs fully loaded trailer wasn't actually that big of a difference.

 

Towing my 7x16 car trailer loaded is easier than towing my sister's 7x14 enclosed trailer empty!

 

I have a scan gauge to monitor ATF temps. So far no issues but because of covid I haven’t had the opportunity to travel as far as I’d like. But sometime soon we’ll be going cross country and that will be the test. If I don’t like the temps it’ll be one of those bigger ATF coolers. I installed one on my previous taco.

 

My last trip down to the Oregon sand dunes I was averaging 190-195 and saw spikes up into the 240's at the TC. ( I also pin the T-stat open when towing )

 

Can an external oil to air cooler be added to a 2021? Possibly the factory cooler linked above.

 

Yeah, I believe someone posted all the oem part numbers to add one on here.

 

That would be great, I will try to find it. Thank You

 

Accidentally in this thread I linked my engine oil cooler part when what I meant to do was link the trans fluid cooler, which Justin subsequently did, after I deleted the oil cooler post.

Long story short: do you mean engine oil cooler or transmission fluid cooler?

 

Transmission fluid cooler

 

There are other ATF coolers available that will probably do a better job than this OEM.

 

Well already after a year speaking with a fiend thats employed by a local water company thats partially switched over to new rangers after having toyotas for years. The employees that drive these trucks like the power of the ranger, but thats about it. Some claim the rangers handle quirky, and are rather noisy compared to the gen3 sx models the company owns. Their also claim the ranger's transmission are a pos.