how does a tow bumper work

ok so i have a 08 tacoma 4 door with these holes in the bumper i think i can hook up a tow package to it or something, im new to towing so i dont know but i was wondering are those for towing and if yes where do i get the part from an how much
thanx guys

 

Read the manual or look on the bumper itself. It should be labeled somewhere of how much it can actually tow - which isn't much.

Honestly? I wouldn't tow anything with the bumper. Get a hitch and be on the safe side.

 

Recommend going to the tow discussion under the tacoma garage:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/towing/4031-tacoma-towing-bible.html

Also for around $200 you can order a frame hitch from etrailer with a hoppy harness (No splice plug & play harness mates with your tail light wiring. Or if you don't care to mount it yourself, go to uhaul, drive in/drive out.

At a minimum, you need that hoppy harness for lights.

 

I agree with everybody else... get a hitch that bolts to the frame. I wouldn't trust the bumper to tow anything, regardless of what it said in the manual or on the bumper itself.

 

The bumper is fine up to the load limit in my opinion.

 

Yeah one would think its crazy to do but it can be done for certain applications. One of the .toyota towing brochures (pdf's) phantom posted in the tow garage even show the tacoma bumper as a hitch point.

On my 95 Toyota truck (pre gen1) I towed my enclosed two place snowmobile trailer all the time off the bumper & this was before Toyota even offered a factory tow package. The chrome bumper was not much different than what's on my 06, three holes, one for the hitch ball & the other two you could rig up eye hooks. A lot of folks did it that way. Granted dinging your bumper was much easier & no way would it tow what our trucks are capable of now especially with the factory tow pak.

Personally I chose to get a frame mounted hitch because I swap out different drawbars 2" or 1 7/8'. On the bumper, that is a pain in the butt. Plus the drop works well with my trailer height & weight towed.

So I guess the question for the OP is whatcha towing??