Is your power sufficient?

Hi guys. I am in the market for a long bed Tacoma. I tested the auto but only briefly. Did not get a good feel for it because I only tested it on flat roads. I live in Colorado and regularly drive into the mountains.
I plan to put a topper on my truck and tow my 2500 lb camper to high elevation from time to time. Just wondering how the Tacoma performs at high elevations in the mountains. Trucks are asked to work a lot harder in these scenarios. I realize it's not a V8. All I want to be able to do is pass people on the highway when I need to. Seen a lot of people complain about power.
Any feedback is appreciated. Not trying to troll so be easy on me.

 

If you want to see opinions about towing, try this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/gen-3-towing-thread.413026/

 

I passed through the Rockies on the I-70 this past spring. There was still snow.
I had a 500lb load on my long bed with 5 people in the cab. It performed very well.

There's no doubt in my mind that the taco can pull your 2500lb trailer with ease.
It is rated at more than double of that weight.

 

ECT mode should work just fine for what you are describing.

 

I pull a 4 seat side by side with my family up the divide pass in Colorado with no problem. Does my wife's 4.7 4 runner pull better yes but the Taco does a good job. No worries for ya.

 

ECT Mode, lower gears with shifty mode. I would think that you'd be fine. The new engine seems to be delivering more power now than when I purchased it with 12 miles on the odometer.

 

It's a crying shame that Ford can get 450 lb-ft of torque out a 3.5L V6 and Toyota comes in at just over half that.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/deep-d...win-turbo-v-6-totally-new-10-speed-automatic/

 

I'm thinking a 10 speed is going add a little bit of weight. On top of that, their 2.7 ecoboost can't exactly crank out the MPG's either.
http://www.edmunds.com/ford/f-150/2015/long-term-road-test/mpg.html

Do you think their new 3.5 twin turbo can't improve upon that? I doubt it. The F-150's are hot rods, but gains from boost comes with more things that can go wrong. Toyota seems focused on reliability and natural aspiration over marginal gains from lowering displacement and increasing boost.

That being said, turbos are awesome.

 

My V6 feels a lot more powerful and responsive after the first 1k. Even better at almost 2k

 

TFLtruck did a video testing the Tacoma with 5000 lbs going up through the Eisenhower tunnel on I-70 if I recall correctly. You might search for it (I'm too lazy right this second).

Edit: http://www.tfltruck.com/2016/01/can...an-the-2015-tacoma-on-the-ike-gauntlet-video/

 

If I recall, 3rd gen had a faster upfill time than 2nd gen

 

There is no way Toyota will ever over-spec the Tacoma like that. It's a mid size truck meant for mid-size duties. You can bet that the new Ranger won't come close to that either. Ford does not want the Ranger to cannibalize the more-profitable F-150 sales.
Yes, Toyota COULD get that much power but it makes no sense for them to do that.

 

ect or s4 and you will probably be happy enough.

 

Thanks for the info all. Love this forum. Not sure why I did not join earlier.

 

When I was coming back from Moab I was towing around 6-7K lbs and doing like 80mph and passing people easily. I live at about 7k ft and the truck still has a good amount of power, not quite as much as when im in cali for the summer. I honestly think it has quite a bit of power for what it is especially compared to my old 4cyl sonata.

 

Was this going east bound over I-70 (over the Rockies) or somewhere else?

 

I was going from Moab to Flagstaff while towing. Still have good power in Flagstaff, even better here in Huntington Beach. I have a 2011 DCLB TRD Sport, but another thing is gears. Mine has the 7.5" ring gear 4.56 gears and the LSD, all with the 4.0L V6.

 

I live in the Denver metro and literally drive this thing up in the mountains every single weekend... up I-70, up Coal Creek Canyon, down to Westcliffe, up 285, etc. The engine certainly has the power, but not in the lower RPMs. This is one of my only complaints with the truck. I'll be heading up I-70 right outside Denver where there's a long, sustained climb. The truck will want to upshift when it shouldn't. You'll be going up a steep grade in one gear and if you have to let up on the accelerator, it'll upshift and you'll start losing speed because you won't have the torque in the lower RPM range, then you slightly apply pressure on the accelerator and it'll downshift again. Once it downshifts it'll start accelerating up the climb.. and once you've regained the speed you want to climb at and let off the accelerator, it'll upshift again. You can easily get caught in this cycle on a long grade where it'll continously upshift and downshift every few seconds. If you could just keep it in gear, it'd be no problem at all.

I've noticed my truck has gotten A LOT better as I drive it more in the mountains. If I haven't driven in the mountains for awhile, it seems to revert back to the continuous shifting, but it seems to catch on pretty quick now and stop with the unnecessary upshifting.

ECT mode doesn't do jack in this scenario for me. In fact, I think it kind of screws up the trucks "learning" process as I've heard others mention as well. When the truck had less miles I found "S Mode" to be critical to mountain driving. That way I could limit the upper gear and eliminate the upshifting. However, as I mentioned the truck seems to be getting better and the shifting seems to happen less and less now. I've got just about 3000 miles on it now.

I freaking love the truck though and this was my only gripe, but it seems to be improving a lot.

 

Oh, you are a gen 2.

 

Yeah but IIRC there is only a few HP and lb-ft no? Now transmission IDR but I thought the 2nd and 3rd were pretty close in power etc. Maybe I'm wrong