Manual Taco Drivers: Towing Boat/Boat Launch

Every 4 X 4 I've owned you could put in 4 Lo and just let the clutch out and they would walk themselves uphill with barely touching the accelerator, not much above idle. All of them had "grannies" for 1st gear. As soon as my 98 TJ moves it's time to shift to 2nd.

 

You could probably use second gear. That old Mako is definitely heavy. Also, I have a boat about your same size and weight and I had a 2016 Tacoma. The Tacoma could not comfortably tow it for any length of time. Ramps weren't the problem. It had bad road manners. I have a Tundra now.

 

Weight of the Mako and the trailer is around 2500lbs+, you saying the taco had subpar handling when towing heavy loads?

 

I was curious so I looked up the Mako. Loks like the hull is 2100 and your trailer is probably 500lbs. Sounds like it is going to be more when you add the motor, fuel, gear, etc. Full fuel alone is going to be over 500 lbs. Motor is probably 500 lbs too. 3500 lbs is probably an extremely light estimate.

My boat is 5000 lbs on the trailer, roughly. My Tacoma just couldn't get that much weight under control especially when the road was rough or uneven. It went and stopped just fine. The rear suspension needed some help, but I wasn't about to reinforce the suspension on a brand new truck. Since I trailer often a full size was better for me.

 

Good point, fuel weight is something I always forget about. Looked up the 2018 taco, tow rating is 6400lbs. Fully loaded the mako is prob around 4000lbs. I trailer it fairly often. I have plans to do more trips with it this coming summer, 60 mile trips to Rhode Island, 20 mile trips to launches in long island, etc. You would recommend a full size rig then if towing distance becomes a common occurrence?

 

Yeah 6400 lbs is the tow rating. I had a 2017 DCSB V6 4x4 Tacoma, same tow rating as what you're looking at. I don't think I would tow 6400 lbs with the Tacoma. It wouldn't be happy. I didn't feel comfortable at all with my wife and kid in the truck towing the boat. My Tundra tows leagues better with way more headroom on the towing capacity. At 4000 lbs you should be fine. That estimate is probably more realistic. My boat's dry weight is 2750 and that probably easily doubles with the motor, fuel, trailer, and gear. Even though you're a little lighter than me I'd probably recommend a full size. You'll be way more comfortable. Like I mentioned before, I tend to be very cautious and well within my limits.

 

Thanks for the advice, might have to test drive a tundra then to compare. My only thinking with a taco is the boat seems to be within the tow rating (but youre right a full size would be better), and that a taco is smaller than a tundra, I dont think i need all the space, plus better mileage is a bonus. Appreciate the insight.

 

Eh, Taco does just fine if it's not your daily/weekly thing to tow. 4k lbs going highway speeds with a car trailer has not been a problem at all.

 

NOT all launches are straight.
Try the mile marker 54 boat ramp on US-1. If you don't turn, you're on the highway.

 

Just be smart about it and you'll be fine.
Rollback only happens when you panic. If you can keep yourself calm, you won't need to use the brake hack that's been mentioned in this thread.

 

Curious as to how that launch looks.

 

Just do a google search for "mile marker 54 boat ramp" and you can see pictures of it.

 

Youre right about going into the highway. That grade looks mellow however. Are you located in FL? Im in CT and it seems like every launch in the Northeast is made as steep as possible.

 

Canadian actually, north of Toronto. But spend a lot of time down there, and I've launched everything you can imagine up to about 30 feet from that ramp. FWIW: The reference to that ramp was more a response to the "ramps are straight" thing than to demonstrate a steep ramp. However, it is somewhat steeper than it looks from the pictures. The road ahead of that ramp is itself on a pretty good angle down towards the water.

Another crazy "ramp" I've used lots is right about in the center of this; https://www.google.com/maps/@45.2240342,-79.7344959,354m/data=!3m1!1e3
You can't see the ramp there because there isn't one. Not really. There's a narrow gravel road up to the edge of the water that terminates at a steep and very uneven rock.

 

What kind of boat do you have, and what type of tacoma? Does the taco work well for all your towing needs?

 

4-cyl MT 4x4. My Ontario boat is an 18' OB ~2000#. In FL, a 16' OB ~2500# and a 24' IB ~4000#. But like I said previously, I've done bigger boats -- had a 28' parker -- claimed in-water weight of 7650#, which I never moved outside of the keys, nor any faster than 50 mph. It was way too much boat (from a boat perspective, not from a towing perspective) and I really didn't like paying for the fuel on it, so got rid of it.

I can't say that the Tacoma does *all* of my towing needs, but outside of my 17,000# backhoe, it does.

 

Parkers are brutes, I do a lot of offshoring around Long Island and Rhode Island, want to get a 28 parker with an upper station or some sort of 25-28cc

 

I might suggest looking at the trailer set-up if it was that squirrelly, tongue light or heavy makes all the difference. The scariest tow I ever had was a poorly situated load of decking on a trailer behind my ‘01 Tundra.
I appreciate the amount of thought the OP is putting into this, towing can be scary and takes some caution and common sense. Usually, a bigger vehicle will tow better in part due to width, wheelbase, etc. but I have comfortably towed 22’ Fiberglass IOs with a 1984 Volvo turbo 4 banger and a manual transmission. I have always felt you have much more “control” over the vehicle with a manual transmission. Just my opinion. Safe towing All!

 

I did have to adjust the tongue weight when I first purchased this boat. It was way too light! I thought that was the problem when towing with my Tacoma.

 

Just remember that too much tongue weight can also be bad for control. Every bit of tongue weight you add reduces the weight on the front wheels.