My experience of towing 4,700lb travel trailer, which now weighs closer to 5,000lbs… maybe.

I’ve heard of sphincter pinch

yes, push the knob in and it applies the brakes of the trailer.

 

Thanks!

Seeing your posts has gave me a bit of faith. I may be towing my buddy's Coleman TT up to our campsite next weekend. It's around 4500lbs dry. It will be my first time towing something that heavy, so I will stick to backroads and 60mph max. He tows it with an F-150 and says every time he takes it on the highway and goes over 60, he blows one of the four tires on the TT. Has happened multiple times now, so he has given up on highway towing. Who knows...

I'll have the Redarc installed as well as the Sumosprings. I'm on somewhat light weight 33's with stock gears. Our gear will go inside the trailer (not that much) but there will be 4 of us sitting inside the Tacoma. It's Florida, so pretty flat roads the entire drive.

I've heard towing in overdrive is a bad idea and should stick to S4... thoughts?

 

W

With your tires and that trailer I doubt you’ll make 5th stick so shoot for s4.

FYI manufacturers brochure say the trailer weighs x amount but is always higher. Take mine, Coachmen brochure says 3,800 dry but that doesn’t include a/c unit, batteries or propane tanks. My unit with those is more like 4,200lb.

I imagine on the scales your friends trailer will be more than the 4,500.

Bare in mind i have no passengers as cargo. Just take it easy and don’t look at the mpg…

Have fun!

 

Correction... Manufacturer has it listed around 5,500 dry... Yikes. This could get interesting. Thanks for the advice!

 

As a general rule do not use OD when towing. If pulling a very light utility trailer or similar on level ground you can probably get away with it. If you're in OD and find the transmission shifting back and forth often then get out of OD. If there is any doubt, stay out of OD. Your transmission will overheat and be ruined.

We have a Forest River NoBo that is 4750 GVWR. I CAN pull it with our Tacoma and have done so on some shorter trips. But I also have a F150 in the driveway. The difference is significant. I certainly wouldn't want any more weight behind the Tacoma. When we were looking at TT's I specifically wanted something that I could pull with the Tacoma if needed.

 

Are you going far, could your passengers/gear go in another car?

Tacomas have crap payload.

 

Great review!

 

It's about 212 miles / 4.5 hour drive. There's a chance I could shrink it down to 2 of us in the Tacoma, but likely not.

 

Could you not borrow your friends F150 or rent a tundra?

 

They offered, but it's an off road park we're going to, so I want to have my truck. If it wasn't going to rain, I would be fine with tent camping, but having a trailer would give us a nice little spot to hide away from the rain and able to sleep in AC (This FL humidity is killer).

 

"but there will be 4 of us sitting inside the Tacoma"

If you are talking 4 good size guys that eats up a substantial part of the payload -- the perpetual Tacoma problem.

 

2 average sized guys and 2 ladies. Probably... 650lbs combined.

 

650+125 (fuel)+100(WDH)+(bedmat,sliders, tonneau and whatever stuff you have in the truck???)
Payload likely <>1000lb leaves 125lb for a realistic tongue weight of 600.
Means you’ll likely be +500lb over payload of the truck.

 

Over 1/2 your payload, the trailer tongue weight will bring you to or over max with nothing in the bed.
I hope you have a WDH.

 

Your payload decal is inside drivers door jam.

Mine is only 940lb

 

I'm around 960lbs I believe. No question I would be overweight and no WDH, but again taking backroads... staying off interstate... little to no traffic most of the way back here. I've definitely done more questionable things... LOL

 

Just don’t tell your insurance company or post it on the internet

 

I find this most interesting. As for my experience when towing, not enabling ECT causes massive amounts of shifting when towing anything with air resistance. Now I am on 33's, so that undoubtedly makes it even worse, but even stock or on 17" 265's it was very similar.

As for towing in OD, I too monitor my stuff with OBD Fusion and have it set up similar as far as watching temps and locking/unlocking, temps never factor in. I do run an external cooler, but even stock it made no matter per my temps.

The manual says use S5 or lower anyways.

 

WCP speed limit 45 I held 40 up to the top, 2nd gear of course.