My experience towing with a 1st Gen - Pretty disappointing

I just completed a 900 mile tow with my '00 Prerunner 3.4 and I have to say, I was not too impressed with it's towing capability. Even with a tow load of only 1,500lbs (roughly) the gas mileage sucks, sucks, sucks and the braking capability is marginal at best. I really thought this little Tacoma could do a bit better than it did.

Now, maybe unrightfully so, I'm comparing the Taco to towing with my '02 Isuzu Trooper. The Trooper (3.5L 215hp v6) has hauled our little pop-up trailer (2,100lbs all loaded up) thousands upon thousands of miles with nary a whimper. 3rd gear through the mountains, as one would expect, and always, always, 17mpg when towing. And, it's a PIG! Heavy, wallows thru turns, etc. and I really don't enjoy driving it all that much.

Anyhow, here's my trip report.

We just listed my BIL's house for sale up in Sacramento and I needed to get his fishing boat out of the side yard. The boat, while in pretty decent shape, needs some fixing here and there to get top $$$ when we sell it. Soooo, with the long Labor Day weekend coming up I decided to drive solo up to Sac and haul it back to Tucson so I can get it ready to sell.

I left Tucson @ 5am Friday morning and 14 hours later arrived in Sacramento. CA was having record high temps that day so I ran the a/c hard the entire way. Had the tires @ 44psi and didn't really have anything in the truck besides some tools, a floor jack, straps and a grease gun.

I set the cruise at 75mph and the truck ran great. I averaged a bit over 20mpg for the 900 miles up. Was quite happy with that.

Here's my mileage for the trip up with no load.



Stayed with my brother and SIL Friday night and went to the BIL's house Saturday morning to get the boat ready for the trip back to Tucson. Jacked it up and checked the bearings which looked/felt good and gave them a few pumps of grease for good measure. The tires "looked" good but were about 10 years old. With the temps in the valley being 105+ degrees (AZ being 105+ also) I hauled the boat over to Discount Tire and had 2 new tires put on (decided to take my chances with the spare).

The boat is a 16' Klamath center console fishing boat. According to specs I found online the bare hull weighs a bit under 600 lbs. The 40hp Yamaha comes in at roughly 225lbs and the EZ Loader trailer is probably right around 500lbs. With empty fuel tanks, 2 large deep cycle batteries and some miscellaneous junk the whole thing "might" be 1500lbs give or take.

With the boat all cleaned up and ready to go I spent the afternoon knocking back a couple of cold ones with a couple of old friends. Plans were to take off Sunday morning after church and beat the Labor Day traffic on Monday.

Here's the truck and boat at the Discount Tire parking lot.



Left Sacramento about 10:45am Sunday morning and the entire trip back to Tucson, while uneventful, was less than awe inspiring.

Running Hwy-99 south through the valley I ignored the CA speed limit of 55mph while towing and ran at 65mph. I was able to keep the OD engaged for the most part and got pretty decent mileage (about 17mpg). Had to get on the brakes pretty good a couple of times and, while not unsettling, they were far from confidence inspiring. I would try to keep a little more distance from the car in front of me as a result.

Once I hit 58 east out of Bakersfield it was OD off and 65mph at 3,000rpm's the rest of the way to Tucson. The little Tacoma struggled going through the Tehachapi's and could barely make 55mph at times (Trooper on the same route could hold 65mph easy).

Here's my fuel for the towing portion of the trip. The 13.60mpg is dragging the boat around Sacramento getting stuff done.



In conclusion, I guess my expectations for the Taco may have been a bit high. I really thought pulling a 16' tin boat would have been a non-issue for the little truck but, maybe 1,500lbs IS a pretty good load for it. I certainly wouldn't want to tow anything near the 5k rating for any extended time, that's for sure.

Oh, here's a pic of the Trooper with it's typical camping load.

 

Prerunner 3.4 will get about 20MPG under normal conditions, I have gotten 24MPG going west to east across country as wind is generally at your back, east to west it sucks cause the wind blows in your face.. Depends on your driving habits. Hauling a trailer just makes it worse, especially if doing the Tehachapi's, it can be very steep in parts and the wind blows pretty good up on the high desert. Pretty much normal. 55MPH will give you better results....it is what it is...

 

That's great mileage compared to my 2nd gen 4.0. I didn't even get 200 miles per tank on the trip I just did(less than 10mpg). Granted, my total weight was over 10K, but it still made me miss my Cummins.

 

Sounds like you have the automatic transmission, which cuts the balls off the 3.4. I had an 01 Xcab 4x4 with a 5 speed, and it towed great in and through the Sierra, as well as 12 days to Utah, around, and back to California with a good bedload of camping and tool gear, towing my 1500+ camper, no trailer brakes. No complaints, could get up steeper highway grades at altitude in 4th. Centric discs and pads were way better than OEM too.

 

Those 2nd Gens seem to do pretty well. My buddy tires a 3,500lb camper with his and he has no complaints.

Yeah, it has the auto.

I'll look into the pads/rotors when it comes time for new brakes. May even switch to Tundra brakes. My kid has them on his '98 and they do make a huge difference. Thanks