pulling ability

I have 2004 dbl cab trd, will it pull a 2 horse trailer and 1 horse easily? I'm trying to decide if I need to sell my camero and get a bigger truck or if my Toyota will pull it probably never long distance.

thanks in advance

stefani

 

Hello Stefani,

Pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Tacoma World.

The first generation Tacomas with the V6 are rated for about 5,000 pounds if I remember correctly. It does not sound like you are even close to 5,000 pounds with the load you want to pull from the description of your post. Your double capacity horse trailer probably weighs significantly less than 2,000 pounds, and I am guessing your horse probably weighs less than 1,000 pounds, which means the worst case weight scenario will be around the 3,000 pound mark, which your Tacoma can easily handle.

Remember to make sure you adhere to all of the laws for pulling a trailer, and double check everything. Make sure you have done your transmission fluid recently before giving your rig a work out.

My wife Shannon and I have a 1999 Tacoma 4x4 with a V6, and we have pulled a ton of stuff with it. It has never come close to pulling 5,000 pounds, but whatever it is pulling, you can definitely feel it back there. When it has to pull, it certainly does not feel like a sporty truck with plenty of power. It certainly takes a lot more effort to drive it when it has to pull, and you have to concentrate on stopping much more than normal. It always gets the job done, though.

Good Luck,
Paul

 

just don't use overdrive, that's all. and if you have the ect power button, use it.

 

Speaking from experience get a bigger truck.

Perhaps a Tundra

One has to remember all the other goodies that will most likely be added to the load

The thing it is a live load that tends to move around quite often a thousand pound load of horse feed Iwould say no big deal.

Now if your talking just a few miles down a nice flat road maybe .

It never fails sooner or later someone is going to ask you to haul there horse with yours how do you tell them no.

Bottom line it is your truck and your horse If I had no other option and the horse needed to be moved I would other wise no

 

I have a v6 3.4 and it pulls my 17ft flatboat just fine but needs to double downshift to 3k rpms to go up bridges and steep hills. that's maybe a 1000 lbs load and it feels like its jerking the truck around back there, like the tail wagging the dog. I certainly wouldn't want to pull a horse trailer with a moving load, I would be too stressed out.

plus the added mention that breaking sucks on these trucks and they don't stop very well at all pulling anything so the breaks with "slow you down quickly" but don't expect to do an emergency stop, that aint gonna work. if you get one you need to do the tundra brake upgrade mod so you have better stopping power because while the brakes do function "okj" for the truck, you always feel like your going way too fast when you have to hit the brakes if that makes sense.

while im happy with the truck and how it handles pulling 300-500 lbs loads in the bed, when it comes to pulling a trailer, even my little 1000 lbs load one, im wishing I had a more powerful truck, not necessarily a different truck

 

Absolutely not.

 

I agree with Wyoming.

I have supercharged '01 x-cab 4x4 with a topper. I tow my bass boat weighing about 2500 lbs (boat, motor, gas, trailer, fishing stuff). With my topper and tools and some light camping gear, I wish i had a 5.7 V8 tundy.

I have 4.88 gears AND 5-speed too and still feel i need more power, ESPECIALLY hilly areas.

There is a secret fishing spot that I'd have to go up and down hilly rolling country roads and it just kills my mpg everytime. With the small gas tank size of the Tacoma, i don't even get 200 to the tank......its sad.

With the tundy (or any 1/2 ton and 3/4), you have the option of a large tank size, more power, and a heavier truck to help in stopping. I have tundra brakes and trailer brakes and it still struggles to stop.

I wouldn't even hesitate for bigger tow vehicle with large surface area trailers and horse.

Just my opinion from towing boat and my crap across country.

 

Hey Stefani,

Just out of curiosity is your Camaro a first generation Camaro? I love first generation Camaros.

The points El Taco and Keaker make about the first generation Tacoma's brakes are indeed valid ones. These first generation Tacomas are small trucks originally designed as little sport trucks that were versatile enough to use for utilitarian purposes when necessary. Does your horse trailer have its own brakes? If it does, braking your loaded Tacoma with the trailer will be much easier on both you and the truck.

My family has an old Boston Whaler Classic Sport 15, and we use our 1999 Tacoma to haul it around. This little boat, however, does not weigh much, but you still have to pay extra attention to driving when using the Tacoma to cart it around. Our Explorer handles carting around the Whaler much better than our Tacoma. We also recently had to rent some industrial equipment to get some work done on our house, and we used our Tacoma to haul it around. The equipment was definitely much heavier than our little Whaler, and you could certainly feel it back there with the Tacoma.

There is a book at Fast Lane Truck online called Nuts and Guts of Pick-up Trucks. This book explains everything about pick-up trucks and towing. You might want to read this before going any further with any towing decisions. I need to read the book as well.

Good Luck,
Paul

 

I grew up with horses

Repaired so many light plugs people keep forgetting to unplug them.

It is not the weight so much I feel at least my 3.4 5 speed can tow the weight .

Anyone who has not hauled a live load expensive Horses are nothing like a steer to the butcher shop .

Even with the legs wrapped it is quite easy to take a turn to fast and do enough damage your horse is laid up for quite some time

It is the wheel base being so short on the Tacoma

Then not all 2 horse trailers are the same when it comes to empty weight

All dual axle horse trailers have electric brakes which can be a royal pain if it sits to often along with the lights

If your truck already has a hitch and brake control and the 7 pin plug try it see just how bad it is

I have never seen a Tacoma pulling a horse trailer at any events I have been at in the last few years

Best of luck no matter what you decide to do

Pictures of your horse would be nice.

 

My 1999 V6 with 5 speed and 201,000 on it just drove 130 miles to NH with a 4x7 u-haul utility trailer and 3 grown men to pick up a 600 lb woodstove. I got around 16 MPG which is down 1 or 2 for the 260 mile round trip. I think I'd haul a bit more but I don't think I'd want to haul much more for a long drive. She handled great, stopped fine, accelerated decently. The best part was dropping into 4 wheel low to climb up the iced over steep driveway after loading the stove. I fell in love with my truck all over again.

 

It also depends on the terrain you're driving in. I pull a 2200ish lb (less than half the towing capacity) camper trailer with my 3.4 in the mountains. That thing is running 45mph (or less) up the hills unless I burry the throttle in the front bumper. Granted, I stuff the trailer and my bed with gobs of stuff, but it's still nowhere near the max gvw.

If you only have 1 horse, why get a 2 horse trailer? That would cut down on the weight, too. Live loads, from what I hear, are worse than, um, dead loads. You can't strap them down so tight they don't move around. That would be cruel...

Anyway, I say try it out with what you have, if you're just going down the street to a local trailhead or ranch or something, you might be fine. But a freeway or mountain driving would make a bigger truck more likely necessary.

 

She has not been back .At least to post

These is really no market for a one horse trailer then building one of a kind would be so expensive .

This is one of those things if one had no other options one does what one needs to .

Then some horses haul so much better then others even in my Ford F250 you can feel them moving around

 

Hey Everybody,

All of you have come up with some great suggestions for this pulling post. I have written some tips below that I always go through whenever I get involved in a towing job.

1. No matter how much you think you know the weight of something. You are always heavier by the time you get hooked up than you originally had thought.
This is true for the weight of the trailer, tongue weight of the trailer and the overall weight of the vehicle and the trailer.

2. Fuel consumption while towing anything is always going to be way worse than what you predict it to be.

3. Towing is much harder on a transmission than the engine. This is why if you tow with an automatic transmission on a regular basis, it is good idea to service the transmission once a year rather than every other year.

Take it easy,

Paul

 

Find a local truck stop scale or dump/recycle place. Probably can use it free. Weigh the trailer and add in what the horses weigh.

 

They suck for towing, get a bigger truck is my vote. I wouldn't risk it with live animals either if it were me. I love these trucks, but they were never made to tow. That's why I went and bought an old '97 Powerstroke diesel for my towing needs. It's all I use that truck for, it spends most it's time sitting, but is nice to have when I need it!

 

Even if you load is under 5,000....dont forget about probably the most underrated part of a truck needed for a strong and safe tow. BRAKES.

 

Dragging Iron in my younger misguided youth it was common to split 3 loads between 2 trucks

One learns all to well how to drive knowing your not going to stop if some idiot does something dumb

 

Whatever the OP decides, a tranny cooler on an auto tranny is A must!

 

Hey Ralph,
How is it going? I thought all of the first generation Tacomas with automatics came with a transmission cooler. I could be mistaken since I have never looked under the hood of an automatic first generation Tacoma.

 

I have a 2002 TRD 3.4 4WD, and mine didn't have a tranny cooler. It does now, as I had it installed before installing the hitch.