Taco NOT Recommended by Uhaul to Tow Car Trailer

According to autoblog a CRV curb weight is 3126-3164 lbs, so if my Prerunner double cab taco has towing capacity of 3500 then I should be good to go. But does that towing number this also apply to using one one these things?

 

Yeah but you better look in the reservoir to make sure it ain’t dry!!! The employees only ever check the lights

 

I'll play did this 3 years ago taking wife to CT. because her mother passed away, and I had to leave her there.
This picture is before I lifted and put a leaf pack in the rear.

Took it easy and in 4th gear from WNC to CT. something over 800 miles 1 way about 6000lbs.
Can be done.

Edit: after reading I see it is a 2WD and that is the difference. I have tow package and 4WD. And very experienced in towing and stopping in mountainous roads.

 

Is that a tow bar to add to the front of the towed vehicle?! Just don’t do that. You won’t have brakes in the towed vehicle to help stop you and most vehicles can be damaged flat towing like that. You best option remains renting a Uhaul pickup and car trailer.

 

If the CRV is 3126 and you have a capacity of 3500, then if the trailer weighs more than 374.......... ya pickin' up what I'm puttin' down?

 

Did you mean to post a pic of a weight distribution hitch? The thing you posted was actually some weird bolt on trailer tongue.





And as someone else noted, your curb weight is that of the CRV, the trailer alone is another 2210 pounds per Uhaul. And an FYI, no way to mount a distribution hitch to a uhaul trailer.

 

I was going to mount the Y bar hitch thing use it instead of U haul dolly or trailer. Now i just realized that i forgot about you're not supposed to tow an auto transmission in neutral though. So i guess if I am towing the automatic i have to have a dolly or and drive on top of trailer then ?

 

I guess you could take out the driveshaft. That would (I presume the tow bar doesn't weigh 374#) keep you below your 3500 max. Pain in the ass, but doable. That's not speaking to all the down sides of using a tow-bar in the first place....I don't like em, some do, to each their own. Too many axles on the ground for my liking.

EDIT: Too many steer axles on the ground for my liking.

 

I've done tow dolly and trailers with no issues at all, I also removed my front anti swaybar.

 

Me too. I wouldn't hesitate to use a dolly, or even a full trailer. Beats the hell out of removing the D/S, in my opinion. I'd pull it on a trailer (in 4th gear) and wouldn't give it another thought. Get a trailer with brakes and even with them, still leave yourself extra stopping distance, but for ME (YMMV), it wouldn't bother me to pull over 3500 on a proper (for a vehicle) trailer.

BTW, if you load the trailer correctly, you can pull more than 3500...that's the tongue weight. Not all the weight is on the tongue.

 

The CRV came in either front wheel drive or awd models. Flat towing would require pulling the axles (and rear driveshaft on awd model). Kind of silly. If the tow dolly has trailer brakes, you could use one and pull the rear drive shaft if it’s an awd model. Tacoma brakes would be working double time to try to stop both the truck and the towed vehicle on one thing without trailer brakes.
@TacoBell07 - how far do you have to move this?

 

Some dont know their truck limits
I knew my taco could not do this 10k trailer and get 14 MPG

 

I've joked about wanting my buddy to fab me up a 5th wheel for my Tacoma. just need to keep the pin weight under 2000 pounds, I'd be fine

 

YES!

 

Agreed, the easy answer is just use 4th, but if you want to know why and maybe not follow the rule at times, here's why

My understanding: A torque converter uses a fluid coupling and when "unlocked" allows the engine turn faster than the transmission, which gives you more torque but generates heat in the process. When it's "locked" and they're turning 1:1 you don't get the extra heat generation. If you're on the highway and hit a hill or try some decent acceleration you may notice a jump in RPM's by a hundred or two, (that's the torque converter unlocking). It will kind of feel like a mild downshift, but you can test if that was just the TQ by manually switching it into 4th after you feel that small RPM jump and then feel a much larger change when it actually shifts into 4th. The transmission shifting also generates heat. (that's literally how you're told to heat up the trans fluid when checking fluid level, just shift constantly). If you know your trucks rpms and can keep it locked in 5th and it's not constantly shifting (more than like when you're driving around town at red lights), you should be fine, but I bet you'll have a hard time keeping it locked in 5th with that much weight, but something like that load on a long gradual downhill, or a small trailer and a lawnmower probably doesn't need to always be in 4th. If you're really pushing it you could make 4th gear unlock as well and also be generating heat, it's just much less likely and you're likely overloaded at that point.

 

I've been in the passenger seat of a tow vehicle 1996ish V-8 ford bronco, that had the trailer take us for a ride. it had 3 honda ATV 3 wheelers in it. so not a lot of weight. I woke up to find us boomeranging down a freeway. full spin with trailer yanking us around and around. we glided to a stop.

this was a math problem. the bronco wheel base was too short to have the (engineering term is "moment") leverage to resist the weight. same reasoning we grab a longer wrench for the bigger bolts. its why a Dualie has such towing superpower. the extra friction out back.

I don't tow big things with my tacoma even tho the book tells us it can do it. it can pull the weight easily, but can it control the weight? (or stop the weight).

granted, I am probably over cautious. but I have my reason. be careful

 

And that's what trailer brakes are for

Not specifically for 3-3 wheelers, but maybe those too.

If the trailer starts back and forth DO NOT hit the truck brakes...slide the trailer brake controller to start setting the trailer brakes. If it's too far gone for that to stop it.....well....good luck, is all I can say.

 

Yes i was considering using the tow bar because theyre fairly cheap and i can reuse it. Issue is though that the vehicle im trying to tow is an automatic. So unless i remove the driveshafts up front I am not sure how else to use the tow bar (flat tow device).
Ive really only got about 5 miles to tow it so i wonder how bad it would actually hurt the auto transmission though i know it cannot do it any good.

 

Not sure why when i went to uhaul site it would not allow me to tow with my Taco or said i was overweight or whatever....

 

For 5 miles, call a tow truck