The Tacoma Towing Bible

A WD hitch is basically the ball mount portion that the trailer actually connects to. It has tension bars to help shift the weight away from the linkage, and some help keep the trailer from swaying as much. The black pieces are the WD hitch.

 

I would stay away from the chain style posted above and get a friction bar style like this.

 

Hi, hope this finds u well.I have a 2009 taco. 6 speed man. tow package T.R.D. with less then 10,ooo miles on it. I tow a Casita travel trailer about 3,200 wet give or take
any info would be great. I've done nothing to really- any idea's Thanks
P.S. I've read some stuff about the transmission- do you have any problems?

 

I have a 2011 PreRunner with towing package. It does have a trany cooler but would you suggest replacing it with the cooler from jegs? http://www.jegs.com/i/B-M/130/70264/10002/-1
It looks to be bigger than stock and would that be better cooling?

 

Haven't noticed any. I always clean the surface on the contact area before mounting them. None of the other mirrors I saw go as wide and I needed max extension for a 96" wide trailer. Hooks are vinyl covered and rubber pads under the strut in the center of the door.

 

Nice Work Thanks a Ton.
I mounted a Tekonsha P3 to the right of the steering wheel with some heavy duty velcro. I drilled a hole in the back of the existing tray that it now sits above. Looks great, very handy and in the winter I just remove it and store it in the glove box. The mirrors the original poster uses are the same ones I use and pretty much everyone I see with a Tacoma towing something uses them as well.

Cheers from Canada,
-R

 

Thank you for the useful info. Until lately, i only pulled my boat, or the bikes. We recently purchased a RV. It is 4,100 dry, and i know not to exceed the limit. My question is this, when i bought the trailer, they told me the tacoma with the 7 pin connection, and the brake controller built in.
Unfortunately, I bought the truck used, (it is an '06 TRD V-6, already has the tow package) and it did not come with a manual, or i could probably answer the question myself. If i understand your post, this truck does not have a "built-in" brake controller? If not, i will get one. It appears that I only need to hook it up to the harness under the dash? That harness then goes to the 7 pin hook up?

Also, I did get the Weight Distribution system, however, currently I have no sway controller. Sounds like you highly recommend them. I guess i will be on the look out for one of those as well.
Thank you in advance for answering the brake controller question.

 

It does not have one.

Get something like a Prodigy P2 or P3 and get for like $5 more you can get a harness that is pre-wired for Toyota to make it a no-cutting, plug and play application (minus mounting the controller under the dash).

 

Thanks fajita! I will now be looking for one of those.
I didn't think that sounded right when they told me it was "built-in".

Other than that, the truck pulls great! Now it will stop great too!

 

Ok...I've pulled trailers before like u-hauls to transport some things or rented a trencher for some work at home....never a travel trailer etc. I just plugged in the wire harness on the trailer into the harness on the back of my old ranger and drove. I have no idea if there were ever trailer brakes, what the hitch weight, ...any of that other than making sure what I was pulling was under the 2000lb limit for my bumper.

I read through a lot of the original post...leaving out the after market info....my new tacoma dbl cab 4wd v6 w/factory tow package won't require the after market add ons.

At this moment the truck is getting the remote start and tube steps installed. The other part they are giving me for free is the tow package hitch/ball with a 2 3/4 drop down and 2" ball. They asked if I would prefer the 2" drop down, I quickly called a friend and he told me that my truck sits somewhat high so if I can only choose one...pick the largest drop down. I don't even know what to call the portion of the hitch with the ball that you insert into the Class IV hitch attached to the truck.

The information provided is really good if you already have some understanding of towing....and it's very detailed/specific...almost too specific...because I don't understand it.

Some info I could use:
1. What is the hitch weight (down pressure on the hitch itself) capacity of the Class IV factory installed hitch?
2. Does the trailer you buy or rent have this information available on how much hitch weight?
3. How do you know how far you need to drop down for the hitch ball? should it always be level?
4. Trailer brakes...somewhere in this thread I read that having trailer brakes you can somehow apply trailer brakes without applying truck breaks? I thought having trailer brakes meant that when you applied the truck brakes, trailer brakes also engaged so that would assisst in slowing down/stopping? How would you isolate applying trailer brakes? What about trailers that have the (not sure what they are called) but brakes that are applied when the trailer starts pushing against the truck pulling it?
5. I also just assumed that if I ever bought a trailer or rented a trailer I'd try and stick with a dry weight of 4500lbs or less and should be ok. Im not comfortable sitting down and calculating the weight of everything I put into the truck and trailer. From looking my overall thought was stick with something 19ft or less as well.

I can't wait to find out the questions I'm not currently knowledgable to even ask...lol

 

On #4, (some?) trailer brake controllers have a button you can push to activate the trailer brakes. Helps if it is swaying and you want to get it under control.

Also on #4, the brakes that apply when the trailer pushes forward against the hitch ball are surge brakes. They're not electronically controlled, and will only work when the truck is braking (no way to activate it to reduce sway). They can also be a pain when trying to back up.

On #5, you should at least make a good effort to estimate the weight of all of the contents of the trailer. It isn't that difficult, and you don't have to be exact.

 

Thanks JKD...the push button clears things up. That is what it sounded like when it was being described without saying "push button"...

Great point about the surge brakes and trying to back up...

I didn't mean not checking the weight at all....just that I wouldn't want it to be so close the max without room for error that I had to get exact weights. I couldn't imagine having to get detailed weights on everything all of the time loading different items each time. If it were the same things being loaded on a regular basis it would make sense to "know" the weight.

By the way, after some more careful reading and deciphering...I think I figured out that "hitch" weight means Tongue weight....is that correct?

 

#1 Is 650lbs of Tongue /hitch weight and 6500lbs max towing weight.
#2 Trailer should have a placard with all the weight info on it. Tongue weight, dry weight, max loaded weight, etc...
#3 You level the trailer, measure front and rear of trailer to same height from ground, then measure to the top of the tongue. Then you get a ball mount that will drop down or rise to the height of the top of the ball to with in 1" of the tongue height of the trailer. Every trailer is different. I bought an adjustable hitch because I haul several different trailer with differing tongue heights,
#4 Already been answered. You can get a brake controller that is very easy to install on you Taco. Anything over 2000lbs should have brakes.
#5 Stick with what ever you are comfortable with. The Taco is rated at 6500lbs and I believe it can pull it just fine. You will have to do the math to be safe, especially the tongue weight (TW) which can increase very quickly when loading a trailer. eg: My travel trailer has dry TW of 132lbs. After loading it and putting LP tanks and two batteries it now has a TW of 375lbs. The TW weight is subtracted from the cargo capacity of the tow vehicle (TV). THis is just one example. Do the math, do the research so you are not a hazard waiting to happen . Especially if you are hauling your family as well.

Happy pulling

 

Thank you psmcn...great answers...very helpful. When I do pull I shall do the math. There is a lot more to towing than just hitching up and putting it in drive. Like I stated before, I've never towed anything that has ever come close to the max limit to every really worry. The max I've ever towed was maybe 1500lbs.

 

On the 7-pin do you happen to have a diagram of what wire goes to what? I had an 06 that I put a 7 pin on my self. I discovered when putting my trailer on my 2012 that the wire diagram I used for the 06 from an old employer was wrong/different. The lights are all off now.

 

I'm going to assume you mean 7 Blade (RV) plug [Standard Toyota Towing Package] and not a 7 Pin connector.

Their are literally hundreds of pics on the web.

This one is the best I've found.

Why? Because it shows the proper connection on the vehicle end with an actual picture of the connector to minimize confusion.

Don't rely solely on the color, use the actual function as a guide.

I'd venture to guess it got flipped when you wired it the first time or you used a 7 pin connector diagram and not a 7 blade (aka:RV) diagram.

Just remember to visualize and keep straight which side of the receptacle the function is on.


This is vehicle only image.
View holding your unit (LoL) in your hand with weather door toward you (left image) and view holding it with weather cover facing away from you (right image).

 

Thanks

 

Thanks for the info, I have a question about Installing a break controller in a 1st gen. Installation seemed simple enough of the Draw tite activator except where it attaches to the petal wiring. The Nissan I took the set up off had very accessible wiring with the activator attached to the only green wire in the setup. When I got under my dash not only is the wiring a ugly cramped chicken arm away but three of the wires are green. Are you able to shed anylaught on which of the wires I should splice into? Thanks

 

Jeffrey, First off, welcome to Tacoma World!

Unfortunately, 1 gens are not as plug-n-play as the 2 gen.
All of the following is from memory of installing a B/C in my 97 Tacoma.

I chose to attach the brake signal wire right at the pedal switch. There is a plastic panel that needs to be removed to gain access. On the back side of the clutch(if equipped)/brake pedal assembly is the switch. There are (4) wires on the connector [(2) wires if no cruise]. Remove the connector from the switch assy. The (2) top wires (as if it were plugged in) are for the brake light signal. If you have no cruise, then it's a non issue. With the vehicle ignition in the run position (key on yada yada), one will be +12volts, the other top wire will be zero volts. Testing will be performed on the connector itself, not the switch. I can not even be under psychic hypnosis and be able to tell you which one it is, so a multi-meter or test light is going to be your friend. But I can tell you, the top wire without power is the correct one to tap into. I pulled the wire out of the loom and used a T-tap; it will work fine for this application.

Included is an attachment from the Factory Service Manual for the rest of the 1000 words.

Kind of redneck, but I sacrificed a new heavy gauge extension cord for the wiring. Battery to B/C and B/C to 7 pin. 25 feet is marginal, but I had plenty left over from a 50 footer.

It all worked great for the time I owned the vehicle and living in NoDak at the time (cold, salt, mud, etc) so it endured it's share of abuse.

 

Great write-up. Thanks for the efforts you put into this. Really helps a lot of guys out!