The Tacoma Towing Bible

Depends on the trailer and the tire. My sled trailer has T rated car tires.

 

my 08 tacoma access cab 4x4 trd offroad 6-speed stick shift got 14 mpg on each tank during my 1000 mile road trip last week, towing a ~3000 lb Casita. I didn't use 6th gear at all, generally stayed a gear lower than I otherwise might have. said 1000 miles involved some fairly big grades (Donner Pass, for instance), as well as 100 miles or so of offroad (the Black Rock desert/playa).

 

Yes, but not a good idea to use passenger tires for a trailer.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=219

 

Ok hopefully someone can help. I'm looking for the brake controller plug under my drivers side kick panel and around the fuse box and I can't find it for the life of me. Am I just looking in the wrong spot? I have an '09 DCSB OR with the towing package.

 

on my 08 it was just forward of the driver-side dashboard fuse panel (by forward, I mean car-wise, so behind the fuse panel...). ok, here, let me take a picture, I used a Tekosha harness adapter so installing was trivial, just plug and play. the plug was a bit tucked behind the kick panel to the left side of the drivers feet, its the one with the fat yellow wire.

 

Since mine had never been used, it was buried behind all the wires. I found it by feeling around. I couldnt actually see it.

 

What is the most common connector type after the 4 pin? When I get my hitch built I'm wondering what kind of wiring connectors to use.

This is the plug cover I see everywhere that I like but I'm not sure what kind of connector it has other than 4 pin.

 

4 pins are for tail/brake lights only, mostly used on small utility and boat trailers under 1200 lbs gross trailer weight.7-

the standard plug on class III/IV hitches for towing RVs and such is a 7 blade. this has battery charge power (so the tow vehicle charges the camper battery when you're traveling), and electric brakes as well as lights. It also has reverse lights, which the 4-pin does not have. if you wire for a 7 blade (big fat round connector behind door on left of your pic), you can get a 7-4 adapter plug really cheap.

7-blade RV connector:


4-pin:


note on both of these, 'brake lights' are both turn signals together, much like old school american cars/trucks where they just used two filaments on each side, one for tail/parking light, and the other for turn/brake.

 

if you're wiring from scratch, the Aux 12V Charging should be on a relay so its only powered when your engine is running, and it should be wired and fused for at least 30A. naturally, the ground wire has to be sufficiently heavy gauge for this same 30A + the brake power (brake power is substantial, too, like 15 amps for dual axle brakes, ideally use 10 gauge from the brake controller you mount under the dash).

 

Thanks everyone for your contributions to this thread. It's been very interesting reading. I've fallen down the travel trailer research rabbit hole so much in the past couple of days I decided it was time to ask advice and get some outside perspective on my situation.

I have a 2014 Tacoma TRD Off Road 4x4 Double Cab short bed with tow package on BFG KO2 tires. I live in California in the mountains along the 299 around Humboldt County. I've never towed anything before, but I drive carefully, do my homework, and learn quickly.

I'm planning on getting the Firestone Airbags,

$200 TEKONSHA P3 BRAKE CONTROL + WIRING HARNESS FOR TOYOTA 4RUNNER, LANDCRUISER, SEQUOIA, TUNDRA TACOMA & LEXUS LX570 GX460 LX470 GX470. CONTROLLER + PLUG/PLAY WIRE KIT.

P3 Brake Controller, Anderson WD & SC hitch, and telescoping Trailer Mirrors prior to buying the trailer.

I initially wanted a vintage Airstream, thinking because the older ones are lighter that I could get up to a 27' trailer, but after a lot of reading on these forums, I'm worried that anything over 22' would be dangerous to tow. I also thought, using the 80/20 rule (6500*.8=5200), that I could get something with a dry weight of up to 5200 and be just fine. But more reading, and I got worried about anything more than 4000 dry. Then, more reading and more math, and I started getting confused.

Here's my math. 11,100 (GCVWR) - 5500 (Taco) - 600 (Myself, my lady, and my dogs) - 600 (camping gear, food, water, clothes, etc distributed between truck and trailer) = 4400 (Max. available weight for trailer)

Assuming another 400 for propane and fresh, black, and grey water, lets call it 4000. The trailers I'm looking at that meet our requirements for livability and comfort range between 3000 and 3800 dry. leaving 1000 - 200 before maxing out the GCVWR (way beyond the 80/20 rule). I feel like I have to have missed something.

I see people on these threads towing 4000-5500 dry trailers plus gear and family and say the truck performs like a champ, but that doesn't seem to add up for me.

Our favorite trailer, the Winnebago Micro Mini 2106DS, is dry at 3705. Is this too much? The specs are:

• Exterior Length 21'11"
• Exterior Height (including A/C) 10'1"
• Exterior Width 7'0"
• GVWR (lbs.) 7,000
• Dry Weight (lbs.) 3,705
• Carrying Capacity (lbs.) 3,295
• Axles (lbs.) 2 @ 3,500
• Tire Size ST205/75R14C
• Fresh Water (Tank Only) (gal.) 31
• Black Tank Capacity (gal.) 25
• Gray Tank Capacity (gal.) 25
• LP Capacity (lbs.) 40

Our real favorite is a 1959 Airstream Tradewinds 25' @ 3100lbs, but like I said, I'm worried that may be too long to tow safely.

Anyway, my head is spinning so any advice, clarification, or help would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much!

 

You took the words right out of my mouth. 3 months ago, I bought a 2013 DoubleCab Sport. Super confused, as I have never towed anything before. As best I can tell, 4,000 lbs dry is about the top end of any trailer I should be looking to buy. I'm in Colorado, and will regularly have to tow over big mountain passes.

 

I would instead suggest 5000 lbs be the top end of any trailer GROSS weight, unless you only ever plan on towing an empty trailer. and be sure to subtract the trailers ACTUAL tongue weight from your vehicles payload capacity (on the sticker inside hte drivers door). on DC 4x4s w/ factory tow, I believe that payload capacity is 1000 lbs. a carefully balanced 5000 lb trailer will have 10% tongue weight, or 500 lbs, so that means your double cab will only have 500 lb payload left over, INCLUDING DRIVER AND PASSENGER(S). I weigh ~230 lbs, my wife won't even admit what she weighs any more.

going up steep passes, plan on using even lower gears... with my 6 sp. stick shift, I never use 6th when towing (manual says not to), and downshift to 4th on a grade, if its a real steep one, 3rd and use the pullouts so folks can pass... Your V6 will be much happier running at 4000 or so RPM on a grade than the ~2000 rpm you're used to running in the flatlands.

 

Thanks, LCN. I hadn't really taken the hitch weight into account and just assumed I needed to keep it under 650. I checked my Tacoma carrying capacity and it's 1040lbs. So I redid my math.

1040 - 630 (Me, Lady, + two dogs + personal belongings buffer) = 410. Building in further buffer, the max hitch weight of the trailer (when the truck is fully loaded with people and the short bed is completely empty) is 380. And that is basically maxing out the CC of the truck.

So that being said, my options are limited to Travel Trailers with a hitch weight of 380 or less and a GVWR of 5000 or less. Is this right?

Does the hitch weight increase as you add weight to the trailer (gear, water, supplies, etc)? If so, does that mean the wet hitch weight max is 380?

Also, can adding overload springs increase the trucks CC?

I'm now looking at trailers that are under 4500 GVW with at least 1000 CC, so 3500 dry, and hitch weights under 400.

 

re: overload springs, technically no, but they improve handling at the upper end of the load range. GCWR is based on the axles, brakes, tires, wheel bearings, springs, drive train, etc.

using LT tires like the KO2's and a few extra PSI, having air bags or overload springs, and you probably can get away with a few 100 extra pounds, just remember to take it easy

yes, the actual hitch weight is depedent not only on what you put in the trailer, but where its stowed, and is ideally 10-15% of the trailers actual total weight.

 

Looking for thoughts from the peanut gallery.

I've got a 2007 Access Cab with the 4.0 V6. It has the factory hitch (I presume Class III) with the 4-flat wiring harness. I bought the truck used and don't know for sure, but I presume that it doesn't have the towing package. It's the 6sp manual so a transmission cooler is irrelevant, and there's some extra weight that I'm carrying in the form of a Leer shell. Over the weekend I bought a travel trailer with a 3500-lb GVCR:



Now, I readily confess to being a total trailer/towing noob. I already know that I need a brake controller and 7-way wiring harness. Looking at the OP I'm intimidated, and I talked with a shop this morning that's willing to do it for $165 which is basically the cost of the parts, so why do it myself anyway?

It seems that I'm well within appropriate weight limits such that pulling this thing shouldn't be too taxing on the truck. Do you all agree? And what would it take to change to a weight distributing hitch? Can stuff be added to the existing hitch to make it weight distributing? Will it be truly necessary, or just something to make me more comfortable with towing it? FWIW, the dry tongue weight is 315 lb. and the dry weight of the trailer is 2685 lb. I plan to at some point soon add a folding cargo rack to the trailer's rear bumper to carry a 140 lb. generator, so that will shift some weight rearward. There will be a lot of mountain driving involved in my home state of Utah and surrounding states. We're not the campground type, so it will also be spending time on dirt roads and forest roads to reach destinations for dry camping.

Thanks in advance for any feedback. And thanks to those who indicated that I should never tow in 6th gear -- I never would've guessed.

 

a WDH fits into a standard class III reciever. try towing with a plain ball, and if you find the load makes your truck 'porpoise' (pitch up and down) on bumps/dips, then get a WDH. the WDH also requires you secure brackets to the sides of the 'A' frame towing arm on the trailer, normally these can be clamped on, but sometimes you need to weld them on (for instance, in my case, the propane tanks were in the way so the clamps wouldn't work, so we welded)

here's my WDH setup...

$303 EAZ LIFT Camco Eaz-Lift Elite 600lb Weight Distribution Hitch with Height Adjustable Forged Shank (48051)

https://www.amazon.com/Eaz-Lift-48051-Weight-Distributing-Adjustable/dp/B0024E6XBA

my Casita 16' is 2200 lbs dry, 3500 lbs max.

oh, you'll need some BIG wrenches to torque that thing together if you assemble it yourself. 260 ft-lbs of torque on some bigger-than-1" bolts/nuts. if you don't have a 1/2" drive breaker bar, and 1/2" drive 6-point large sockets, and 1/2" drive torque wrench that covers 260 lbs, you might let a RV hitch shop do the install for you.

and yeah, when towing, you pretty much stay one gear lower than you would if you weren't towing. maybe 2 gears on a long steep grade if you're fully loaded.

 

Thanks, Left. IIRC from an earlier post you've also got a shell on the bed. No horrendous towing issues?

And looking at the trailer's A-frame it appears that I've already got the brackets for a WDH?



I haven't yet taken delivery on the trailer, so all I have to go on are the photos I took on Saturday without being able to take inventory on what all is inside that trailer. It's a private sale, the seller's including everything that they have on board and he indicated that he's included "stabilizers" for towing, so I can only assume that's what he's talking about?

Like I said, total noob here.

 

those are for a different sort of WDH, I'm not sure exactly what. 'stabilizers' could refer to an antisway bar, or something like that, or it could be some sort of WDH, I guess. If you're tacoma is NOT a TRD OffRoad, you might not need the WDH at all, the Off Road suspension is taller/softer and it sits on taller tires than the standard truck, this all adds to making it more likely to pitch/porpoise underway. I towed ours 200 miles home empty (~2200 lbs) with a simple ball hitch, and that convinced me to get the WDH.

my casita's gross (maximum) weight is 3500 but its probably under 3000 as I've actually towed it.


p.s. inspect the roof really carefully on your trailer.. those sorts of stick frame, tin side trailers are quite prone to leaks with age, these leaks often go undetected as the water drips down inside the walls til the mold and mildew win out.

 

ave

 

I've got a few TRD items like the cold air intake, but it's not a TRD.


I genuinely appreciate the advice. The trailer is a 2014, and believe it or not it's only been used four times in total. The seller lives in an absolute castle and everything he owns is positively immaculate. The black water tank/black water line has actually never been used at all. I'm convinced that it lacks any major problems, but I'll nevertheless go over it with a fine toothed comb, including the roof. All I could find wrong with the trailer was a very minor front corner dent from where the guy jackknifed it when he first picked it up, and we managed to acquire it for several thousand dollars below NADA book.