The wilderness is calling What taco?

Hello people I do not own a Tacoma but I have owned several Toyotas in the past. Great cars so I assume great trucks! I am researching what truck to purchase to tow a smaller travel trailer.. maybe around 55 - 6000 pounds. I'm getting a little confused about how to figure out the weight load and yes it will be only myself on my journey any kind of advice would be appreciated. This is going to be my new home because I haven't been in nature 4 years and she is calling me. Yes I am a woman and I really don't want to get ripped off by some dork because of it. It seems to happen a lot with mechanics but I am fairly Sharp to know when I'm being played. Please honest answers thanks

 

@MTgirl

 

Tundra if you'll be towing a travel trailer of that weight.

 

thats on the heavy side for a Tacoma. my Tacoma hauled trailer is 3500 lbs gross, and 2200 lbs dry (and usually somewhere between those numbers), that tows quite easily. a gen 2 tacoma V6 with the factory tow *can* tow up to 6500 lbs, but I wouldn't want to tow that much regularlly, plus the truck would have very little payload left for driver+passengers+cargo.



btw, you might check out Casita trailers... as I said, 3500 lbs gross, the 16 or 17' models are perfect for 1-2 campers, they tow really easily, and are very nicely made.

 

Welcome!

 

The mpg between tundra and Tacoma is not enough difference for me to want to scrimp on towing ability.

I own both. The tundra wins by a huge margin when it comes to towing.

Dealers are also willing to deal more on the tundra as they Do not sell nearly as fast as the Tacoma.

 

Here's a ton of examples of tacomas towing different weights.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/show-us-what-you-tow.27460/

 

the gen2 tacoma v6's with factory tow are rated at 6500 lbs, 650 lb hitch weight. pretty sure the new ones are the same, and the new motor isn't as powerful as the 4.0 V6 in the gen 2.

the access cabs have a 1200 lb payload, the double cabs have a 1000 lb payload, so subtract that 650 lbs from that, and arrive at 550 lbs in the AC and 350 in the DC, and that includes drivers+passengers.

however, to expand on what I said before, while the truck is rated to tow that much, I would NOT want to do it regularly or for very far. sure, cross town I might pull a 6000 lb trailer once or twice, but full time living on the road? no way. I've towed my 3500 lb max Casita about 2500 miles now over all sorts of Northern California terrains (freeways, mountains, mountain freeways, back roads, dirt roads) and it handles fine.

 

I think its a bad idea to plan around dry weight. Instead, I'd plan for the max rated trailer weight, unless you've loaded the trailer to the max you ever think you will carry, and weighed it on a scale, and also measured the tongue weight separately, and come up with smaller numbers. don't forget to fill the water and propane tank, that will add several 100 lbs typically (my little 16' Casita has 16 gallons of fresh water, thats 128 lbs, plus 2x20 lb propane tanks, thats 170 lbs... many 17-19 foot trailers have considerably larger water tanks).

 

I didn't mean to put my proverbial foot in my mouth for you men . I'm still gnawing on it. I'm Blown Away by all your input!!! There are some good guys (and girls) out there! Yay! I had a couple of really bad experiences with a couple mechanics when I was just went in for a damn oil change and on two occasions they said I needed about $600 more worth of work on my car which was a load of you know what. I didn't fall for it. The Casita sounds like a really interesting option. I'm not sure if Towing a 19 - 22 foot older Airstream would be easy for me. As an artist I want to travel again and commune with Madre Earth, write and begin drawing again. Keep a journal of my travels. I do need an indoor shower for my beauty routine, (no makeup needed), a place 2 crash comfortably, cook, and surf the Internet. Someone mentioned the Tacoma series 2 with a V6 engine. I'm trying to do this all 4 around 40-50k tops. Obviously I'm looking into used trailers and vehicles . I was exposed to toxic black mold that made me quite ill and two of my Physicians suggested I go live in a tent... I think this is the best option for me. No joke. Thank you everyone

 

Welcome to the club!

 

This thread is giving me the twitches.

 

This thread makes me want to become a hermit and live in my Tacoma.

 

fyi, my 16' casita trailer was $12000 used (a 2008), and my tacoma access cab 4x4 trd offroad was $18k (also a 2008, with only 16000 miles from the original owner), so that nicely came in at $30k total. the 'deluxe' versions of the Casitas have a shower+toilet. we kind of wish we had held out for a 17, as that extra foot gives you room for larger water and grey holding tanks, plus optionally (in some versions) a larger bed that can either be 2 twins or a kind, but what we have is fine. its definitely a 'tiny house', but its fully equipped, said shower+toilet, a 2 burner stove, a 3-way (propane, ac, dc[useless]) fridge, a heater, a small air conditioner (a/c only).

we got the Tacoma over a larger truck because we want to do some offroad adventures, where we'll drop the Casita at a campground, then go explore the area... with the TRD OffRoad package and KO2 tires, a Tacoma can go just about anywhere a jeep can go. first major of such adventures will be Death Valley this winter, so we can finally visit a bunch of the off road places that our cars couldn't go on the dozens of prior trips to the park.