towing capacity...

2009 Tacoma dbl cab, I tow an '05 Jayco exp 19H gvwr at 4400 lbs. WDH and sway control. Also, camping supplies with fresh tank filled on camper. WDH helps a bunch, however I dont have experience with any air bag systems. The truck is strained on highway speeds near or over 65 mph. The truck seems to like the slower speeds. Either way I am impressed with all the traveling and hauling on the mid sized tacoma. The gas gauge moves to Empty fast when towing but is expected with the mid sized truck and heavy weight.

 

welcome to TW! have any pics of your truck with the camper hooked up?

 

not at the moment.

 

What kind of RPM's do you average? I've got a slightly smaller trailer that I've yet to tow with my new Taco. BTW, your trailer probably doesn't like high speeds any more than your truck does. Most trailer tires are rated for 65 MPH max.

 

Welcome aboard. Yep we need a mug shot of the truck. Here's one to ya

 

Sorry about the photos, still working on them. The rpms depend on what gear I tow in. Iusually tow in 4 when hauling a heavy load and that seems to run about the 3-4k range. If I run in 5, the tranny hunts around too muchan but when on flat ground and no head wind, I usually stay close to 2k rpm. I also travel with the tekonsha prodigy brake controller. It's aplug and play. Thanks to a post on this forum! It was the best purchase for hauling trailers!!

 

What is your "Towing Capacity" as printed on the door label ? I ask this becasue it sounds as if you are beyond the limits.

Towing Capacity = Dry Trailer Weight + Any weight added to the truck + Any weight added to the trailer

In short, Towing Capacity is everything you add to the truck that wasn't on it in the showroom ! That includes the trailer (yes), but also the hitch, and all the luggage you put in the truck. The weight doesn't have to be in the trailer to count in this number. So if your trailer is 4400# loaded, and your hitch is another 200#, you can see that you don't have to add too much water, tools, food, kids and clothes to the truck bed to exceed 5000# !!

I say this becasue the Towing Capacity number really tells you (among other things) how much weight the transmission can deal with and still survive. Since you really don't want a transmission shop 400 miles from home charging you 6X the normal fee, a calculating person might prefer to remain well under the maximum. Say for instance, your Towing Capacity is 5000#, then you might not want to haul more than 4000# and allow a 1000# safety margin.

 

I believe that would be the GCVWR, not the tow rating.

GVWR is the max allowed in the vehicle itself, curb + payload.

GCVWR is the max allowed for everything in the truck and In the trailer including truck and trailer themselves.

Subtract the trucks curb from GCVWR and you have the tow rating. 1 affects the other but they're listed as different things. It's all a tangled up mess really uness you diagram it all out, keep the crib notes handy, spin around 3 time and click your heels...

And there is 1 weight that almost everyone forgets to factor in. Tongue weight isn't just a number that stands alone, its payload. Tongue weight is intended to be factored in to the total. So if you have a gcwr of 10,000lbs, a truck curb of 3000 and a trailer at 7,000 that is properly loaded at 10% tongue, you're not loaded at max, you're 700lbs overweight.

Fun stuff.

 

I'm not sure if the op has a question or if he's just talking. Airbags won't help the truck feeling underpowered, it is underpowered

 

Isn't the towing capacity of a Gen 2 Tacoma with tow package 6500#?

 

So OP, do you have a question or are you just making a statement about your Taco?

 

My book shows 13 different Gen 2 models. The OP could have 3300, 3500, or 6500#... it wasn't clear to me. So I used 5000# as a nice round example so as not to hurt anyone's feelings.