Travel trailer towing question

I am towing a Winnebago Micro Minnie that is probably about 3500# loaded, with cargo in the bed with Decked drawers and bed slide, and a Leer mid rise cap, I am not much of an auto guy, I build houses. My Tacoma is a 2017 SR5.....
From what I am seeing here, I should be towing in S4 with ETC on, correct? And get a transmission temp sensor?
Should I switch into S3 or D while towing? I guess the object is to keep the RPMs down right?
Thanks for the help/advice!

 

Which model weighs 3500 loaded? We will be leaving on a trip in a few days with our 1708. We are 3500+ dry (the smallest model), so I estimate 4200 with water, batteries, propane, and gear. On the 20 mile trip from picking it up, we experienced a headwind and were getting 8 mpg doing 60-65. Aside from the mileage (and major lack of power), it was rock solid. I am in s4 with ect on, and just got tuned Friday.

 

Negative. On climbs you want higher RPMs as these 3.5L V6s make more horsepower than torque and peak HP comes around 5K RPM. S4 for climbs and don't sweat it if you see RPMS between 4 and 5 k. The truck is built to handle the RPMs and you'll be fine as long as you regularly change your fluids per the manual. I am 3500# loaded down (pics in my build thread linked in my signature) and there were several spots in southern Colorado headed into New Mexico that I was in S2...S2... on the freeway chugging along behind some big rigs doing the same thing - shifting into lower gears to give the motor the mechanical advantage it needs to get up a steep grade.

I had a bad head wind on I-80 coming across Nebraska (no tune, no gears - running stock) and my transmission was hunting between 4th and 5th trying to keep speed at 70 MPh and finally I got sick of the hunting so I just locked it in S4 and cruised at 3,200 RPM the entire drive across Nebraska. Got shit mileage (I believe it was 9-10 MPG) but the Taco maintained speed, temperatures were safe, and the only issue was the poor mileage but a tune and some gears will help with that in the future. My point is that 3.2K RPM for 5 hours across the state with zero issues.

ECT on is driver's preference. It stands for electronic control transmission (or something close to that) and what it will do is it will change your shift points so your transmission holds gears longer and it downshifts as you are decelerating. I like it so I always have it on. Driver's preference.

Yes. Plenty of threads on popular smart phone apps and readers. The two important temps to program into the app or device is the TF1 and TF2 temps. TF2 is leaving the pan to go to the cooler so that will be your hottest temperature. TF1 is the fluid returning from the cooler. Get the gauge or the app and drive around unloaded for a few days or weeks so you can get a feel for how the truck behaves and what temperatures you see on the regular. Then you have a basis for comparison when you are towing.

I would be surprised to find a micro mini 3500# loaded. Are you sure that isn't 3500# dry? I just looked at RV Trader and the models I saw were all in the mid threes dry and gross was 7k. There is a reason those campers have two axles; all that weight they can carry.

 

That was my thought exactly. There is one single axle, but ours is the smallest model which the literature says is 3300#s. In all reality without batteries, propane, or water, it is over 3500#s. Add 300 for water, hundred plus for batteries and propane, and hundred plus for the weight distributing hitch, and it’s 4000+ without any gear.

 

A pic of all my shit down below to illustrate my configuration that is pretty new to me as I just bought the trailer about 2 months or so, ago. You've likely bounced off your truck's payload capacity as configured with the Leer and Decked system onboard so now you need to be diligent about weights your throwing into the bed as well as the coach but it's all doable if always keep the weight and load foremost in your mind. If you haven't bought your Weight Distributing Hitch, get the Andersen system because that entire hitch is half the weight, if not more, than the usual trunnion or load bar style WDH. It is also is a better and easier hitch system to work with so there's no compromise by going lighter.

As you get your load out configured like you think you would on a travel day, find a CAT Scale system near you and set up an account with their phone app. It's pretty bitchin to be able to pay and just drive up on the scales and get a real world measurement of your weight distribution, your front and rear axle weights, as well as your trailer axle weights all at the same time. I did that with my rig that has a 4200# published weight and after 2 measurements, I played with the WDH and easily was able to put 250# more on the steering axle than before and that put me right in the design specs for all published axle weights as well as being well under the GCVWR with a good, safe margin.

Gas mileage is just plain gonna suck. There's no getting around it. It's not exclusive to the Tacoma. My previous F150 SuperCrew Lariat 4WD with the 5.4 Triton V8 got the same 8, 9, 10 mpg when towing my previous 26' stix and tin travel trailer. Without the TT, it was 16mpg with no problem.

I'm finding there's no one way to run the transmission. For some stretches, I'm manually shifting up and down just like a stick shift. Other times it's pop it in DRIVE and actuate ECT. It's all 'seat of the pants driving using my ears, eyes, scanning temps on the ScanGauge, and making best practice judgements all the time. That's why hauling can be tiring after long periods.....you're paying attention ALL THE TIME. There's no good time to lean back and vegetate on the scenery on those long passes.

Check the left front corner on the trailer for your weights and capacities. The actual dry weight will be there along with the total capacity of the trailer and just know, there is no safe and legit way a Tacoma will safely pull your trailers max load, especially if you're a tandem axle.