Why is everyone everywhere afraid of mid-range RPM while towing?

On a stock 6MT with stock tires. Maybe 4th gear at 2600rpms, which is 55mph

 

I just drove my new trailer home.... Was almost exactly that.

 

Sweet. What did you buy?

 

Keystone Springdale 1790FQ. Rolling hills in south-central New Mexico, handled very well. I love my truck now more than ever....

 

Maybe apples and oranges but I have a fleet of equipment with engines from 18hp to 70hp. Some air cooled, some diesel. Every day they leave the garage they spend almost their entire day with the throttle to the wall. And they all last years. Some have over 5000 hours at full throttle so do a conversion and that’s like 300,000 miles at full throttle.

High revs are where the cooling and oil pressure are also working at maximum.

 

I’d be more worried about an engine that never really gets to rev and make power.

 

On grades, Anywhere between max Torque RPM and max HP RPM. Speed an mpg be damned!
On my 01 3.4 l it's about 3500 to 4800.
Makes a lot of fan noise!
That's with 3700lb travel trailer.
Think electric fan would be nicer! ? Anybody? ?

 

People seem to think an engine that is turning at a higher rpm is working harder. It’s not.

 

It's amazing that this is an issue for some. Before OD most engines were running at over 3000 rpm on the highway. No one thought anything of it.
OD has spoiled us. Some performance engines have no torque until you hit 3-4000 rpm.
I almost bought a Honda S2000 back in the day. That engine didn't have any power until you hit about 5000 rpm. It wanted to be revved.
When I picked up my new trailer and drove it home (dry weight 4300#), it maintained about 2500-3000 rpm on the highway most of the way. Less than half of redline. It wasn't bad. Yes, a bit louder, but the engine was not struggling at all.

 

V6 engines I would estimate between 2200-2600rpms is good for cruising on flats. I try to keep the speed 55-60 mph preferably. More safe and better gas mileage and relaxed.

 

I have been towing a travel travel that weights 3800 lbs plus another 500 in gear. Two kids and wife. It does well for what it is.

HOWEVER: something odd happened this weekend; while on the way up to lake arrowhead I turned on a very steep street from a full stop and truck had no power. I was worried that it would even roll back. I had my pedal pressed all the way down amd truck would NOT rev higher. It didn’t stop but I was going about 5-10mph(maybe even slower..I didn’t really check I was worried and focused on what was going on). No mechanical issues or bogging down. The truck would just slowly Rev even though I had the gas pedal pressed all the way down. Maybe 2500rpm.
i had it on s4 and ect on. I went s3, s2, and. S1 no difference.
Thank God truck didn’t roll back I just slowly inched up.

Anyone have similar problem?

 

What year is your truck? Does it have a fuel pump recall?

 

I wish I knew why the 4.0 1GR-FE seems to burn so much more gas at higher revs.
my older Audi (turbo 4cyl) didn't really care.
It would get like 25-30mpg all day no matter what, even if you drove it like you stole it.

I don't get why, in that case, I see 5th gen 4runners (same engine) so often going fast on the highway, as if it's not guzzling fuel.
But maybe they get some more mpg with the rear hard top being aerodynamic.
Not sure if they're geared differently; mine is 6spd manual but 5th gen T4R's are auto

last time I towed was a U-haul to move. Seeing as that was considered a one-time expense as part of moving, I didn't really care about using some more fuel so I did. Like revving higher to get up to speed, and so on. Because it was a one time thing (moving with a U-haul is not a weekly affair)
Sometimes I regret not getting a turbodiesel. They seem to have more power, and a turbo to not lose power at altitude.
And those probably tow better, for whoever tows more often.
I don't know much about other trucks or diesels,
but if a 2nd gen Tacoma can be $17k, I'm sure there's plenty of turbodiesel trucks from 2012 and older that can be bought for cheaper.
Obviously nothing current/new model year, it would cost way more.
I got smoked at a green light by an old ass boxy Ford diesel truck (stickshift) that didn't look like it was even trying. Guy drove off like that at every light. Was kind of jealous and wanted the truck. Even the one time I actually tried to keep up; it didn't work.

Was recently told by someone with a 2nd gen that their mpg went up after replacing fuel pump.
I don't understand the fuel pumps on these trucks.
On cars, usually LPFP's fail at 100k mi. Owners also run the tank empty (no lubrication or cooling for pump) and fail to change the filter on time.

Toyota, in all their wisdom, decided to not make the filter separately replaceable. It's integrated with the pump.

I'm not sure if there's a way to test health percentage of the pump accurately, versus just a straight pass/fail it works or it doesn't type of thing.
Which is how it usually is.
Usually a car will have some issues like extended crank or no crank, only to find out upon hooking up a fuel pressure gauge that the pump doesn't make enough pressure, or it quickly bleeds off rather than holding it.

On the plus side, the part doesn't look too expensive.

Been a while since I checked recalls. Last time I did, service advisor only told me about leaf spring replacement.
I'll see if there's any more open ones.
Maybe if I sneak into the back mechanic shop and hand a tech a $20, me and him can search my VIN on his computer to check TSB's too.
Because TSB's are usually kept secret, unlike recalls.
They would be nice to know about.
Though I don't know of a way to quickly capture/download all the info from them.
Obviously if there's 20 TSB's and each is 4 pages long, there isn't enough time for me to stand there on the tech's computer reading them.

 

My house is at 5200'. My truck goes to 2800 RPM 3 times on the drive from town (4500') home. Been doing this drive for close to 15 years now, and there's one moderate hill and two bigger hills. I just whomp the piss out of my truck when I need it to go, and it gets up and goes. God forbid I have to move over and pass, and then I really make it angry when it shifts into 3rd going 75mph. It's fine, ain't gonna break the truck

 

It’s a 2017 4x4 Trd off road


I don’t think it has a recall, I’ll check

but truck drives fine other wise. Just concerned it wouldn’t rev to make torque

 

You have me think of my younger years. Ya not that long ago. Japanese cars from 90 on the highway lived at 2900-3500 rpm. At least the for bangers. I got my 240sx (ironicly truck engine from nissan pickup in usa) to 160ish k miles DRIFTiNG And enjoying track days. That motor would spend hours on thr track 3500-6500 rpm. Jet black oil in 3 days no lie. Ran great when i took ot out and put in 350z motor. =)

 

It's not always the weight that matters, wind resistance can make a 2000 pound trailer tow like it was 4000 lb.. I pulled a 5x8 foot V-nose enclosed trailer from western NC to South Florida. Even with the V-nose cutting the relative wind, the trailer was two feet taller than the cab of the truck and at 70 mph it felt like pulling a barn door flat to the wind. I had about 1700 pounds total (trailer weighs 875 empty), had to drive in 4th (auto trans) because it kept hunting in OD, ended up at 3000-3100 rpm all the way down and back, averaged 14 mpg for the trip. Didn't mind the gas so much, but the 4L sounds BUSY at 3K

 

My wholly uninformed opinion is that wear is a function of “load” multiplied by RPM.

If the truck will last 300k with “normal” use, and we assume that averages out to 60mph and at 2k rpm, the that’s 600 million revolutions at a “normal”load. If you run at 60mph and 4K rpm, the you’ll hit 600 million revolutions at 150k. If the “load” is 33% more, the you’d expect the truck to only last 100k miles.

Of course most people aren’t towing for 100k miles...

More importantly, a higher RPM is better for a smaller engine. If you’re pulling the same weight, the smaller engine simply has to run more cycles to push out the same power. Forcing the engine lower would just lug it and increase load.

So if you’re towing 5% of the time, maybe that’ll reduce the life from 300k to 290k? Even if it reduces the lifespan by 50k, that’s not much compared to the cost of a new truck.

So the main legit reason it that an engine running close to peak power simply doesn’t have much left. As a matter of comfort, it’s often nice to floor it and still have a substantial reservoir of available power.

 

torque is far more efficient than HP

for a rationale the conclusion serves itself

Torque id far more efficient than HP

HP is a timed factor............. Torque is Not

Torque can be multiplied............. HP can not

the engine is performing at tself BEST at peak Torque............. NOT peak HP


iv said many times b4 ' if an engine is NOT running correctly at Torque Peak............. PARK IT !!!! '

save for getting down the hi-way Faster

it serves little purpose to rev past the torque peak

where th engine is running at its BEST !

 

Wind resistance increases with speed. 70mph is too fast to be towing. Decrease speed to 55-60 and use only 4th gear. Small gas engines don’t make enough torque at low RPMs and your are loading your engine and trans even more by driving fast and using OD gears.