Cross Country Car Haul - 3rd Gen

Hello Tacoma World Community,

I have been an observer for a while, poked around a little but now I am ready to dive deep into 'it'.

So like the title indicates I would like to take my 3rd gen double cab long bed Tacoma equipped with a tow package from the factory (6,400 lbs tow capacity) roughly 3000 miles across the beautiful United States while towing a second vehicle (3,583 to 3,693 lbs) on a trailer.

I don't want to get into too many personal details about all this, just logistics and facts in this thread please.

I would like to know first off has anyone actual done anything equivalent to this with success? What are the challenges encountered? How much prep work went into your Tacoma beforehand?

I understand this is getting close to the capacity of my vehicle and tow capacity is a safety line that, when crossed bad things happen. Therefore before getting too far in the wrong direction I wanted to get the community's input.

Thanks for reading and taking time to respond.

Rob

 

Doesn’t matter what gen taco, it’s really about the total weight. Don’t know how much the trailer weighs but I assume the combo car and trailer is 5000 to 5500lbs maybe more. That is a lot of weight to tow cross country. Yes your truck is rated for that much but it will be a tough, stressful, unpleasant cross country tow. You also have to look at the GVWR. That includes curb weight of truck, passengers, stuff in the bed of the truck and hitch/tongue weight. You may likely exceed GVWR. And remember your mpg will be lousy probably 9 to 10 mpg. Have you considered shipping the vehicle cross country and enjoying the drive?

 

With a weight distributing hitch i wouldnt worry a bit. Mpg will suck but completely doable.

 

With what trailer? UHaul gets persnickety about renting their car haulers to a Tacoma. I won't mention how to get around that.

You don't want to go into personal details, but in my mind (and in the minds of others) it's all about the personal details, for a reason. Pulling that kind of weight across country is a huge pain in the ass. Its exhausting. And I say that as a crazy ass that actually likes pulling trailers across country. Whatever it is, I personally wouldn't consider it unless it was a no-other-option critical.

Logistically, it's possible. It will be slow, tedious, and cost you twice the fuel you budgeted for, but it's possible.

 

Are you hauling a 3 series Bimmer, a RAV4, CUV, SUV, etc. by the weight, it’s likely a smaller 2-4 door car. That will be easier on the truck than a CUV. But as others have said, it can be stressful if you’re not comfortable with the load.

To really know, drop $65 on a one day rental and do an out and back for 75 miles.

 

It appears the U-haul trailers weigh 2210#. Presuming you are at the higher end of the car weight, that puts you at ~5900#.
Your biggest issue is tongue weight. At 11% you will be at your max for the truck. If it exceeds this % you will be over your recommended tongue weight.
Now subtract this tongue weight from your cargo capacity and that is all you have left for you and any other items you will be loading into the truck.
You would need to weigh your truck beforehand and add in your weight/other passengers weights to see what is left over for overnight bags, supplies while you are traveling.
As others have said, it won't be a fun trip, though it will pull better than a travel trailer at the same weight as it won't be like a giant sail behind you.
When you add up the cost of rental, the extra gas to pull and probably an extra day of travel, since you will likely take more time and overnight costs, it may be less expensive to find a car hauler to do it professionally.
My TT is about 5000-5100# fully loaded and I was able to keep my tongue weight down to about 11% with weight distribution of cargo. I don't mind pulling for 6 hours at a time, but beyond that it is tiring.
If it was me I would find a reputable hauler for the car.

 

Some quick math too: you’re going to drop ~6-8 mpg. Let’s say 8 for worst case. 2000 miles by 8 mpg equals ~90 more gallons for the trip. That’s about $250 more in gas. Perhaps an additional night in a hotel. Call it $375 now. For ~$800, I’ve seen cross country quotes for transport. $1200 for enclosed.

Food for thought.

 

I've towed trailers across the country at least five times with several different vehicles. Your truck-trailer combination doesn't sound like a good match. You might okay towing a car trailer across town with your Tacoma, but a cross county haul exceeds it's reasonable ability. When you add up the gas and wear on your truck, you'll save money by hiring a professional car hauler company. Or, maybe you could pay a buddy to go on a road trip with you and drive the other car.

 

I tow a ~2500lb vehicle on a ~1800lb trailer with my Tundra. Tried it once with the Tacoma and traded the Taco in for a Tundra the next day. With a WDH doing the trip ONCE you would probably be OK but it is not pleasant towing anything remotely "heavy" with a stock Taco.