New to Towing with a Tacoma

I am looking at trailers right now and I am looking at purchasing a Jayco Jay Flight SLX 260bhw. Mainly due to the size and sleeping capacity and the weight is within the spec even considering loading it up. I have been told that the husky center line distribution hitches are good and I am considering purchasing one of these. I know I need a brake controller I am looking at the Tekonsha P3 for that. Is there anything else that anyone would recommend? I am just looking for some helpful advise. I have a 2019 Tacoma TRD OR double cab V6 with tow package. Is there anything else I need to do to the truck to improve towing before purchasing the trailer? I have been told contradicting things from people so I am just curious what other people with a 3rd gen are doing.

 

A 26 ft may be a heavy trailer as I did not find the actual empty weight listed on various sites so what does the actual weight sticker list on the trailer?
Do not believe any sales person as a sale is all they care about and once you buy it its yours too bad if too heavy. Look at tongue weight too.
You will add between 1000-1500 lbs of stuff as listed weight is empty holding tanks, no propane tank, and no battery.
Then all your stuff in the Tacoma plus people.
I have a gen2 and had a 26 ft and it maxed out my Gross weight. It towed it but be aware your mileage will drop in half.

There is a towing bible on the site for more info with about 100 pages.
The Tacoma Towing Bible | Tacoma World
I highly recommend you rent a trailer for a weekend and test one out first before you commit to buy.
Good luck and enjoy whatever you decide.

 

Your payload rating is going to be the limiting factor. Most Tacoma's are rated to PULL 6400-6500 lbs. But your suspension probably won't handle near that much with anything more than a driver in the cab. There is a sticker on the driver's door jamb with a statement that reads "The combined weight of passengers and cargo should not exceed XXXX pounds).

The actual number varies, and every truck is a little different. Most 3rd gen DC 4X4's will be 900-1000 lbs. A 4X2 will be about 100 lbs more. There are exceptions and some might be as much as 1200-1300. You just have to look at YOUR truck.

You then figure 13% of the loaded trailer weight as tongue weight. If the trailer is under 5000 lbs you can get by without a WDH. Over 5000 and you need a WDH and you need to add another 50-100 lbs to the tongue weight to include the WDH.

Since I don't know what the payload is on your truck I'll play with some numbers on MY 2007. MY payload is 1200 lbs, but I have a 180 lb cap on it which gets me down to about 1020 lbs useable payload. If I were to pull a 4000 lb trailer that would use up 520 lbs (4000 X .13) of my payload leaving me 700 lbs. My wife and I are a combined 360 lbs. I would have about 340 lbs left over to carry cargo and other gear in the truck.

Somewhere around 4000 lbs is as much trailer as I need to pull with my truck. It will pull 6000+, but I'd have to leave my wife at home along with any other cargo in the truck.

You need to determine your trucks payload, get out a calculator and do the math for YOUR truck. But realistically somewhere under 5000 lbs is where you need to be with a Tacoma. Remember that is the weight of a LOADED trailer, not an empty one so figure 3500-4000 lbs for the empty trailer. Add 1000-1500 lbs to empty trailer weight to get you to 5000. You need to determine the typical weight of passengers. If you have small kids now, they will grow. My son was 5'2 and 140 lbs in the 8th grade. Three years later he was 6'2 and 240 lbs in the 11th grade.

Four adult men in the cab could max out your payload with no trailer and no cargo in the bed. Tacoma's aren't the best trucks to pull trailers with.

 

You need a new truck or a trailer that’s 1500lbs lighter. You don’t have the payload capacity to pull that trailer and have people in the truck to use the extra beds. You don’t have the engine or brakes necessary to pull, stop or control that trailer in anything other than ideal conditions. A 6000lb, 26’ trailer is solidly in the full-size truck realm.

 

Everyone has given you some really good advice. I've only towed a moderately loaded utility trailer a pretty short distance and I literally thought someone syphoned my tank over night. It was nuts how bad the milage was. The trailer salesperson will tell you whatever you want hear to make the sale.

 

I'm pretty much right at my truck's towing limit with this trailer I picked for my 2019 manual access cab Sport w/tow pkg. I have full armor as well which adds at least 100 lbs. Plus lots of crap in the bed. It towed fine. I recommend a Redarc brake controller because you generally get what you pay for. You also must have a TST tire pressure setup in the cab and a rear camera. I used cheapo ama.zon side mirror extenders and had no problems. The weight of the trailer is you biggest enemy...I averaged about 5-7 MPG on a trip through all southwestern states. https://coachmenrv.com/travel-trailers/freedom-express-select/17BLSE/7543

 

The trailer is rated at 4900lbs per sticker on the trailers frame. My truck is GRN325L-PRTSHA truck code (found on the VIN plate) rated at 11270 lb. GCWR and 6700lb TWR per the chart in owners manual page 180 owners manual with that truck code. Also my trucks GVWR 5600lbs per Vin plate sticker on door jam. I am mainly thinking long term here for the trailer but towable by my truck. I plan to upgrade to a bigger truck in a few years.

 

Don’t buy this trailer to tow with a Tacoma. It is within the manufacturer limits but you won’t enjoy it or be safe towing it. Buy a smaller trailer or buy the bigger truck now.

 

This^^^^. The owners manual gives you maximum weights that the truck can handle but there is a lot more to towing than the numbers in the OM. I would get either a smaller lighter trailer or a bigger more capable truck. Towing that with your truck is going to be a stressful and unpleasant experience.

 

I would not tow a 26 foot enclosed trailer with a Tacoma. The weight isn't the issue. It's the wind resistance and such on a trailer that size. I have towed a 14 foot enclosed trailer, EMPTY, and it was a nightmare in a stock Tacoma. That same stock Tacoma has zero issues towing 4500-5000 pounds when the trailer is an open deck trailer. Pushing the weight limits up to 6000-6500 on an open trailer where you aren't getting hit with cross winds and frontal wind resistance might be completely fine, but 6000 pounds dragging a giant box/sail around... I can't get behind that. You will probably hate life above 30mph.

 

I'm going to echo some of the others on here. This is probably more trailer than your Tacoma can safely handle. I could only find some basic numbers on a dealer site, but I'm seeing about 4300 lbs dry, 5500 GVWR, and advertised 535 hitch weight. The GVWR is fine, there's people on this thread who've done it with little issue, but I can easily see the hitch weight along exceeding the max for the Tacoma. The problem is once you add in all the extra features, battery, propane tanks, AND all your stuff, the actual weight can be hundreds of pounds heavier. I have a 31' TT that has an advertised hitch weight of 690 lbs, but when everything's loaded the actual weight is usually between 850-900 lbs. I think you're going to be over before you even add the WDH into the equation, because the hitch itself does go against the max hitch weight for the truck.

The other thing as YF_Ryan mentioned is that's a very long trailer for a Tacoma. 25' is often considered to be the max length for a 1/2 ton let alone a mid-sized truck, and this one's 26' long. This setup is going to be very prone to sway, no matter how well you load it up. Even with a 4 point WDH I don't know if I'd trust the performance. Plus this exceeds the rule of thumb for truck wheel base vs trailer length. If you upgrade to a Tundra or other 1/2 ton it'll tackle that trailer no problem. This looks like too much trailer for a Tacoma.

 

You'd be getting more gas filled ups since it cuts mileage in half.

But on hills or mountains, nope. Even wind storm. Too dangerous. Tacoma will be struggling uphill and you go nuts for driving too slow uphill.

I recommend to get smaller and lighter trailer for your Tacoma. If you prefer that trailer you mentioned, then I suggest you get full size truck.

Maybe 20' or less camp trailer. Or get a camper and place it in the truck bed that has a bedroom over the cab like @YF_Ryan's picture in his sig.

If you want big RV in that size or bigger, then get drivable RV instead, that way, you don't have to buy full size truck for that reason... Just get in the RV and drive.

 

Buy the trailer you want and a capable truck. My Tacoma struggled with a 18’ trailer. A half ton is a huge towing upgrade over a Tacoma, will get close to, if not better MPG when not towing.

 

My duder... please please please listen to the advice others are giving you. This will be a MISERABLE experience. Check out the towing section of my build thread linked in my signature if you want to check my taco towing street credibility. If you are dead set on this trailer and towing it with your Taco, at a minimum I recommend:

1. Heavier springs or an Add a Leaf or Air Bags to handle the tongue weight
2. 4.88 or 5.29 gears to give your taco mechanical advantage and stop the gear hunting (if you have an auto trans)
   
3. Overland Taylor tune or KDMax or similar tune by a reputable tuner to change the shift points, throttle responsiveness, and account for your gear change
4. A brake controller - I use a Red Arc tow pro elite but others use tekonsha and others and they perform equally well
5. An external trans cooler and Scan Gauge (if you have an auto trans)

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A cool story bro for your consideration....

I towed full time for almost a year and was driving from Texas to Northern Wyoming. 55 MPH headwinds from Cheyenne to Casper gusting to 70 MPH. I was in S3 most of the time on the freeway and in S4 if I was lucky towing an off-road teardrop trailer. Keep in mind my profile is smaller than that 26 foot behemoth jayco you are looking at. My XOC is 3500# loaded and I also had a roof top tent on the taco which didn't help. I averaged 6 MPG and would have run out of gas before hitting Casper but thankfully had 2, 5 gallon jerry cans that I used 20 miles south of Casper. I could barely maintain 60 - 65 MPH because of the wind and big rigs were passing me like I was standing still because it was an 80 MPH zone and 16L Detroit Diesels just go.

I tell you this in the hopes you reconsider towing something so large with something so small. Accelerating on the freeway will be miserable, maintaining speed will be miserable, dealing with high winds or weather will be miserable. Go with a full size, 1/2 Ton truck.

 

I've hit winds like that a few times. Few years ago, back in the ancient old days of when my truck was 100% stock...

It was on this trip when I got nailed twice. On the way out, I got slammed by a dust storm on interstate 8. Exactly as you say, I averaged 7 mpg for the entire 10 hour day, multiple tanks. If I was towing anything but a pop-up, I would have been forced to sit it out as the weather rolled through. It would have been too strong to even set up camp.

On the way back, I got hit again by headwinds between Utah and Colorado. That night, Memorial Day weekend, it snowed. That one wasn't as bad, I only averaged 11 mpg that day.




It's rare when weather hits, but when it does, I'm extremely glad that the truck both outweighs and out-stances the trailer. There have been surprise storms where the trailer wanted to fight, and it's nice to be able to bully the trailer and get to a safe stopping point, instead of visa versa.

 

I tow a Micro Minnie 2108TB. We pack very light. It handles it - but I’m not traveling all over the place for weeks at a time. The 95% of the time I’m not towing I like the smaller truck. Scanguage is a must along with a good brake controller

 

Take your time in looking at a what your Tacoma will haul reasonably well. Rule of thumb, 60-70% of the hauling capacity of your Tacoma when considering a travel trailer. (Been there, done that) I had a Jayco 154BH and it was a chore for my V6 Tacoma with the 5 speed tranny. I had an EZ Hitch weight distribution hitch. Look at the RedArc brake controller which should fit in one of the ports on your dashboard. Happy Camping!

 

Your v6 was a chore pulling a 17 foot camper? I hope my 2023 v6 won't be

 

Your 2023 V6 is a 3.7 with a 7 speed tranny? My 2006 is a 4.0 with a 5 speed transmission. My trailer dry weight was 2,700 pounds dry weight if I recall correctly ( 2020 Jayco 154 BH Baja)
Depends on how many bodies you are taking in your Tacoma, how much equipment you are taking, and if you can manage to fill your trailer fresh water tanks when you get to your camping spot.
And how much hill climbing you plan on doing.

Question: Did you get a Weight Distribution Hitch? Electric Brake Controller?

 

3rd gen has 3.5 with 6speed. Not 3.7 and 7 speed.