Towing a 25ft 4400lb trailer

I see 5.29’s in your future! But seriously it’ll do it but you’ll have to take er slow. 50~55 mph would be the sweet spot sitting in 4th. Winding her up big time on hills just take it slow and enjoy the drive.

I recently towed my 3k dry about 3800lbs loaded down 20ft Rpod up flat highway 5 in ca. It went smooth. I’m on 5.29 gears and 285’s. Had her in 4th gear spinning 3100rpms at 55mph and getting about 10mpg. But plenty of power to make it happen. I also use a wdh and air bags.

 

load your trailer to get proper tongue weight, use the appropriate WDH and anti-sway device and properly manage your speed. Do not exceed 65mph and if possible I would even drive much slower at 55mph max. Keep your trans in S4/4th gear and increase your following distance. When going downhill, use your engine to help control speed and do not overheat your brakes.

 

I’m going to ask the RV place if they will deliver the trailer to southern Utah where it will sit in an RV park for a while. That way I don’t have to mess with towing it. Then I will work on getting a proper truck if I want to move it around

 

Given your intended use, I think you'd be good as long as you're not in a hurry. The weight isn't that bad, and it sounds like it'll be mostly empty since you can get whatever you need when you get to your destination.

Getting it delivered is even better though.



Now I wanna go back to Utah...

 

Nice set up...very similar to us. Enjoy the flexibility of towing with the Tacoma, and it's smaller footprint on the trails when we choose to go off the road.

 

Right on the edge of dangerous. Too much trailer for a Tacoma. Dry weight means empty that does not include things like batteries propane tanks, water etc. it mounts up real fast.

 

I'd tow that all day. I just sold my Wolf Pup 18TO that loaded with all of my gear weighed around 5000lbs. Towed it with a 4runner first problem free for several years and now my Tacoma. I bought a Bullet this year which is 33' long and 5800lbs DRY. I haven't officially weighed it but it should be coming in around the limit of the Tacoma. Honestly I like it better despite the weight. Having a tandem axle vs a single axle made a HUGE stability difference.

 

I tow 5000+ easily with my Taco no issues. Trailer has brakes. Flat terrain.

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has developed the J2807 set of recommended practices.
Tacoma meets this spec at the rated load. I would look to it rather than chat board posts.
People still change their synthetic oil every 3 months 3K also.
I have found an air bag system helps greatly in towing.
Love it. I can level out ANY load.

 

Don't worry about towing that size of trailer, as your truck can handle it.

However, you will most likely tow it for a little bit and want to step up to a bigger vehicle.

 

I have no doubt I could pull 10,000 LBS but I sure as hell wouldn't want to go anywhere with it. Question how long do you intend to keep the truck? How enjoyable would it be on intercity streets? How many people are you going to load in the truck? A camper has all the aerodynamics of a brick with speed that increases. White knuckle driving is not fun.

 

About a month ago, I had some bags of rocks in my trd pro. At the time, I thought it was about 1300 lbs but later found out it was a bit more. Other than additional wear on the truck, my only complaint was leaning in on/off ramps. I feel like there could be some extra stability gained from a rear sway bar. Given the cost of those trailers you guys are buying, it may not be a bad idea to test out a rear sway bar.

 

Strange, a couple months ago i had 23 60 lb. bags of concrete in my tacoma bed. It handled well and rode far better than empty.

 

We're at about 4k loaded, and the truck's around 6k with my camper setup. I don't have a WDH or antisway hitch.



You'll get 10mpg. Keep ECT on and don't let the transmission shift over 4th gear or it will hunt for gears.

The "tow package" is just a hitch and trans cooler - you have to get a brake controller too. I have https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P17NXQ hooked to

$15 Tekonsha Trailer Brake Controller Harness, Compatible with Select Toyota Tacoma, Tundra

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0781KTCPT for easy installation, it's literally plug in and done. Do your research on configuring it, and get it set up right to make sure you can still stop effectively. The trailer has brakes, so half this thread has zero idea what they're talking about.

The one you're looking at sounds a bit wider than my trailer (mine's 7' wide) - so you'll have worse aerodynamics and a harder time passing. That said, it sounds like it's a tandem trailer, so you will also have more stability.

 

just because you can, doesnt mean you should.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Kfl97b57s

anti sway set up or not, once they start wagging, you are along for the ride. Ski

 

THIS!!
notice in that video too, full size trucks with normal loads/sized campers get absolutely manhandled once the sway starts.

Just a couple weeks ago on our hunting trip, a small SUV pulling a mid sized camper, and I could tell it was on the edge way before we got to it, something was wrong, probably too much tongue weight combined with too small of a puller. Anyways, I slowed and my buddy asked why, I pointed it out and told him I'm backing off until I have a clean shot to pass. Another larger truck passed him and nearly put mini tow boy in the ditch. Of course the jackoff reduced his speed and just kept in going everyone else's safety be damned.

 

No. There are many reasons but the most important one is this truck was not created or designed to haul heavy anything. It's a little truck.
Zim

 

@Tacman19 What? why did you buy a truck if you're not going to use it? Of course the truck is designed to haul things, it's a truck.

@skidooboy If the trailer ever starts wagging, you gently let off the throttle and manually GENTLY engage the trailer brakes from the controller. The sway immediately stops. The video is completely irrelevant.

This isn't rocket science, it's towing.

Why does this feel like a Friday thread? There's a ton of stupid in here. Y'all should leave if you don't actually tow, you're just cluttering the thread with bs.

 

I noticed 3 very important things about this video.

1. Only 3 of the vehicles appeared to be overloaded.

2. Speed was a factor in most of them.

3. Once the sway started it did not appear that the driver did ANYTHING to mitigate the sway.

Towing anything of any size requires you to be more on point than you normally should be while driving, but the weight of the OPs trailer is below the Tacomas capability. Did you notice nobody who told him he'd be okay said "and drive like hell once you get her hooked up"? No. If he takes it slow and easy, he should be fine.

The people who get into trouble towing have no idea what they are doing from the get go.

 

I’m no expert in towing but have towed multiple times with my Taco and do so semi-regularly for recreation (camping trips not any type of regular work hauling) so I thought I would give my 2cents. The trailers I tow are about 3500-4500lbs, and honestly my Taco barely feels them, on passes and steep grades, is when you feel it but I can shift down for a bit to 2nd or 3rd if I really want to go 65-75 on them. With a WDH, and trailer brake, I personally would feel the comfortable weight of the Taco towing is 5500 and under, at that is nearly 1k pounds under its rated max, assuming you’re truck is properly setup to tow it, as that makes a difference (Trailer brake and WDH). And I’m speaking for just recreational towing, not daily hauling. When properly setup, it surprises me how well it tows, don’t think because the truck needs to be in higher rpms that it’s struggling, the engine is torqueless for even daily driving, so 4K+ rpm is where the engine starts to wake up. I did need to tow a trailer once earlier this year and the dry weight of it was 5500lbs, so I played it safe and had it delivered somewhere I had my brother pick it up with a diesel, as i requested it come with the water tanks already full, adding 500lbs of water. Guess what vehicle the trailer company owner uses to deliverer the trailers, a Tacoma lol He’s more than happy towing 6k pounds, as he uses WDH/trailer brake, and even then it’s 500lbs under the Towing limit.

Look on YouTube and you’ll find a towing test of the 3rd gen, and they tow a 5600lb trailer up the one of the largest passes in the continental US, getting to over 11k feet in elevation, the Taco uses mainly 2nd/3rd gear between 5-6k rpm but it does just fine and maintains speeds.

Whatever you do decide Op, be safe and enjoy your trips.

 

With Tacoma, a general rule when towing is to keep it under 4000 lbs dry and under 24 feet in length.

The main issue is that the Tacoma is too small relative to the trailer for stability, hence the white knuckle instability. The wheel base is too short, weight too light, truck too narrow, to really tow anything bigger, comfortably, with a Taco.

The wife and I are about to pull the trigger on a Forest River No Boundaries 19.8 with these specs:
SPECIFICATIONS
Hitch Weight:
395 lb.
UVW
3789 lb.
CCC
1006 lb.
Exterior Length:
22' 8"
Exterior Height:
TBD
Exterior Width:
88"
Fresh Water:
30.00 gal.
Gray Water:
30.00 gal.
Black Water:
30.00 gal.

We researched over 400 different trailers, saw nearly 100 in person, before deciding this had the best amenities for our needs and limitations for towing with the Tacoma.

Most of the time I'll be towing it with my Gmc Sierra 1500, but on the occasion we're going to take the Tacoma B/c we're gonna be hitting the off-road trails in addition to camping, we don't want to be limited by our tow vehicle.

A mid size truck and full size tow night/day difference even with the same trailer. The Tacoma is quite limited to what it can tow, comfortably. The biggest helps are a weight distribution hitch and CDCV adjustable shocks. The shocks help me increase the dampening when loaded.