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Originally Posted by dbrown
Hi,
We just bought a Trail Manor 2720SD and are hoping to tow it
with a 2003 Tacoma V6 3.4L manual transmission 4WD extended cab.
When we bought the truck we had the dealer add the 'tow package'
to a truck on the lot. But in researching what this means since we
bought the Trail Manor we have become confused about the
actual towing capacity of the truck. The Toyota owner's manual says
3500 lbs w/o tow package and 6000 lbs with tow package. So all along
we have been assuming that having the tow package meant we were
rated at 6000 lbs.
But the dealer has now informed us that the owner's manual is talking about
a *factory-installed* tow packeage, not the *dealer-installed* package that
we have. We have been feeling like we were mislead, since no one
informed us of this distinction when we bought the truck. We knew we
were planning to use it as a tow vehicle, but the dealer did not
explain what the choices were. It is now apparent that the dealer-installed
tow package just included the hitch receiver and a 4-pin plug and wiring.
More recently, however, the service representative has told me that the
actual rating is 5000 lbs for my truck with the dealer installed tow package.
I have asked him for a published source of this number, but so far have not
had any reply. Why would it not say this in the owner's manual?
Can anyone shed light on this question?
And more to the point is this a reasonable combination? We do live in
Colorado and expect at least some of our travels to be mountainous.
Thanks for any input.
-dave
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Well, first of all you should immediately stop thinking in terms of published "tow ratings". A tow rating is a calculated number determined by subtracting the weight of an empty, no options, bare bone, no passengers, no cargo, 3 gallons of fuel, 150 lb driver vehicle from the real weight restriction which is the Gross Combined Weight Rating (GCWR). As long as a proper strength Class III/IV hitch is properly mounted to the frame, your true (sea level) tow capacity is determined by subtracting from the GCWR the weight of your truck with all the people, cargo, and fuel on board that you take on a camping trip. Your empty 4X4 will weigh around 4000 lbs...by the time you fill the tanks and add passengers and cargo, a reasonable loaded truck weight will likely be around 4600 lbs. Subtracting
that number from your truck's GCWR (9000 lbs) means your
actual tow capacity is around 4400 lbs.
NOTE: On manual transmission light duty trucks (like the Tacoma) you have to be aware that the clutch is often a critical factor in the tow rating...somewhat surprisingly the automatic transmissions on these trucks often have much higher GCWRs/tow ratings than the manual transmission versions. That, however, does not
appear to be the case with the Tacoma...all the online specs I could find made no differentiation between manual and automatic equipped Tacomas. You would, however, be very wise to check your owner's manual very closely to see if it has different "tow ratings" for manual and automatic equipped versions of your truck.
A loaded 2720SD is going to weigh around 3600 to 3900 lbs depending on what options it's equipped with and how much water/food/clothing/camping gear you stuff into it.
Since a modestly loaded 2720SD is about 800 lbs less than your likely actual tow capacity, it would appear that you may be just fine. But before you do "the happy dance", keep in mind that these numbers are for sea level operations. At 6000 feet, your engine's power is reduced by 20% from its sea level rating and at 11,000 feet (e.g. the Eisenhower tunnels and most Colorado passes), the power is down 40% from the sea level rating. As engine torque is one of the primary determinants of GCWR, you should also derate your GCWR by about the same amount...IOW, at 6000 feet your GCWR is actually more like 7200 lbs and your available tow capacity is more like 2600 lbs.
What that means is although your truck has enough frame/suspension strength to handle a 2720SD's weight, it is going to be very working very hard on every climb into our Colorado mountains...the transmission will be in 3rd gear an awful lot of the time and you will be hard pressed to keep the speed above about 45 mph. The good news is that you have the 4X4 with a 3.91 rear axle ratio (and not the 2WD version with a terrible-for-towing 3.15 ratio); the bad news is that your engine only puts out 220 ft-lbs of torque at a moderately high 3600 RPM.
It will be imperative (and I mean
IMPERATIVE) that you use a Weight Distributing Hitch (WDH) with 1000 lb spring bars when towing a 2720SD with your Tacoma. Totally ignore the tongue weights that TM publishes...a realistic tongue weight for a loaded 2720SD is around 650 to 700 lbs. A Tacoma's rear suspension will not handle that kind of weight and it's front end will be nearly floating off the ground. With a WDH (and those 1000 lb bars), you'll be able to roughly equally distribute that 700 lb tongue weight between the front and rear axles of your truck...so it will sit about level and the rear frame/suspension/tires won't be grossly overloaded.
A couple of salient points from my own towing experiences with a 2720SL here in Colorado. The first two seasons I towed this trailer (which weighs about the same as a 2720SD) with a Jeep Cherokee 5 spd 4WD that had a 4.0 liter I6 with the same 220 ft-lb max torque rating that your Tacoma has (though it reached that torque at a lower engine RPM). The Jeep had about the same weight and GCWR as your Tacoma as well. It also had a 3.07 axle ratio and that made crossings over most passes a 2nd gear, 30 mph misery. And it did not have the factory tow package so the radiator wasn't heavy duty and that led to very high coolant temps on nearly every climb. After the 2nd unhappy towing season with the Jeep, I traded it for an '03 Tundra V8 with a 3.91 axle and 315 ft-lb max torque. Even with a much better axle ratio (same as yours) and a third more torque, climbs over the mountains were still not exactly happy. Although the truck could maintain the speed limit with the trailer in tow on the steeper climbs (and stay with traffic), it had to be run in 2nd gear (about 4600 RPM) a lot of the time. So I did some mods...headers, muffler, and axle regearing to 4.30...and now it tows like a champ...almost no downshifts and easily maintains the speed limit.
So, IMHO, for happy towing of even a moderate weight TrailManor (e.g. 2720SD or 2720SL) here in Colorado, you need a vehicle with around 350 ft-lbs of torque and at least a 4.10 axle ratio. Your Tacoma has the frame strength but just not enough engine for happy mountain towing...but it will get a 2720SD across the mountains (albeit slowly) and the lack of power probably will be tolerable for at least a couple of years. So my advice is go ahead and get the TrailManor but also start saving up to buy a replacement truck in about 2 to 3 years.
Towing a 2720SD with a Tacoma V6 manual
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