I towed a camper ... and was highly disappointed [Sport 6M]

[Kielly]

Towed a rental camper through the Alberta Foothills and into Kananaskis Country this weekend.

I rented a 3000lbs dry weight camper as I figured something smaller would be much better going through the hilly terrain, man was I wrong.

Let's start with the sag. Good god. I understand the hitch weight got a lot to do with the sag, and the tongue weight was heavier than average but I'd take my bet and say it wasn't far from any bump stops. I had to tighten the sway bars on the weight distribution hitch to get it as level as I could, still had some sag afterwards and was still fairly bouncy.

Starting off in 1st definitely takes a little more umph as expected, and city driving was actually quite pleasant, hardly noticed the camper (once the weight distribution hitch was setup), but highway driving was a nightmare.

The trailer its self didn't push or pull my truck at all, unless I hit a fairly big bump. But the powertrain was horrible. My cruising gear was 4th, I could do 5th going down hill or at a crusing speed on a flat. 6th, forget it exists. Hitting a slight incline I could keep my current speed in 4th by hitting a steeper incline I had to bang it back to 3rd and stay damn near on redline to gain or keep my current speed.

Going out my motor sounded fine, the turbo was definitely working overtime which do worry me if I was to ever haul a camper long trip (this one was about 150km there and back). Coming back my motor actually started to concern me. Under load going up any inclines it sounded absolutely god awful and was genuinely concerned I was going to grenade it at certain points. I can't replicate or even explain the sounds I was hearing at times, I wish I had to get a video.

Fuel milage, lmao. I didn't record it properly, but I did note what I burnt in 114km of towing the camper, I would burn in 210kms without towing, comparing it to a similar trip I take every weekend.

Overall, not impressed. This thing is rated to tow 6500lbs, and after towing 3000lbs I can very confidentiality say I will never tow over that with this truck and will really have to consider towing even 3000lbs again.

Granted, I had about 700lbs payload with passengers and gear (including myself), but still.

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[wire4money]

Never towed a travel trailer, have you? As far as sag, you need a properly adjusted WDH, even though it’s only 3k lbs. as far as performance and mileage, you are dragging a huge sail through the air at highway speeds. Your mileage will drop to less than half, and top gears will be useless. Everything you describe is completely normal. Try towing with a 3rd gen and get back to me.

 

[TacoFreak]

Interesting towing observations. One thing I am not surprised about is the drop in gas mileage. Actually, I am surprised that it was not more. I drove a 2nd gen for 6 years and was very happy with it until I started to tow an equipment trailer that weighed about 3/4 of its towing capacity. After about 6 months I traded my Taco in on a Tundra with a 5.7L V8 and it towed like a dream. It never got great gas mileage, but it went down very little when towing.

Your midsize towing experience sounds pretty normal to me. If you want an effortless towing experience you really need a 1/2 ton IMO.

 

[Kielly]

Interesting towing observations. One thing I am not surprised about is the drop in gas mileage. Actually, I am surprised that it was not more. I drove a 2nd gen for 6 years and was very happy with it until I started to tow an equipment trailer that weighed about 3/4 of its towing capacity. After about 6 months I traded my Taco in on a Tundra with a 5.7L V8 and it towed like a dream. It never got great gas mileage, but it went down very little when towing.

Your midsize towing experience sounds pretty normal to me. If you want an effortless towing experience you really need a 1/2 ton IMO.

Agreed, I definitely couldn't complain about the gas milage. My buddy in his 2nd gen burns a helluva lot more than I do towing his, he has to bring an emergency Jerrycan with him lol.

a 1 Ton and a new camper is on my radar for sure, I don't expect to be towing much with the Tacoma, otherwise I would've bought a full sized lol. Just wasn't expecting the horrible engine noises I experienced, don't mind keeping it near redline, but when your engine starts to sound like popcorn it makes you wonder lol.

 

[bitflogger]

While much improved over prior generation, my pre-sales testing made it obvious to me the manual vs automatic would have been a poor choice for towing. More important than the slightly reduced power output was that narrow split between the top gear ratios.

The occasions when my 4th gen does more work than a prior gen was good at are not most of my use so I can easily live with it because I don't want to be driving a larger pickup most of the time.

 

[TacoFreak]

Just wasn't expecting the horrible engine noises I experienced, don't mind keeping it near redline, but when your engine starts to sound like popcorn it makes you wonder lol.

Yeah that would bother me too and I would love to know what the cause was. Too bad you didn't get a video, but there was no way you could know you would have that happen.

 

[Wanderlust]

Nice write up. Sorry about your experience. I had a similar experience towing a 2500lbs 5x8 U-Haul from Colorado to Florida. The sag was egregious, and I felt like I bottomed out on every bump. (Though, I did have weight in the bed so that may have contributed). I feel like the coil spring rear is a little underdeveloped for our trucks. I believe if we're going to tow with these trucks often, we should look into stronger aftermarket springs.

 

[FlyAngler]

I have a different model Tacoma, I know. Still, in case it is helpful...

I tow a 3500 lb dry weight travel trailer with my Trailhunter. Mileage goes down as expected. Towing power is good. I do get substantial squat even with my weight distribution hitch (WDH), but it is manageable/acceptable. I put in an Airlift 5000 to deal with potentially heavier loads. Brake controller worked well.

I wouldn't tow it without the WDH. It rides wonderfully stable (no sway) with it and I believe I would get a lot more squat without it.

Bottom line, I think the trailer you rented may be within your truck's capabilities when set up differently. Which when you're renting, might be difficult. Not a great solution, I know. I guess if I were in your position, I wouldn't give up if I wanted to rent again. I would ask about a WDH at the rental place and consider adding an Airlift if you plan to use it often.

Just my 2 cents. I've learned a lot about this since I got my travel trailer earlier this year, but I am definitely not an expert or very experienced. I just figured describing my limited recent experience and lessons learned might help you or someone else reading this. YMMV Weight my comments as you see fit.

 

[Sagebrush]

Welcome to towing.

 

[Spike]

How fast do you go? We often tow a 16' Casita camper which is admittedly more rounded off than yours at up to 65 - 70 mph although often lower and get mileage in the upper teens. Auto trans in tow/haul mode.

 

[TacoFreak]

How fast do you go? We often tow a 16' Casita camper which is admittedly more rounded off than yours at up to 65 - 70 mph although often lower and get mileage in the upper teens. Auto trans in tow/haul mode.

Wow - upper teens when towing with a midsize is excellent mileage IMO.

 

[omar286]

I towed 3500lb the other day with my SR and that thing barely squat, the leaf springs are not as comfortable to regular drive but they do the work for payload and towing nice. I have an automatic so transmission wise didn’t have any issue. This is a picture with a load of 1000lb approximately of pickets on the bed.

 

[TacoFreak]

I towed 3500lb the other day with my SR and that thing barely squat, the leaf springs are not as comfortable to regular drive but they do the work for payload and towing nice.

Yep - there are good reasons why all of my other Toyota trucks had rear leaf springs.

Pickups have become mostly daily drivers for a lot of people and only occasionally used as trucks. So rear coils have taken over to give people that SUV ride in a truck, and at the cost of some usefulness. If towing is important then there are ways to fix this, but I imagine most buyers really don't care.

 

[TacoEd]

Not sure if you looked into it but maybe try higher octane fuel. I haven't pulled our camper yet with my Taco but I'm expecting the Hybrid to make a difference. I've had my 2024 TRD Pro less than two months. Before that I had a 2018 Honda Ridgeline and pulling my 3100 lb camper was marginal dropping speed up hills. On a camping trip last year and just before leaving Walsenburg CO, I decided to try the highest octane (Maybe 91) and man what a difference. I could pull at 80 up the big hills! I'll find out about my Taco in a few weeks.

 

[BAQ717]

I’ve read mostly positive reviews of towing with the 4G Tacoma. This is actually the first negative review I’ve come across. I imagine most all of the reviews I’ve read are of automatic variants.

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