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Does anyone tow a 24 towlite with a toyota tacoma 4.0L v-6 with tow package. The truck has a 6500lb. GVWR. The 24 towlite has a 6000lb. GVWR and a UVW(wieght of trailer) of 4009lbs. Would this work?

campthewestcoast said:

Does anyone tow a 24 towlite with a toyota tacoma 4.0L v-6 with tow package. The truck has a 6500lb. GVWR. The 24 towlite has a 6000lb. GVWR and a UVW(wieght of trailer) of 4009lbs. Would this work?

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Those numbers possibly work, but I'd be more concerned with the axle loading the trailer tongue is going to put on your truck. If the unloaded weight of the trailer is 4009, the tongue weight will be about 600#. And, I suspect it might actually be more. You're not going to go camping with just you, an empty trailer and an empty truck.

Check your door sticker on the truck for the GAWR (Gross Axle Weight Rating). You should also find the UAWR (Unloaded Axle Weight Rating) there too. The difference is how much you can add to each axle with the weight of people (you count in this), the trailer tongue, and anything like equipment, food, luggage, etc.

Even if you're under the limit, your margin of safety is very slim. Ideally, you should keep the loading below 80% of the limits.

- Jack

Les.
The trailer is going to be around 4,400 lbs. when loaded with water, propane and etc. Tongue weight should be 10 to 15 percent of the gross trailer weight, at 12.5 percent that would be 550 lb. tongue weight. I don't know what model Tacoma you have but if the tow rating is 6,500 lbs. with a good WD hitch you should be ok. As jack said check the axle ratings but they should be ok. I tow a 2209T with a 4.0 Ford Explorer, trailer weights over 4,000 when loaded and my tow rating is only 4,550, due to the 3.55 axle ratio, this is far from ideal but it does work, but I have a transmission temperature gauge, the temperature goes very high when the auto torque converter is unlocked, even tho it is an auto transmission, I manually control the 5,4 3 down shifts to keep the torque converter locked as much as possible to keep trans oil temp down. Starting on steep hills and long hills causes trans temp oil to go very high, actually to high. The Explorer has 2 stock trans oil coolers. It was fine with the 95T which was almost 500 lbs lighter. GVWR is important but you also need to know the tow rating of your Tacoma?

I want to add that I would not recommend that anyone go as close to their max tow rating as I am, if you do you are inviting trans failure or other problems.

I have about the same weight combination as you, see my signature below. I have towed to Chincoteague, VA, Bar Harbor, ME, Michigan and other places with no problems. Some very steep and long hills have been encountered on some of those trips. You should be OK, just don't think you can hill climb and keep up with highway speeds all the time. Gear down and slow down.

Some added information:

Take a look at some of these threads for more info from our members.

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