Towing with Tacoma?

Hi All..........

After years of fishing out of a modified aluminum boat (15 1/2' Greggor) I
now have the time to fish more (retired) and can afford a larger more stable
boat. I am looking at something around 17'-18' in the Ranger line, but may
go with another brand if it seems right.

My real concern is my tow vehicle. I have a low miles 2000 Toyota Tacoma
4-WD PU and am concerned that one of these boats may be too heavy for my
truck. One of these rigs w/trailer must weigh in around 3000+ lbs and that
is probably near the limit for my Toyota, but I don't know that and am
looking for others with experience with towing boats of this class with
trucks similar to mine to offer their thoughts. I see that the trailers come
with surge brakes but will that be enough? I am a conservative driver with a
lot of towing experience through the years. I live in San Diego and mostly
fish locally, but will probably do some fishing in the Central Valley so
longer trips north are a possibility too.

I could go to a smaller boat but am hesitant to do this as the boat would
probably be less stable. I have to add that the stability issue is
important to me as I am balance challenged (no, not from too much beer ;-)
from a back surgery a few years ago that damaged some nerves in one of my
legs. So I really favor the 17-18 length.

I suppose the I could move up into a larger truck but with the cost of the
new boat doing a truck also would really hurt.

Any experience?

brian

I tow my 17' fiberglass boat with a 3.0 liter Ford Ranger. Other than the
fact that the truck now has over 100k miles, it pulls pretty good.


"brian" wrote in message
news:XaOlc.17404$ph.10359@fed1read07...
Hi All..........

After years of fishing out of a modified aluminum boat (15 1/2' Greggor) I
now have the time to fish more (retired) and can afford a larger more
stable
boat. I am looking at something around 17'-18' in the Ranger line, but may
go with another brand if it seems right.

My real concern is my tow vehicle. I have a low miles 2000 Toyota Tacoma
4-WD PU and am concerned that one of these boats may be too heavy for my
truck. One of these rigs w/trailer must weigh in around 3000+ lbs and that
is probably near the limit for my Toyota, but I don't know that and am
looking for others with experience with towing boats of this class with
trucks similar to mine to offer their thoughts. I see that the trailers
come
with surge brakes but will that be enough? I am a conservative driver with
a
lot of towing experience through the years. I live in San Diego and mostly
fish locally, but will probably do some fishing in the Central Valley so
longer trips north are a possibility too.

I could go to a smaller boat but am hesitant to do this as the boat would
probably be less stable. I have to add that the stability issue is
important to me as I am balance challenged (no, not from too much beer ;-)
from a back surgery a few years ago that damaged some nerves in one of my
legs. So I really favor the 17-18 length.

I suppose the I could move up into a larger truck but with the cost of the
new boat doing a truck also would really hurt.

Any experience?

brian

"Charles Summers" wrote in message
...
I tow my 17' fiberglass boat with a 3.0 liter Ford Ranger. Other than the
fact that the truck now has over 100k miles, it pulls pretty good.

Charles, thanks for the reply. My concern is not being able to keep up with
traffic on long grades on freeways. Easily do 60-70. To get anywhere here in
So. Cal you have to get out there with lots of folks doing 75-90!
Granted most of our travel times are going to be at non-rush hour but you
have to keep up even then! And it is fairly hilly out here no matter where
you go. Also I live at the top of a 5mi. grade that is fairly tuff. My RV
does 45 up it, less if I am pulling my truck. So every trip has one big up
and one big down to deal with right out of the shoot. Hard on the truck if
it is going to be marginal.

brian

GVWR on the 4X4 Taco is 5100 lbs. As long as the weight of your truck/boat doesn't exceed that, you
should be o.k.
Max towing show's as 3500lbs per Toyota's web site.

BDS

"brian" wrote in message news:XaOlc.17404$ph.10359@fed1read07...
Hi All..........

After years of fishing out of a modified aluminum boat (15 1/2' Greggor) I
now have the time to fish more (retired) and can afford a larger more stable
boat. I am looking at something around 17'-18' in the Ranger line, but may
go with another brand if it seems right.

My real concern is my tow vehicle. I have a low miles 2000 Toyota Tacoma
4-WD PU and am concerned that one of these boats may be too heavy for my
truck. One of these rigs w/trailer must weigh in around 3000+ lbs and that
is probably near the limit for my Toyota, but I don't know that and am
looking for others with experience with towing boats of this class with
trucks similar to mine to offer their thoughts. I see that the trailers come
with surge brakes but will that be enough? I am a conservative driver with a
lot of towing experience through the years. I live in San Diego and mostly
fish locally, but will probably do some fishing in the Central Valley so
longer trips north are a possibility too.

I could go to a smaller boat but am hesitant to do this as the boat would
probably be less stable. I have to add that the stability issue is
important to me as I am balance challenged (no, not from too much beer ;-)
from a back surgery a few years ago that damaged some nerves in one of my
legs. So I really favor the 17-18 length.

I suppose the I could move up into a larger truck but with the cost of the
new boat doing a truck also would really hurt.

Any experience?

brian

What is the towing rating for the Tacoma? Keep in mind that there is a
limit associated with the vehicle and a limit based upon the type of hitch
that you have. You should not exceed the lower of these two values.

Second, I would recommend using synthetic transmission fluid as the
transmission is going to take the bulk of the abuse from towing due to the
higher temperatures.. You should do a complete fluid replacement rather
than just what is the transmission pan. It's not too hard to do yourself
where you unhook the "correct" line at your transmission so that it can be
redirected to a bucket. With your engine running, it will pump out the
fluid while at the same time, you are refilling. It takes two people to
effectively do this. My tundra has a 13 quart capacity so I drew a line on
the bucket at 13 quarts so I knew how much I was removing. I put 11 quarts
back in and hooked everything back up. Then I proceeded to do the proper
checking of fluid level (per owner's manual) for completing the fill-up of
fluid.

Jeff

"brian" wrote in message
news:XaOlc.17404$ph.10359@fed1read07...
Hi All..........

After years of fishing out of a modified aluminum boat (15 1/2' Greggor) I
now have the time to fish more (retired) and can afford a larger more
stable
boat. I am looking at something around 17'-18' in the Ranger line, but may
go with another brand if it seems right.

My real concern is my tow vehicle. I have a low miles 2000 Toyota Tacoma
4-WD PU and am concerned that one of these boats may be too heavy for my
truck. One of these rigs w/trailer must weigh in around 3000+ lbs and that
is probably near the limit for my Toyota, but I don't know that and am
looking for others with experience with towing boats of this class with
trucks similar to mine to offer their thoughts. I see that the trailers
come
with surge brakes but will that be enough? I am a conservative driver with
a
lot of towing experience through the years. I live in San Diego and mostly
fish locally, but will probably do some fishing in the Central Valley so
longer trips north are a possibility too.

I could go to a smaller boat but am hesitant to do this as the boat would
probably be less stable. I have to add that the stability issue is
important to me as I am balance challenged (no, not from too much beer ;-)
from a back surgery a few years ago that damaged some nerves in one of my
legs. So I really favor the 17-18 length.

I suppose the I could move up into a larger truck but with the cost of the
new boat doing a truck also would really hurt.

Any experience?

brian

I need to clarify what I said. I should have proof read this better before
posting. You should unhook the line at the radiator. The idea is that you
want the fluid to come out of the actual line (where it can be directed into
a bucket), not the actual radiator connection because you will have fluid go
everywhere. I was able to look at mine and take a logical guess as to which
line I should use. If you get the wrong one, you will know soon enough.
Just hook that one back up and use the other line.

Jeff

"Jeff Durham" wrote in message
...
What is the towing rating for the Tacoma? Keep in mind that there is a
limit associated with the vehicle and a limit based upon the type of hitch
that you have. You should not exceed the lower of these two values.

Second, I would recommend using synthetic transmission fluid as the
transmission is going to take the bulk of the abuse from towing due to the
higher temperatures.. You should do a complete fluid replacement rather
than just what is the transmission pan. It's not too hard to do yourself
where you unhook the "correct" line at your transmission so that it can be
redirected to a bucket. With your engine running, it will pump out the
fluid while at the same time, you are refilling. It takes two people to
effectively do this. My tundra has a 13 quart capacity so I drew a line
on
the bucket at 13 quarts so I knew how much I was removing. I put 11
quarts
back in and hooked everything back up. Then I proceeded to do the proper
checking of fluid level (per owner's manual) for completing the fill-up of
fluid.

Jeff

"brian" wrote in message
news:XaOlc.17404$ph.10359@fed1read07...
Hi All..........

After years of fishing out of a modified aluminum boat (15 1/2' Greggor)
I
now have the time to fish more (retired) and can afford a larger more
stable
boat. I am looking at something around 17'-18' in the Ranger line, but
may
go with another brand if it seems right.

My real concern is my tow vehicle. I have a low miles 2000 Toyota Tacoma
4-WD PU and am concerned that one of these boats may be too heavy for my
truck. One of these rigs w/trailer must weigh in around 3000+ lbs and
that
is probably near the limit for my Toyota, but I don't know that and am
looking for others with experience with towing boats of this class with
trucks similar to mine to offer their thoughts. I see that the trailers
come
with surge brakes but will that be enough? I am a conservative driver
with
a
lot of towing experience through the years. I live in San Diego and
mostly
fish locally, but will probably do some fishing in the Central Valley so
longer trips north are a possibility too.

I could go to a smaller boat but am hesitant to do this as the boat
would
probably be less stable. I have to add that the stability issue is
important to me as I am balance challenged (no, not from too much beer
;-)
from a back surgery a few years ago that damaged some nerves in one of
my
legs. So I really favor the 17-18 length.

I suppose the I could move up into a larger truck but with the cost of
the
new boat doing a truck also would really hurt.

Any experience?

brian

"Jeff Durham" wrote in message
...
I need to clarify what I said. I should have proof read this better
before
posting. You should unhook the line at the radiator. The idea is that
you
want the fluid to come out of the actual line (where it can be directed
into
a bucket), not the actual radiator connection because you will have fluid
go
everywhere. I was able to look at mine and take a logical guess as to
which
line I should use. If you get the wrong one, you will know soon enough.
Just hook that one back up and use the other line.

Jeff

I understand trans cooling lines. The synthetic oil is a good addition. I
already have a trans cooler for the off roading that I do.

Jeff, how do you like your Tundra? I figure if my Tacoma won't handle this,
I'll move up to one of those.

brian

I really love my Tundra. It is a 2002 and it has 40,000 miles. It is from
all of those miles driven between work, fishing, and hunting. The V8 has
plenty of power. The towing capacity is somewhere around 8000 lbs. My gas
mileage on the highway is 18 MPG except for when pulling my boat it is 16
MPG through the country. I have had no complaints or issues with this
truck.

When I bought it, I decided to go with 2WD instead of 4WD because I was
buying my boat in the next month. The 2WD has never been a problem. I duck
hunt and many times the boat ramp has been iced over, but I have not had
problems. I have put chains on my tires at the boat ramp though a couple of
times to be on the safe side. 4WD would have been convenient in that
situation, but chains are still better than 4WD, but a pain to put on. If I
had it to do over again, I probably would have invested into 4WD.

Jeff

"brian" wrote in message
news:9lTlc.17456$ph.6180@fed1read07...

"Jeff Durham" wrote in message
...
I need to clarify what I said. I should have proof read this better
before
posting. You should unhook the line at the radiator. The idea is that
you
want the fluid to come out of the actual line (where it can be directed
into
a bucket), not the actual radiator connection because you will have
fluid
go
everywhere. I was able to look at mine and take a logical guess as to
which
line I should use. If you get the wrong one, you will know soon enough.
Just hook that one back up and use the other line.

Jeff

I understand trans cooling lines. The synthetic oil is a good addition. I
already have a trans cooler for the off roading that I do.

Jeff, how do you like your Tundra? I figure if my Tacoma won't handle
this,
I'll move up to one of those.

brian

Jeff what kind of boat you pulling? Im pulling a Cherokke Ranger with a Ford
Ranger 4WD and getting about 11 MPG. I am going to look at the Tundra but
4wd as well as other


--
---- Chris S ----

( replace com with net to E-mail)

"Jeff Durham" wrote in message
...
I really love my Tundra. It is a 2002 and it has 40,000 miles. It is
from
all of those miles driven between work, fishing, and hunting. The V8 has
plenty of power. The towing capacity is somewhere around 8000 lbs. My
gas
mileage on the highway is 18 MPG except for when pulling my boat it is 16
MPG through the country. I have had no complaints or issues with this
truck.

When I bought it, I decided to go with 2WD instead of 4WD because I was
buying my boat in the next month. The 2WD has never been a problem. I
duck
hunt and many times the boat ramp has been iced over, but I have not had
problems. I have put chains on my tires at the boat ramp though a couple
of
times to be on the safe side. 4WD would have been convenient in that
situation, but chains are still better than 4WD, but a pain to put on. If
I
had it to do over again, I probably would have invested into 4WD.

Jeff

I understand trans cooling lines. The synthetic oil is a good addition. I
already have a trans cooler for the off roading that I do.

Jeff, how do you like your Tundra? I figure if my Tacoma won't handle this,
I'll move up to one of those.

brian


You might want to check out http://www.tundrasolutions.com/ . Type "towing" into the search engine
and I'm sure you'll find lots
of info on how folks Tundra's and Taco's handle towing.

I have an '04 Tundra TRD 4X4, tow a 2000lbs boat without any problem. I only get about 111-12 mpg
though. But then again I don't use overdrive unless on a very flat road.

Brad S