Anyone here tow a travel trailer/camper with their 4R?

The 2002 Manual says not to exceed a gross towing weight of 5,000 pounds, i.e., trailer and stuff.....

Any specific issues/problems come up?

Pictures?!

I don't know if I've been right up to the max but have towed a homemade steel trailer loaded with camping crap and aside from the slow ascents it wasn't a Problem except for the brakes. The stock rotors got hot very fast. I wound up having to use low range with engine breaking to keep the temp down. I replaced them with drilled & slotted aftermarket and they do much better now. I don't think the back brakes do enough work for towing. Electric brakes on the trailer would help but it may still be sketchy.

Do the Tundra Brake Upgrade and you should be fine. The engine seems to have plenty of power, it may not be quick to pull any hills though. I don't know that I would want to tow 5000 lbs through the mountains on the stock brakes.

Ive got a tent trailer I just pulled, weighs 1500 dry and I loaded it up with gear to the tip and extra cargo in that front storage compartment. With that and a ton of camping gear in the trunk the only problem I had was the massive tongue weight in the back putting stress on my car. No problem driving with 2,000 pounds except your not going to win a race accelerating off of a red light but I wouldnt personally strain her past say 3500 pounds

Once my wife and I get settled after we move to Oregon we are going to buy a small camper.
I looked at tent trailers and at A frame type and both came up lacking to me.
The tent trailers had lots of room in them but high maintenance, zero insulation, prone to leaks in the corners that leads to rot, depending on what model could be challenging for one person to set up quickly.

The A frame (Aliner) type were much better, has some insulation, hard sides, decent room, very easy to set up, one person can set it up and be sleeping in bed between 30 seconds to 1 minute. Still fairly high maintenance, prone to leaks and rot, somewhat suspect in high winds.

These teardrop type trailers looked like our best option though.
Very solid, totally weather proof, nicely insulated, virtually no maintenance, high resale value, AC and heater, nice accessories like awnings and solar panels.

Total weight is between 1500-1700lbs with a 180# tongue weight and they have hydraulic surge brakes.
My old boat I used to tow with a much smaller and less HP vehicle than my 4Runner had surge brakes and it actually stopped faster with the boat in tow than it did without, once those trailer brakes kicked in I could feel the trailer pulling the truck backwards.
So would be easy to tow.

- T@B Camper Trailers





The only other camper that looked nice, was built well, all aluminum no rot, well insulated etc were the "Camplite" trailers though on average for a used one they were a few $1000 higher in cost.

Camplite Ultra Lightweight All Aluminum Travel Trailers | Livin' Lite RV