Towing a Crawler With a 3rd Gen

TheArkMaster

TheArkMaster

New member
As many of you know, I recently picked up an 85 pickup as my new toy. However, this thing is far from street legal and I am not going to try to make it street legal, which leaves me with two options:

1. Buy a trailer and tow her everywhere
2. Register as an OHV

If I do number 2, I still will need a trailer if I go anywhere further than my immediate area.

Therefore, I obviously need a trailer. Now for the hard part; I have to make the decision of making the 4runner a crawler hauler, or I sell the 4runner and buy a truck that will then be my DD as well...
Obviously, I don't want to sell my 4runner. Money put aside, I love my 4runner to death and have emotional attachment. If I keep it, I will buy an Addicted Offroad bumper for it, and finally add Tundra brakes. Eventually (year in the future), I would supercharge it.

What are your opinions? I would like any feedback as to if you think the 4runner could handle towing the pickup, most likely on a 16" double axle trailer. Would you keep the runner or sell it and buy a 1uz tundra? or something else all together? I would love any feedback you guys have!

Thanks ahead of time.
 
Register to hide this ad
For the time being, my suggestion is gearing. If you regear, it'll be easier on your truck to start and stop pulling the weight of a trailer and a crawler. Get a tranny cooler if you don't already have one. Supercharger down the road. You'll be fine.
 
4Running Daily said:
For the time being, my suggestion is gearing. If you regear, it'll be easier on your truck to start and stop pulling the weight of a trailer and a crawler. Get a tranny cooler if you don't already have one. Supercharger down the road. You'll be fine.
Click to expand...

I agree. I suppose I didn't mention that but 4.88s are on the to-do list. I'll pick up a tranny cooler tomorrow and do it along with my brakes.
 
Having pulled my 18' car hauler empty a couple times behind my 4Runner, I can't see it pulling one with a vehicle on it.

No amount of power adding or gearing is going to increase the wheelbase or the braking capabilities either. I wouldn't do it.
 
csp said:
Having pulled my 18' car hauler empty a couple times behind my 4Runner, I can't see it pulling one with a vehicle on it.

No amount of power adding or gearing is going to increase the wheelbase or the braking capabilities either. I wouldn't do it.
Click to expand...
I agree, X2
 
I won't do it myself but then again I have a 4dr long bed cummins. Lol. I'm not saying it can't be done but you MUST hook up trailer brakes. The runner is lacking in the brake dept as it is. My .02
 
TheArkMaster said:
As many of you know, I recently picked up an 85 pickup as my new toy. However, this thing is far from street legal and I am not going to try to make it street legal, which leaves me with two options:

1. Buy a trailer and tow her everywhere
2. Register as an OHV

If I do number 2, I still will need a trailer if I go anywhere further than my immediate area.

Therefore, I obviously need a trailer. Now for the hard part; I have to make the decision of making the 4runner a crawler hauler, or I sell the 4runner and buy a truck that will then be my DD as well...
Obviously, I don't want to sell my 4runner. Money put aside, I love my 4runner to death and have emotional attachment. If I keep it, I will buy an Addicted Offroad bumper for it, and finally add Tundra brakes. Eventually (year in the future), I would supercharge it.

What are your opinions? I would like any feedback as to if you think the 4runner could handle towing the pickup, most likely on a 16" double axle trailer. Would you keep the runner or sell it and buy a 1uz tundra? or something else all together? I would love any feedback you guys have!

Thanks ahead of time.
Click to expand...

I don't know what your '85 Crawler weighs, but it is likely heavier than stock '85. Let's say 4k lbs. A trailer that can handle that weight, will be at least 1500 lbs. So you're already over the towing limit of a stock V6 3rd gen. I'm sure there would be even more unaccounted for weight in terms of camping gear, recovery gear, food, and miscellaneous stuff.

Your lift will make the 4Runner more unstable, and the oversize tires will hurt your ability to start, stop, and just roll down the road, especially on the mountain grades you have to deal with in Utah. Then there's the altitude that will hurt performance even further.

Could your 4Runner move the load, sure. Will it really struggle on Mountain grades and lead to an early demise, most likely.

Installing a Supercharger would help with power, but it will do nothing to increase the torque capacity of the transmission, or the rest of the drivetrain.

I would look for a vehicle with higher towing capacity, or make the crawler street legal.
 
Not worth the risk. Sell your third gen and buy a v8 truck that can handle such a load.

No S/C, gearing, etc. will help control the trailer if things take a turn for the worse.
 
^ Listen to the smart man, he knows what he's talking about. I've pulled my '85 behind our '99, just across town. It was a horrible experience and I bought the F150 two weeks later so that I'll never have to do that again.

If you're going to have a trail queen for a crawler, you're going to need a proper tow rig. You don't have to sell your 3rd gen, though, an 80s-90s F250 with a 460 will run you around $2000 and have all the tow cap you need. The same truck with a 7.3 diesel will run around a thousand more, and pull grades a little better. If Fords don't do it for you, equivalent Chevy trucks are probably around the same price point.
 
^ Listen to the smart man, he knows what he's talking about. I've pulled my '85 behind our '99, just across town. It was a horrible experience and I bought the F150 two weeks later so that I'll never have to do that again.

If you're going to have a trail queen for a crawler, you're going to need a proper tow rig. You don't have to sell your 3rd gen, though, an 80s-90s F250 with a 460 will run you around $2000 and have all the tow cap you need. The same truck with a 7.3 diesel will run around a thousand more, and pull grades a little better. If Fords don't do it for you, equivalent Chevy trucks are probably around the same price point.
 
I scrap cars and trucks for extra work in the summer. I would never consider pulling one behind the runner. It's takes extra attentiveness to tow any full sized vehicle, even behind a solid 3/4 ton.

Your options for tow rigs are endless, too. I'll bet an old 2wd Suburban or any half ton dodge/chev/ford could be had for cheap in your area. You really need the added wheelbase and proper brakes.
 
Unless you're ready to drop $5k into the 4runner today (brakes, gears, supercharger) and still have a marginal tow vehicle, I would look into something better suited to towing.

You could probably do an even swap for a 2500 suburban or GM pickup with a 6.0. or maybe even come out ahead money wise.

There are plenty of 3rd gen 4Runners out there. When your needs change, you can always find another one.

Or just ditch the mini-truck and chalk it up to buyer's remorse, then build up the 3rd gen keeping it road legal.
 
Last edited:
I just recently pulled a Uhaul 6x9 trailer loaded properly and had MUCH trouble getting uphill. These things kinda lack in that category... damn well better have a trans cooler and scanguage or something to monitor trans temps!
 
I would have to agree with the above. I have a 96 supercharged with the Tundra brake upgrade, B&M tranny cooler (the bigger one) stock 4:30 gears, TRD catback, trailer brake controller etc etc. I have towed our class 16 buggy (2000# with spares ect) on our 20ish foot Big Bubba flatbed (around 2500lbs I think) and while the runner was able to do it, I wouldn't want to have to go far or pull any big hills or deal with semis passing me on the freeway. I would highly suggest getting a dedicated tow vehicle. As has been said, you can get one fairly cheap as long as you don't want luxury.
 
I've towed my 87 4Runner, 88 pickup 4x4 X-tra cab, a Ford Probe GT, and two Toyota Supras with my 99 4Runner 4 banger. Tundra brakes help, but like hell they'd work well enough in an emergency stop... all of this on tow dollies so two of the tow vehicle's wheels were on the ground, too.

It was not fun at all and I sure as hell wouldn't drive beyond 55 in the slow lane, most of the time I was keeping a huge distance too.

I would tow a small trailer with it but like hell I'd ever consider putting a whole vehicle upon a double axle vehicle transporter, surge brake or not
 
These are the the responses I wanted but didn't want. Haha. Well, looks like I'll be looking for a 7.3 here in the area. Damn.... Now I need to learn how to take care of a diesel. I just got good at the 4Runner...
 
we used to haul a catalina 22 to sandiego from phoenix, it sucked haha, but it did it. the problem with the 4runner is it has a short wheelbase and coils which make it prone to fishtailing when pulling large heavy trailers.

on the other hand my dad pulls a small trailer thats about 4ft x8ftx5ft (about 30k a year he puts on it) and it works out great because its so small, you cant even notice it on the highway, but anything bigger and youll need a truck with a long wheelbase a v8 and leafs in the back to support the extra load.

he has a 5th gen now and the same trailer. he gets better mileage with the trailer than i do in my 3rd gen by it self, and the new bigger engine(260hp) helps a lot.
 
TheArkMaster said:
These are the the responses I wanted but didn't want. Haha. Well, looks like I'll be looking for a 7.3 here in the area. Damn.... Now I need to learn how to take care of a diesel. I just got good at the 4Runner...
Click to expand...

The T444E is generally considered a good engine. Keep a spare cam position sensor handy. Flush the cooling system and use a good coolant like Chevron Delo ELC.
 
My 85 crawler I use to have with 35's and a EXO Cage weighed 4800 pounds. I wouldn't do I if I were you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 308 (members: 2, guests: 306)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,310
Messages
3,554,080
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top