Towing Question

[bandman659]

I'm looking for some insight from those of your that tow on a regular basis with your 3rd gens.

My wife found a 60s-vintage Serro Scotty Hilander travel trailer for $700 and has committed us to purchasing it and hauling it home to Atlanta from Columbia, SC (about a 3.5 hour drive, minimal hills) this weekend. According to the seller the trailer is roadworthy, so that's not my concern. My concern is that once we get this thing built out the way we want it, we're looking at a dry weight around 2000 pounds and a loaded weight of about 2400 pounds. I know our trucks are rated to tow 5000 pounds, but I also know pulling 2.5 tons on a regular basis will kill it in short order.

With a trans cooler installed, will a 3rd Gen handle pulling 2400 lbs (give or take 200 lbs) on a regular basis? I think it should be fine, but I wanted to run it by y'all and see what the consensus is.

Mine is a 2000 SR5, 2wd with 3.73 gears and just over 230k miles. It's got a good class III hitch along with a new radiator and front brake pads, timing belt/water pump were changed less than 20k ago, and a B&M 70268 trans cooler is in the cards as well. Unfortunately, a Tundra brake swap isn't in the cards unless some 16" wheels with tires fall into my lap, as we just put new Michelins on the 15" wheels to the tune of about $750. I could probably adapt some trailer brakes to the axle or swap in a new axle if the truck's brakes prove inadequate.

 

[KidVermicious]

You'll probably be fine like you are for the trip home (keep it out of overdrive), but if you're planning to tow regularly some upgrades couldn't hurt. Better brakes would be nice, but trailer brakes would be better. Additional cooling capacity would be a great idea. Regearing the rear to 4.10 or 4.30 would help quite a bit.

Ask the seller when he had the wheel bearings done last, and if it's been a while ask him if he'll get them serviced before you pick it up. Having to replace or pack bearings on the side of the freeway is no fun.

 

[bandman659]

Having to replace or pack bearings on the side of the freeway is no fun.

Been there, done that, no desire to do it again :nono:

At $700 for the whole trailer, I doubt I can convince the seller to pack the bearings. I may just bring what I need to repack them myself before we drive home.

From the pictures we got, there's a good bit of water damage at one corner, so I'm looking at replacing most of the wood on this camper. Essentially, we are buying this camper for the frame and the body to use as a template. Everything else I'll have to custom fabricate myself, which should be quite interesting seeing as I don't really know anything about RVs. My grandfather and my uncle ran a furniture company making butcher block-style maple tables and my dad worked in the shop when he was in high school, so there's a carpentry/woodworking gene in me somewhere.

It'll be a big project, but it's wife-approved and a great excuse to buy power tools, so everyone is happy.

 

[chimpy]

Cool trailer/RV!!! Even more cool that your wife wants to do this!! Post some pics of this thing when you get it please. Good Luck!

 

[Supermoney]

With a trans cooler on I wouldn't be worried at all for that amount of weight.

Good luck and post pictures!

 

[jgue467]

Set ECT to Pwr

I think it w/b fine. I regularly tow a 900lb trailer w/2 full size quads & equipment that weights in at 2800+truck and all the gear it can hold. I like using the ECT set to Pwr so the tranny has an easier time dealing with the Texas hill country.

Might want to add an app like Torque that gives you real time temps and lots of other info on your fone. I like keeping up with the tranny on the hills.

Torque ? OBD2 Performance and Diagnostics for your Vehicle

When you add your tranny cooler consider adding an inline Magnefine filter (the factory filter is really just for big chunks of metal), these filters are about $12 (3/8") on ebay. I replace 'em every 30K.

I'm sure you'll have fresh engine oil/filter along with fresh grease in the driveline before your trip.

Post some picks, sounds like a fun story to follow! Luck!! :banana:

 

[Robb235]

I'm looking for some insight from those of your that tow on a regular basis with your 3rd gens.

My wife found a 60s-vintage Serro Scotty Hilander travel trailer for $700 and has committed us to purchasing it and hauling it home to Atlanta from Columbia, SC (about a 3.5 hour drive, minimal hills) this weekend. According to the seller the trailer is roadworthy, so that's not my concern. My concern is that once we get this thing built out the way we want it, we're looking at a dry weight around 2000 pounds and a loaded weight of about 2400 pounds. I know our trucks are rated to tow 5000 pounds, but I also know pulling 2.5 tons on a regular basis will kill it in short order.

With a trans cooler installed, will a 3rd Gen handle pulling 2400 lbs (give or take 200 lbs) on a regular basis? I think it should be fine, but I wanted to run it by y'all and see what the consensus is.

You'll be fine. I've made that drive from Columbia, through Atlanta, and then on to Chattanooga about a million times. That stretch of I-20 is pretty tame, with a few rolling hills that shouldn't be a problem. Personally, I would leave overdrive ON, but make sure the ECT PWR button is engaged for more responsive downshifts. Your trans will heat up pretty quick if the torque converter is never allowed to lockup.

Do you have any way of monitoring your transmission temps?

 

[the great him]

Mine is a 2000 SR5, 2wd with 3.73 gears and just over 230k miles. It's got a good class III hitch along with a new radiator and front brake pads, timing belt/water pump were changed less than 20k ago, and a B&M 70268 trans cooler is in the cards as well. Unfortunately, a Tundra brake swap isn't in the cards unless some 16" wheels with tires fall into my lap, as we just put new Michelins on the 15" wheels to the tune of about $750. I could probably adapt some trailer brakes to the axle or swap in a new axle if the truck's brakes prove inadequate.

adding brakes to the trailer would cost as much of more than buying a set of 16" wheels with tires especially after selling your new 15s... and you can do a TBU for around $300. your 3.73 gears are gonna be a killer, id look into finding a good used 4.10 or 4.30 rearend as someone else mentioned. i have a good 4.30 rear end, but im all the way on the other side of the country so shipping would be a killer on that. but let me know if you cant find one, id be willing to part with it. your B&M 70268 is a joke for towing especially in the heat in your neck of the woods, id either plan on running two of those or get something bigger, but honestly id go with two of those especially with that gearing you got. and that trans filter is a great idea, also look into a trans temp gauge to monitor temps. you can do it with your current set up, but i would not do it any more than you absolutely have to, and take your time, keep it out of OD and plan a good rest stop or two, get some dinner/lunch along the way to let your rig cool down

 

[bandman659]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. Oil got changed like 2k ago, so it's good to go. Monitoring the trans temps with Torque is a great idea. I've been looking for an excuse to get one of those OBD2 bluetooth things.

At a minimum, I'm going to repack the wheel bearings on the trailer before we head home, but I'm prepared to run to Napa/AutoZone/Advance for some bearings and races just in case they're completely toast. The bearings and races are actually the same as 1969-1974 Toyota truck front wheel bearings, so the parts are readily available at most of the big chain stores.

I won't have to worry about towing it for a while after we get it home, as I'll be spending the next several months rebuilding the whole damn thing.

Of course, this is all assuming the owner's husband doesn't sell it out from under us in the next 48 hours. She wants to hold it for us, but her husband is pitching a fit about "first come, first serve". We'll see if they'll take a $200 deposit via Paypal or something to shut him up till Saturday.

 

[bandman659]

Trip Report!

Made it home without any trouble at all. The trailer was actually in better shape than anticipated and I didn't even have to bother with repacking bearings. It weighs right at 1900 lbs as configured and under 45 MPH, the 4Runner had no problems at all pulling it. Driving on the interstate was a slightly different story. Aerodynamic drag increases with the square of velocity and this trailer has a rather large frontal area, so we were fighting physics on the interstate. I could keep up about 60 MPH without making the transmission go ballistic. I would let it speed up to 65-70 MPH going downhill and keep the gas relatively constant going uphill, which would drop my speed to 55-60 MPH. This kept me from being too much of a road block and kept the transmission from kicking down 2-3 gears on every single incline.

Gas mileage was almost 21 mpg on the way there with me, my wife, both kids, and a bunch of tools in the back, which impressed the hell out of me. Mileage dropped to 15.5 mpg with the trailer, which isn't bad at all considering my 3500 lb truck suddenly became a 5500 lb truck.

The trailer was actually really well-behaved on the interstate. No swaying, rocking, or upsetting motion at all. Other than being Mercedes 240D-slow, I couldn't tell I was pulling anything. Even getting breezed by a semi didn't upset it at all.

Once we get this trailer built out, we'll see if the 4Runner can tolerate towing it on a regular basis, but for our 230+ mile trip, it did just fine. If the aero drag makes it too much of a pain to pull with the 4Runner, we can always just borrow my dad's 2010 F-150, which wouldn't bat an eye at this trailer. It's got the 3-valve 4.6 V8, with the towing package and the 3.55 limited-slip axle, so it's rated to tow 9500 lbs.