Question Hi there, I am a new owner of a Sonic 231VRK. I am looking to purchase a Toyota Tacoma with the towing package. Not using correct terminology, but

[svoshop]

one of my employees has a 21 Tacoma. Nice truck. Power is anemic sadly. He averages 14 mpg at 75 mph and the truck can not run in high gear if there is a headwind. Engine is a Camry sourced 3.5 and just not enough.

we did do a leveling kit ( very small lift ) and went up a few tire sizes. Made things even slower.
I think pulling a 4K RV would have you in the slow lane and very frustrated.

personally. I’d want at least a full size truck For stability also.

mike

 

[kayakterp]

I agree with svoshop, much better experience with a full size truck that won't be stressing out the Tacoma

 

[Kevin D Pem]

one of my employees has a 21 Tacoma. Nice truck. Power is anemic sadly. He averages 14 mpg at 75 mph and the truck can not run in high gear if there is a headwind. Engine is a Camry sourced 3.5 and just not enough.

we did do a leveling kit ( very small lift ) and went up a few tire sizes. Made things even slower.
I think pulling a 4K RV would have you in the slow lane and very frustrated.

personally. I’d want at least a full size truck For stability also.

mike

When people tell me they are going larger tires I ask why. Road clearance I understand, but no other reason. What you are doing is changing to higher gears. This in turn lowers torque. Short of changing gearing before going larger tires, all you are doing is lowering capability of the vehicle.

 

[svoshop]

When people tell me they are going larger tires I ask why. Road clearance I understand, but no other reason. What you are doing is changing to higher gears. This in turn lowers torque. Short of changing gearing before going larger tires, all you are doing is lowering capability of the vehicle.

Most do it for looks. Owning a transmission shop, we knew it would decrease the trucks power band. I was simply giving the OP as much detail as I could.

 

[sanda]

If we are going to talk about "swaying" RVs, then we should probably rate RVs from bad to worse as far as driving down the road with them.

IMHO travel trailers are the worse no matter what you are pulling them with. They are usually light and wind tends to effect them. The simple fact they are pulled by a ball tends to make them less stable.

Next would be 30' to 38' gas 2-axle Class A rigs. These tend to be without any type of air suspension and generally have the Ford F53 suspension which is weak at best. Even with added suspension modifications these RV usually are not much fun driving in cross winds.

Next would be 32' or longer Class C rigs. These handle winds a little better than their bigger gas brothers but still will provide some white knuckle driving experiences in higher cross winds.

The last group would be all your Super C, DPs, and larger fivers, depending on how they are set up. Most of these RVs handle moderate cross winds pretty good.

I've always done very well with all of my travel trailers. With the proper setup of tow vehicle and TT there is no reason why any other RV would be better. I've towed in 70 MPH cross winds that were blowing empty semi's over in front and back of us. Had to go 40 miles like this until we found a pull off to wait it out.

 

[FL-JOE]

I've always done very well with all of my travel trailers. With the proper setup of tow vehicle and TT there is no reason why any other RV would be better. I've towed in 70 MPH cross winds that were blowing empty semi's over in front and back of us. Had to go 40 miles like this until we found a pull off to wait it out.

I seriously doubt you were able to tow any travel trailer in 70mph cross winds my friend. I can assure you that most states would close their interstates if conditions included 70mph cross winds because that would mean there were gusts reaching higher limits. I can assure you from my years of working as a Trooper that few vehicles can stay on the road in 70mph cross winds, let alone travel trailers and other high top vehicles.

Now if you are talking about being in a situation where the cross winds were 30 to 40mph and there was a recorded gust close to 70mph, then I might bite. But I would still suspect that 70mph gust would have knocked your TT off the road onto the shoulder at the very least.

 

[sanda]

I seriously doubt you were able to tow any travel trailer in 70mph cross winds my friend. I can assure you that most states would close their interstates if conditions included 70mph cross winds because that would mean there were gusts reaching higher limits. I can assure you from my years of working as a Trooper that few vehicles can stay on the road in 70mph cross winds, let alone travel trailers and other high top vehicles.

Now if you are talking about being in a situation where the cross winds were 30 to 40mph and there was a recorded gust close to 70mph, then I might bite. But I would still suspect that 70mph gust would have knocked your TT off the road onto the shoulder at the very least.

Well my friend - There were no shoulders and that's why I and others were having to keep going until a pull off was found. When empty semi's are blowing over the cross winds far exceed 40 mph. The state patrol had no choice but allow the traffic to keep going when there is no where to get off the highway.

 

[FL-JOE]

Okay, you must have had a typo on your prior post when you stated "70mph cross winds". There is a huge difference between 40+mph cross winds and 70mph cross winds. Anyway, I can assure you there are not many RVs out there that handle cross winds as good as a tag axle heavy DP, especially a TT pull behind.