Can a Tacoma '98 4 cyl pull a popup till I save enough for a full sized truck?

I am wondering if I can pull a popup safely with a '98 Tacoma which has a much larger engine than most 4 cyl.  I can greatly limit my travel to just moving the popup a couple of hundred miles until I can save up for a bigger truck but it would help if I could buy the popup first, move it as needed while I work for 3 or 4 months and save up for a used bigger truck.

Is this reasonable or is my little truck going to die?!  It is in excellent condition and has been perfectly maintained and has no existing issues.

ty!

bodi

You will feel any trailer behind a 4 cylinder. You don't say where you live. If in the mid west you should be o.k. if you are patient and don't flog it. OTOH, the Rockies or the Smokys are going to be an issue.

Thank you!  I live in New Mexico and early on plan to only be going up to Taos (going from 5,000 ft - 7,500 ft), then down to the west coast and Baja so hopefully not to much in the mountains till I get a bigger truck.

there is quite a range of pop-ups. Keep to the 10 footers maximum and you'll do OK. We had a 12 that our v6 pilot would take anywhere, but a 4 banger would have sucked over the higher passes.

ty sk! 

sb

If your not trying to win stop light drags you will be fine PULLING the pop-up however its the sudden stopping that maybe more of an issue.
A buddy has a small 10 foot coleman PUP that is over 3500lbs. And it doesn't even have a toilet or holding tank it has electric brakes so it helps with the stopping.
He has a jeep that he pulls it with (its a 8cyl) and when he drops the hitch on the ball there is very little drop. but when we put it on my 93 Toyota 4runner she just about puts the bumper on the ground!
you may have to get "helper" spring added to the truck. and of course the electric brake control.

ty sport!  hadn't really thought about that though i did read about electric brakes though i this is the first time hearing about helper spring and will be sure to price this before i make any permanent decisions. 

sb

This is mostly opinion, so I'll add mine. We had a Coleman Sante Fe years ago. That is a 10 foot box. We towed it with a Toyota 4-runner, but that was a 3.4 DOHC V-6. Yes, I believe you can get away with what you are planning. No, I don't think you or your truck is gonna like it much, but it will be fine. Just a few suggestions, some of which have been stated: (1) Take it easy. Don't let you truck lug. Keep your RPMs up to help keep the engine and transmission cool. Add a transmission cooler if it's an auto. Lock out your overdrive. (2) You may find stopping to be more of an issue than towing. Adding a brake controller for the electric brakes will help, but isn't really cheap, and you are trying to save money - that's the point of all this - right? (3) Load your pop-up so you can keep the tongue weight in the range you want it. Then you shouldn't have to buy and install springs. Old fashioned air shocks will help control the sag in your truck. Your truck just isn't built for this, but look around. There are many people towing heavy objects with vehicles that are NOT designed to do so....lol.

Like I said. This is not ideal, but you can get away with it. I see so many people towing 28', 30', and bigger campers with 1/2 tons, and what you want to do is no worse than that. Lots of folks think there isn't much difference between a 1/2 and a 3/4 ton, but there is a world of difference. Just use some caution and some of the suggestions you've gotten here, and you should be able to tow without any major problems and without putting much money into your current tow vehicle.

What's the towing capacity of your truck?  The info should be available in the owner's manual.  The towing section is normally towards the end of the book near the Capacities section.

According to the 1999 Trailer Life Towing Guide, the 1999 4 banger Taco has a 3500lbs towing capacity with a maximum tongue weight of 350 lbs pounds.


So any popup with a GVWR (gross weight rating) of under 3000 lbs will be fine.  You won't win any races.  The lighter you go, the more you will enjoy the towing experience.

Marc sort of said in a few words what I tried to with a lot...LOL. With towing, it isn't so much a matter of a certain tow vehicle will or won't tow a certain trailer. And also remember that those capacities by the manufacturer are "recommendations" and usually have absolutely NO science or engineering behind them. Rather than WILL the TV complete the given task, it's more like how unpleasant will it be or not be, and even more important, how unpleasant will it be to stop. Our Santa Fe was 3,700 pounds loaded. I would bet you are going to be dealing with a load something like that.

This is a temporary situation until you get a new truck. Just a word of experience. We wound up upgrading to a larger camper within two years of buying the pop-up. We bought a 1/2 ton to tow the pop-up, and then bought a 3/4 ton to tow the "new" camper. Now we just buy 3/4 ton trucks. Everything tows easier with a heavier truck....overkill is good...LOL...best of luck in your "adventures in towing"...

ffrnemtp said:

And also remember that those capacities by the manufacturer are "recommendations" and usually have absolutely NO science or engineering behind them.

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I'm going to have to disagree. Not only is there engineering behind what vehicles are rated to tow, but if you tow over what the manufacture recommends and wind up in an accident, there can be serious legal consequences if there are injuries and or property damage. In my younger years I was pushed sideways (jack knifed) down the freeway by a trailer that was too heavy for the 1/2 ton truck I was pulling it with. Fortunately no one was injured in that incident, but it was hair-raising. As marc suggested stay well within the max GVWR recommended for your truck.

Don't mean to argue (and won't) but there is little, if any, science put into those tow ratings, and those ratings and how they are established are not regulated by the feds. Makers will change the tow rating of a truck from one model year to the next while changing NOTHING in the vehicle, and conducting no additional research or testing. I've heard techs at the dealerships call them "advertising propaganda." If one maker raises the towing capacity of their 1/2 ton, it's likely the other makers will follow suit. There is no testing or research behind those changes. If anything, the maximum ratings give drivers a false sense of security. Like you, lots of people think they are based on engineering and testing; that is simply not the case.

There is currently NO state that criminalizes towing beyond the manufacturer's "recommended" maximums. There are many regulations for trailers, but most often LEOs are not even familiar with them. Can you tell me where you found the information that there are "legal consequences" to exceeding manufacturer's ratings. I'm not saying anybody should, but I'm fairly well versed on traffic law (by profession) and I know of no such laws...

I also don't believe I ever told anybody to tow beyond any vehicle's rated maximum.....?

I went ahead and got a newish V8 5.7 Cyl Tundra with an excellent towing capacity for now.  I realized that I wanted not just the security of its ability to tow but its reliability in remote locations as well and 4WD because we are in snow so much in the winter.  Now to find the right popup or trailer.  It is so hard!

sb/gari

ffrnemtp said:

There is currently NO state that criminalizes towing beyond the manufacturer's "recommended" maximums. There are many regulations for trailers, but most often LEOs are not even familiar with them. Can you tell me where you found the information that there are "legal consequences" to exceeding manufacturer's ratings. I'm not saying anybody should, but I'm fairly well versed on traffic law (by profession) and I know of no such laws...

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If you are "well versed on traffic law (by profession)", then you should also be familar with lawyers and courts. 
Why would you take the chance on loopholes?  I don't get it!

ffrnemtp said:

Don't mean to argue (and won't) but there is little, if any, science put into those tow ratings, and those ratings and how they are established are not regulated by the feds. Makers will change the tow rating of a truck from one model year to the next while changing NOTHING in the vehicle, and conducting no additional research or testing. I've heard techs at the dealerships call them "advertising propaganda." If one maker raises the towing capacity of their 1/2 ton, it's likely the other makers will follow suit. There is no testing or research behind those changes. If anything, the maximum ratings give drivers a false sense of security. Like you, lots of people think they are based on engineering and testing; that is simply not the case.

There is currently NO state that criminalizes towing beyond the manufacturer's "recommended" maximums. There are many regulations for trailers, but most often LEOs are not even familiar with them. Can you tell me where you found the information that there are "legal consequences" to exceeding manufacturer's ratings. I'm not saying anybody should, but I'm fairly well versed on traffic law (by profession) and I know of no such laws...

I also don't believe I ever told anybody to tow beyond any vehicle's rated maximum.....?

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Sorry, if I chose the wrong words which resuulted in misunderstanding ffrnemtp, but it was not my intent to imply that you did recommend towing beyond a vehicles max tow rating. I was merely using your post as a jumping off point to make my point which is that if I were to hit someone (and cause major damage or injury) with a trailer (or any other load) that exceeded the vehicle manufacturers weight recommendation, the first thing the other parties lawyers would be looking at would be the load and the manufacturers recommendations.

oooops - i meant 5.7 liter (which i really am not sure what that does except it is suppose to be good and probably uses a lot of gas).

sb