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Tow Vehicle Dilemma...

Our Tacoma is rated for 6000 pounds or so, it’s miserable towing an AR190, 3500 pounds wet? Tow mode, never in over drive, screaming to pull hills. MPG went from 18 ish to 11-12.

Wife is already shopping for a Tundra :oops:
I had 2007 Tundra CrewMax limited. Believe it or not was bought new from dealer for $27.5k.
Amazing truck, had supercharger, Corsa exhaust on it. Kept waiting for refresh and eventually ran out of patience and got 2017 Honda Ridgeline. Not truly a truck but very smooth ride and awesome mileage, however 5k towing is not good.
I am Toyota/Honda guy. Drove pretty much all Toyota models between my wife and I.
But now actually leaning toward F150 or Ram mostly because of space it the second row space( my son loved Ridgeline but hated backseat) and extended range tank as option. Bigger tank is a huge selling point. Tundra doesn’t get bigger tank option. Aftermarket would probably cost about $3k installed.
 
For me, the 18 gallon tank would be to small for any long distance towing. Probably would have to fill the tank every 200 miles. Of course, for shorter distances would not be issue.

The 7500 lb tow capacity is with the EcoBoost 2.3L engine and the ten-speed automatic transmission.

Jim

In addition to the tiny tank, towing anywhere near that 7500 tow limit would be guzzling fuel from that little 2.3L, it'd be CONSTANTLY in boost, likely getting mid single digits and being sluggish. Especially for a 252.

If I had to go midsized truck, it'd be diesel Colorado. The Tacoma is gutless with its current v6 (it just needs to rev very high to have any power), and ranger we alreadyndiscussed. Gladiator doesn't count because it's Hella expensive. I forgot frontier exists still, maybe those are OK? It got redesigned but not sure what they changed.
 
I had 2007 Tundra CrewMax limited. Believe it or not was bought new from dealer for $27.5k.
Amazing truck, had supercharger, Corsa exhaust on it. Kept waiting for refresh and eventually ran out of patience and got 2017 Honda Ridgeline. Not truly a truck but very smooth ride and awesome mileage, however 5k towing is not good.
I am Toyota/Honda guy. Drove pretty much all Toyota models between my wife and I.
But now actually leaning toward F150 or Ram mostly because of space it the second row space( my son loved Ridgeline but hated backseat) and extended range tank as option. Bigger tank is a huge selling point. Tundra doesn’t get bigger tank option. Aftermarket would probably cost about $3k installed.

I loved and hated my f150. It was super comfortable, luxurious, spacious, and fairly quick and efficient. It also hated to drove it, because it was tall, floaty, and had light and lifeless steering. I traded it for an sti and loved that, it was everything the f150 wasn't.

That said, a whippled and lowered f150 is pretty high on my list for next vehicles, up there with hellcat durango. It's cheaper than hellcat durango, and roughly as fast or faster, with a lot of extra capability.
 
Zero chance I try to tow a 252 with a Ranger. Sounds like a one-way ticket to Qualified Captain.

Pretty sure I've seen some rangers get sucked in by big boats of credit card captain, lol.
 
The big Yamaha dealer out here said I could tow any of the Yamaha boats with the Tacoma, he was sure of it.

We didn’t buy our boat there.
 
The big Yamaha dealer out here said I could tow any of the Yamaha boats with the Tacoma, he was sure of it.

We didn’t buy our boat there.

Can you, and should you are two different things. Technically, the Tacoma can do it. Itd just suuuuuuck.
 
The big Yamaha dealer out here said I could tow any of the Yamaha boats with the Tacoma, he was sure of it.

We didn’t buy our boat there.
Just like the fifth wheel rvs that are advertised as towable with half-ton trucks. LOL, very few trucks can handle the pin weight if you have and cargo and/or passengers in the truck.

Jim
 
Our Tacoma is rated for 6000 pounds or so, it’s miserable towing an AR190, 3500 pounds wet? Tow mode, never in over drive, screaming to pull hills. MPG went from 18 ish to 11-12.

Wife is already shopping for a Tundra :oops:
We use a Tundra with the 5.7L Our boat /trailer is 3800. We get 13 mpg pretty much regardless what the roads are like. But it is a great tow vehicle. Put it in Tow/haul and let it do its thing.
 
I think it says a lot that the Tundra is 3 years older and basically has double the miles of the dodge but is selling for the same money.

The posted mileage difference between the two vehicles is not that great, if your budget on fuel is that limited … Speaking of which, do both vehicles recommend 87 or 91 octane fuel?

I know the Tundra uses SAE (corrected thanks Jim in Delaware ) certified towing standards, does the dodge? I remember that Toyota was the first to go to SAE towing standards, while the other big three balked at it because it would have lowered their tow ratings. Further, be sure to check the tow ratings very very carefully as all of the big three had some slight of hand when it came to tow ratings.

I see the Toyota has sequential shifting capability …the dodge only has the ability to lock out upper gears.. big win for the Toyota here. The dodge also uses a knob to select gears, yet still has a center console.

Gas tank capacity on the dodge at 26 gallons…the Toyota is 38.

I see the Toyotas engine is a V8 5.7 liter 381 hp @5600 rpm and Torque is 401 lb ft @3600, can’t seem to locate the hp / torque rating for the dodge, only that it is a V6 3.6 liter. There is no replacement for displacement! If this is going to be a tow vehicle it needs to have the power to do that. In comparison the Dodge is going to be anemic while towing, and get the same or worse mpg than the Toyota, my guess is will be worse than the Toyota while towing.

I have three friends who have the Tundras one is a 1794 edition, very nice truck, all three have had an excellent experience with their Tundras, in fact one of them is currently towing home a 1984 Wellcraft Coastal 228 (we estimate the weight of boat and trailer to be 6500-7000#) on a 1400 mile journey from CA and crossed the Sierras yesterday and is happily cruising along. On the trip out to CA he was averaging 75-80 mph and he was getting 19 mpg while riding in comfort. I’ll get mpg numbers from him today and tomorrow for the towing portion.

Just talked to my friend who is headed out of the Reno area this morning in his Tundra Platinum I told him about this thread and he commented how he was using the sequential shifting traversing the Sierras both up and down, he reported that the average fuel mileage he got yesterday in stop and go traffic leaving the Bay Area and crossing over the 8000’ Sierras was 10.2 mpg, while cruising along 395 this morning his instantaneous mileage was 13 mpg at 58 mph. I will get another mpg / average speed update later today when the road opens up.

I told him that I had been reading some vehicle reviews about the Tundra and a complaint was ride quality, he commented that his Tundra rides better than his new F-150 work truck.

Dodge has heated front seats. Toyota has heated AND air conditioned front seats.

Toyota has adjustable headlights from the dash! Never could understand why all trucks don’t have this feature to get your lights down when there is a load in the back.

View attachment 186637

Payload capacity, check the yellow and white label in the drivers side door well for max payload capacity and gross vehicle weight. This is the real deal and not some convoluted brochure.

To me, the Tundra is the vehicle I’d choose given this choice. I’m basing my opinion on operational capability, crew comfort, tech and the opinions of my friends who have these trucks. The other thing I notice is that someone was pretty liberal with spray protectant on the Dodge while the Toyota is just….clean.

As a follow up, my friend got 10.5 avg mpg towing the 1984 Wellcraft 228 coastal 1500 miles mostly at 70 mph from ca to the mid west.

000575DB-16D1-4CDD-AB4C-DD6316C903BF.jpeg
 
10.5 seems about the average for any of the full size trucks at that speed, regardless of boat or engine.
 
10.5 seems about the average for any of the full size trucks at that speed, regardless of boat or engine.

Agreed…. and actually pretty darn good with a na gasser, considering he crossed the Sierras and the Wasatch ranges. He probably could have got another .5-1 mpg if he was going 60 but traveling those distances at 60 would extend an already long day a couple of hours. (I got 12 towing my boat last year to Lake Powell and back (1700 miles) with my ford 6.7L diesel @65-70).
 
10.5 seems about the average for any of the full size trucks at that speed, regardless of boat or engine.

Aerodynamics takes over eventually.

It would be curious to see if the light duty diesels would do any better though, diesel engines tend to be more efficient under load than gasoline, so it might be a bit better.
 
For me, the 18 gallon tank would be to small for any long distance towing. Probably would have to fill the tank every 200 miles. Of course, for shorter distances would not be issue.

The 7500 lb tow capacity is with the EcoBoost 2.3L engine and the ten-speed automatic transmission.

Jim
Gas tank size was one of my big complaints about the Honda Pilot I used to tow with. It had a 20 gallon tank, but that was too small. And yes, I would fill up every 225 miles.
 
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It's not a Dodge, and it says it has the 5.7L, which is 395hp and 410lbs. I cannot trust anything you say lol.

For reference, I get about 10mpg towing with my RAM in stop and go city traffic with the 252. Creeps up to 11-12 on interstate (I drive like it's not back there). The 8-speed transmission will run circles around the Tundra - there is no arguing that. You might have some more control on the Tundra but is the only perk.

For what it's worth - Ram has won almost every truck award since the redesign in 2019. It lost this year to the Rivian.
Truck awards are for brand new trucks, and say nothing about how reliable the vehicle will be. As has been pointed out, the price on the Tundra speaks volumes about what consumers think of their reliability compared to a newer Ram.
 
Truck awards are for brand new trucks, and say nothing about how reliable the vehicle will be. As has been pointed out, the price on the Tundra speaks volumes about what consumers think of their reliability compared to a newer Ram.

Consumers are idiots though. I know people who bass their purchase decision off what celeb or influencer sells it to them. I wouldn't trust consumer opinions about much.
 
Consumers are idiots though. I know people who bass their purchase decision off what celeb or influencer sells it to them. I wouldn't trust consumer opinions about much.
So you are convinced that Toyotas are not any more reliable than any other random vehicle? And Toyotas earning high resale values are because people are just stupid?
 
Isn't it great to have choices! :winkingthumbsup"

Personally, I love my RAM and am still very happy about the price I paid. Don't care if the resale is higher on another brand, as my purchase price was very reasonable and I don't intend to sell or trade anytime soon.

For those who love their Toyotas, or some other brands, I'm genuinely happy for y'all as well.

Jim
 
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