First Towing Trip Impression

Carried a show car to Huntsville Alabama and back to Tennessee this weekend. The car and trailer weighs about 5800 pounds. Trailer is a dual axle aluminum construction. I did play with the car location on the trailer. I moved the car to load the truck to drop the rear about two inches. I have a 23 i-force max Capstone Tundra that just turned 3000 miles. Impressions and concerns listed below for your consideration.
Power for towing is no problem. I would find myself running 88 MPH uphill, downhill, everywhere. This truck is a towing monster not lacking for power. The truck was just as stable as if it was not towing anything. Watched boost and I-Force gauges work more in Tow mode while cruising by radar control. Radar cruise works flawlessly. A few times I would feel the transmission down-shift on some steeper grades.
Tow mode is turned off by the control software every time I turned off the engine. Why can't it not stay in Tow mode until the trailer is disconnected? The truck already knows when the trailer is electrically connected. Have to turn it on again after every restart.
Major vibration at 80-81 MPH. Not a tire out of balance. Not concentrated at any area of the truck. The whole truck seems to vibrate. It feels like a drive shaft out of balance to me. Vibration was visibly evident as you could see all the metal on the hood shaking up and down. Big concern as to what is causing this. First thought it might be the road paving, but it continued on different asphalt conditions and even different states.
Trailer brake controller works very well. Just set the Gain to 5 and never touched it again.
Wish I could tell more on the gas mileage, but stuck in traffic for almost three hours on the trip down. On back trip mileage instrument says we were getting 13 MPG. Did not get to check gallons per mile physically.
Overall a good impression of towing, except the vibration.
I would appreciate any comments, recommendations or just your thoughts.
thanks
PT in Tennessee

 

Great update on towing. I came from a RAM 3500 with all the bells and whistles for towing and one thing I really liked was that it stayed in tow mode as long as the trailer was connected. I would have expected the Tundra to do the same.

Where in TN are you located? I'm near Chattanooga.

 

Thanks. Great info. Agree, Tow Mode programming could be a lot smarter. In Tow mode though over drive gears are locked out. The highest gear it will tow in is 7th which is 1:1 straight thru the tranny. To me, 80 to 88 is too fast at 1:1. What was the rpm at that speed? May be part of the vibration issue. It’s really important to remember to re-apply Tow Mode after a restart because now your towing in overdrive which throws a ton of extra heat and strain on the transmission. There will be damage to those that forget this. (Or don’t know) The Tacoma is the same. (though there’s no Tow Mode) 6 speed tranny and towing is only supposed to be done up to 4th (1:1). ( I used 5th often on flat road with no head wind and temps were fine). First report on brake controller and glad to hear it. Standard mirrors? Thanks for sharing.

 

Just to kinda mimic what someone stated earlier…80 is too fast with ANY trailer attached.

I will venture to say it’s possible that the “vibration” was speed related.

 

An out of balance trailer tire will often cause a vibration thru the towing vehicle at high speeds. It's worth checking.

Matt

 

88 mph on any trailer tires I have ever seen is beyond specs and a death wish. And I hauled some pretty substantial trailers with my 2500 back in my builder days not just $1000 lawn mower haulers

 

Wow 80-88 towing? Holy shit, I’ve never gone that fast before, I think my tires are “only “ rated for 81.


I bet the vibes were from the trailer

slow down and I bet it will be smoother and safer

 

I've had the same experience except for the vibration which I've never noticed and have never towed that fast, 68Mph - 70Mph is as fast as I've towed. My trailer is about the same weight and my brake controller is usually set between 5 and 5.5 and seems to work really well, even had a panic brake event when someone in MA made a last second decision to exit the highway and cut me off; truck and trailer stayed perfectly inline. Pretty happy with the towing capability of this truck.

 

88mph? The hell you trying to do, time travel!?

Yeah, that's way to fast for towing and probably exactly why you were having vibration issues. I'm betting the trailer tires were protesting.

 

I hade mine in tow haul mode the other day and I swear I saw it shift into 8th gear while cruising at about 60mph. I have the scanguage III hooked up which shows what gear you're in and if the TC is locked or not. I'll double check that today to see if it grabs 8th or not. Also, I did NOT have a trailer hooked up when I tested it, just put the truck in Tow Haul (regular mode) and tried it unladen. Will update this post if I see different results.

 

Echoing everyone else's sentiments, slow down man. You're a safety hazard to everyone around you towing at those speeds, regardless of "how many times you've done it before without problems."

 

Sorry folks, but since everyone is slapping my hands I need to clarify a bit. My normal cruise was about the speed limit. I do not need an out-of-state traffic ticket. The higher speed was when I was not on Cruise and just running with the traffic and would just look at the speedo and see I was running way to fast. This was so easy to do with this truck. The trailer has new tires and valves and balanced. I am going to take the truck this week without trailer and see if the vibration exists without it. I have standard mirrors but seem to see everything well. I never saw the RPM any higher than 2500 or so. I did see close to 4000 once when I was going up the mountain road to the car show on really steep grade at maybe 25-30 MPH. I did not count the shifts, but the cruise RPM seemed the same in Tow Mode. I understand the overdrive as I used to tow with a Tacoma and always kept the truck out of overdrive as the small lockup clutch could not handle the extra load when towing. I am in Morristown east of Knoxville. Chattanoga was one of the major traffic holdups that was the reason I could not check the mileage.
Thanks all for the comments and spanking. LOL
PT in Tennessee

 

... and a quick check-in from the 2.5gen club: the older ones won't opt-in to tow/haul when things are attached either. And yeah, I've always been frustrated by that.

 

Towed with mine a few weeks ago. I like how it tows better than the 5.7. I had 6 5.7 L Tundras through the years. 2014-2019 All Crew Max’s and towed many miles with them. My 2023 is a Crew Max and I actually prefer how the V6 TT tows over the 5.7. I was pretty amazed as I didn’t know what to expect but I could tell a noticeable difference between the two. Way smoother pulling with V6 TT all around.

 

i think the biggest issue is if you get a sway at that speed, there is no time to react to control it compared to at 55/65 where i usually see it manifest at a steady pace that you notice in time to react. the oscillation at 75/85 just happens so fast by the time you react and compensate the trailer is whipping to fast to stop it.

 

off subject for the thread but have to ask - SC III - are you able to see both transmission temps ? Pan and Converter? TIA and my apologies to the OP for slight diversion.

 

OP, have you towed the trailer and same load with another TV at 80+ with no vibration? That info might help determine if it's the trailer or TV.

 

I am in the 10% But you already knew how special I am.

With a 75mph speed rating I can safely say I have never exceeded that speed pulling my camper. What do I win? I'm thinking a Tundras.com cap maybe.

 

Where's my hat?

 

To answer a few comments. I have not towed the trailer with any other truck. I towed for two years or so, but with my Tacoma. I never saw 70 MPH or so even going downhill. It did not have the power to do it. I just took my time and let the Tacoma do what it could without pushing it heavily.
I am certainly thankful for the posting about "Sway". This will be a big concern in my future towing. I was in another truck a few years ago and the camping trailer started swaying and the truck was almost immediately totally out of control. We survived due to lower speed and good driver. Yes, you are virtually helpless instantly when it starts. Thanks again for bringing this up.
The trailer tires are L rated, so this should be my new speed Max.
It is so easy to just drive with the traffic and loose track of your speed with this truck and drivetrain. This truck has plenty more available even at 80 MPH. Telling myself now to be more careful.
I need to choose my speed and set the radar cruise, staying in the right lane more. This speed control works great to slow you down more when approaching another vehicle. I even saw it applying brakes on one occasion.
As I stated we had been stopped for more than 1 hour on three occasions and you know what happens when the traffic starts moving! Everybody goes wild with speed to make up time.
Still open for comments and thoughts even if I get spanked again. LOL Thanks all who have responded.
PT in Tennessee

 

My cruise still works in tow haul mode. . .and I do use it but I'm mostly flat ground here. .

 

That sounds like a pretty major vibration. Keep us posted on what you find out and if it continues. You can have all power in the world but if it’s vibrating like a hotel bed fed with a roll quarters.. something ain’t right. The Tundra is supposed to be a super smooth pulling machine

 

A lot of the US has been over 100f this month, at 65 to 70 I’d guess your tire temp was way up there. Tires can get a bit odd shaped at those temps, may have been some of the vibration? I had a blow out do to 80 mph speeds and high temperature, I learned to slow down at very high temperatures.

 

Just an update on my original post indicating a vibration somewhere.
Yesterday small trip with no trailer. I tried different speeds, slowing down to have to have to change the load on the drivetrain. Speeds between 65 to 85. I tried my best to replicate vibrations I got during towing, BUT nothing. No vibration, none. So I can only now assume the trailer I was towing (with the 3800 pound car) was the culprit. It just seems hard to believe the trailer vibration was carried into the truck. Taking the wheels/tires off the trailer this week and taking them to a tire shop to be balanced.
PT in Tennessee

 

Might check trailer bearings too. Jack up ea axle and try and shake the lifted wheels

 

We just got back from a trip around the Olympic Peninsula. I have recently installed some E rated 10 ply tires with a speed rating of about 106 mph if I recall. The tires are the “real” Falken Wildpeak AT3W’s that should have gone on the Pro and other models. My trailer is a single axle so I wasn’t too worried about the sidewall flex of a double axle. I had them balanced as well.

I run them at 62 psi cold (based on the trailer weight) and have TST tpms valves so I can see the pressure and temp all the time. During our trip, I noticed the tire pressure rise to over 70psi and saw the temp hit 100F.

One thing I noticed was how smooth the trailer ran and very solid and well mannered especially on the twisty secondary highways. I replaced aged Goodyear Endurance tires with the Falkens.

I run with a weight distribution hitch and keep the tongue weight over 10% of the trailer weight. My hitch also has sway control.

Even with all these improvements, I keep my speed between 55 and 70 mph (the latter on the I-5). I have experienced a sway situation with my first trailer and was able to get it under control but it scared the crap out of me.

I do use the tow mode and have to turn it on whenever starting the truck. Sort of a pain but easy to get used to. I also start up with the transmission in first gear and manually shift till I get into third or so and slide the shifter over into “D”. I find that the truck seems to struggle and starting from a stand still and this seems to help.