Tundra towing mods

Its a spring that hooks onto your leaf pack with a couple of bolts. It preloads your leaf packs. 45min install and makes for tighter ride when unloaded. I got the heavy duty version

https://activesuspension.com/products/kits/1999-2019-toyota-tundra/

 

Mine is a Reflection 150 series. They move the axles forward slightly to make the tongue weight less for half tons. According to the ID tag on the camper, the tongue weight is 1,200 pounds. Dry weight is 8,200 and gvwr is 9,900 pounds. I know it’s right at the limit and/or a little above , depending on the load out. But I’ve had it up and down mountains, in the desert heat and in the frigid northeast winters. The truck pulls good up to 65 mph. It stops the trailer in an emergency and the sway control is on point. The only time things ever felt funny was when I had too much stuff in the back. I’d hit a bump on the highway and the rebound of the trailer axle suspension caused the truck to get a little light on the rear axle. I pulled over, moved some stuff around and it drove great again.

 

Nice set up btw. I would think you would be better off with the stock size 10ply tires. I'm trying to understand your concern about the trans temps. If you have a factory trans cooler you have a thermostat. Help me understand your concern with the temps and what the issue is.

 

I am curious your thoughts on near max towing of equipment vs. TT or 5th wheel. I tow so equipment from time to time that is near max towing. I keep going back and forth on if I should just upgrade trucks. The tundra handles the weight pretty well, but obviously a 3/4 or 1 ton would be far superior.

I have never towed a TT or an enclosed trailer so, I am curious your opinion on the differences and potential of me upgrading

 

So, this past Christmas I towed the camper from NH down to Florida. It was 4* Fahrenheit when I left my house. Driving highway speeds (65) it was cold enough to keep the engine temp down. My coolant temp was around 185, but my trans temp was up to 230. I dropped down into 4th gear, forcing the engine to rev higher. Within a few seconds, the engine temp went up to 195. Then, both the engine temp and trans temps both started to come down simultaneously. This only happened in the frigid north. Once I got down south where it was 60-80 degrees outside, I had no more issues.

 

When towing equipment (ie car trailer or bobcat, etc) you can move the machine on the trailer over the axles to keep your tongue weight down. Travel trailers and 5th wheels have a lot of tongue weight. I used to have a TT and I used a weight distribution hitch. You gotta play around with the settings to transfer the right amount of weight forward of the hitch ball. It works like a lever, pulling up on the ball, thereby pulling down on the frame of the tow vehicle. A fifth wheel just puts the tongue weight directly over the rear axle. But trailer weight is trailer weight, no matter how you slice it (assuming the load is evenly distributed). What makes campers and enclosed trailers more difficult to tow is that it’s a giant sail, catch wind and draft forces from larger trucks. So, if you’re not perfectly balanced and you catch a side draft, you could easily lose control of your rig.

 

Ahh ok thanks for the right up. I see a lot of Youtube videos and comments about towing but most of them are geared toward TT's. Most of the equipment towing videos are for 3/4 to 1 ton trucks. I am still debating if I should upgrade or if I should upgrade rear suspension and brakes. The roadmaster active suspension has helped a lot to where I can get my truck perfectly level at max towing. But always been at the top of my trucks range has me rethinking things

 

I really appreciate the write up. I am really struggling with this because I want to be safe. Not just for me but for others on the road.

Like you said equipment trailers that are quality start at about 2700lbs and only go up. I pull my 45hp tractor with loaded tires. It weighs in at about 6K-7K and plot that on a 3K trailer and I am at the max if not over. And its funny you mention skid steers or excavators. I have a rental place that was willing to put a 5T machine on a 14K and have me tow it instead of delivering it. That was a hard pass.

The tundra handles it fine and I make sure to take my time to level everything properly, but I just think if I am going to be doing this more and more it might be time to upgrade to a gas 3/4.

 

Remember that not all 3/4 tons are equal and some actually have lower payload numbers than 1/2 tons. Make sure you read the door sticker.

 

Trailer has 6k axles. That one is a rental. I’ll send you a PM to discuss the rest. Thanks again

 

Cooling fan wouldn’t kick on until engine was warmer?
Is there some kind of thermostat in the liquid to liquid cooler? (Where the transmission fluid goes through the radiator)? Seems odd.

 

Not sure. But I read on a forum a few years ago about the tundra’s insufficient trans cooler and how it operates on the coolant thermostat and doesn’t have its own. That’s the only reason I knew how to get my trans fluid to cool down. There was actually a really good write up with pics of a guy that installed an in-line trans cooler. He relocated the passenger side horn right next to the driver side horn and mounted the cooler in its stead. The plumbing was super easy. Then there’s just topping off the fluid and bleeding the lines. I’ll try to find that thread.

 

I like this write up. I often say that my truck tows my camper great. And I never thought of how that is such a relative statement. I have a CDL. I drove tractor trailer for 6 years in the Army. I’m a lineman by trade. I work on the big power lines that go through the woods and whatnot. We have to tow heavy equipment all the time. So, I’m very experienced at knowing what a well balanced truck trailer combo looks and feels like. But I’m usually talking to the guys at work about how my truck pulls my camper. And we all know what a good setup feels and drives like. I forget that some people have never even towed a motor cycle trailer when they bought their first camper. That’s kind of scary.

 

That’s why, more often than not, I end up moving more stuff up into the front bedroom. I’d estimate my ideal tongue weight with a fully loaded camper of “stuff” to be closer to 1,700 pounds. Add the weight of my wife, kids and the hitch, that puts my payload around 2,100 pounds. Which is why I bought the 2,000 pound yellow sumo springs, and got the better brakes. I’m never in a hurry when I tow the thing. I usually do the speed limit or less. Never go over 65. I get worried about catching a side draft of wind or turbulence from a semi. I drive truck for a living as part of my job. I understand how to safely tow a heavy trailer with a much lighter truck. (I.e. an 80,000 pound drill rig on a 10,000 pound low boy being towed by a tractor that weighs less than 30,000 pounds. That puts the tow vehicle at only 25% of the total combination weight. My tundra weighs 6,200 pounds with me in it. My combination weight is roughly 16,500. Making my truck almost 40% of the combination weight. Much better ratio.

 

How do I add a link here? I found the thread talking about the in-line cooler. I just don’t know how to insert a link

 

What's wrong with the V10 Fords? My grandparents used to tow their fifth wheel from here down to Arizona every winter with their Triton, though I never actually talked to my grandfather about how it was.

 

Ah, I get your point now.

My uncle has always run Dodges but only the Cummins turbo diesels. It's also pretty flat where he's doing his towing.

 

Just want to point out that changing your springs doesn’t increase the payload of the truck. Your max payload is whatever is shown on the door sticker.

 

That sticker is based on the equipment installed on the truck. If I upgrade everything on the truck except the sticker, then the sticker will stay the same. That sticker has no bearing on how much my truck can tow. If I do an axle swap to one ton axles and springs, then my truck can tow waaaaay more, but that doesn’t change the sticker. It’s just a sticker

 

Did you swap your axle?

You can’t increase the gvwr so installing heavier springs/axle would actually reduce your payload, even if those components can theoretically handle more weight.

 

You are hurting my tender emotions, sir.

 

I highly doubt that.