Toyota Tundra and small 5'ver

We do have the tow package on our Tundra, so we have heavy-duty suspension, transmission cooler, etc.

?? There is no heavy duty suspension option for the Tundra. The TRD off road package comes with Bilstein shocks but they are not heavy duty nor part of the tow package.

The tow package includes:

Towing hitch receiver,
trailer brake controller prewire,
TOW/HAUL Mode switch,
supplemental engine oil cooler,
supplemental transmission cooler,
heavy-duty battery 170-amp alternator and;
4/7-pin connector (standard on 5.7L V8 models)

One more thing. And no, we're not being paid by Open Range. Their Light series are designed to be towed by 1/2 ton pick-up and can be towed with a 5 1/2 foot bed without a sliding hitch. We do have the tow package on our Tundra, so we have heavy-duty suspension, transmission cooler, etc.

You are asking the right question.

I have been pulling a ultralight 5th wheel with my Tundra for quite a while now.
Plenty of power pulling and stopping.
Problem is the the suspension.
While the truck has plenty of muscle, it's still a 1/2 ton pickup.
I am about 400 lbs over cargo capacity. Still under GAWR but I am pushing it.

I love the truck, but if I had it to do over again I think I would have gone 3/4 ton.
Some say a 3/4 ton rides rough empty but so does my Tundra.
E rated tires have replaced the squishy P rated stock tires and that helped with the "Loaded" ride but she's pretty rough empty.

So, can you do it? Probably if you find the right trailer.
Should you do it? That's for you to decide.

Now you have to decide what brand of 3/4 ton. :)

Have a great weekend!

Bill

John&Joey wrote:

Scott's wrote:
I pull a 26 foot 5er with my 2013 tundra with the 5.7. Trailer is around 7500#. I use a b&w hide a ball and goose neck conversion on the trailer. I've pulled it 1000s of miles. Never had a issue. I'm really happy with the set up.. The Tundra is way more capable than most people on here seem to think. I had a F250 diesel before the Tundra. I think the Tundra pulls better than the F250 did.

Thanks for the input. We live on the road for about six months out of the year and have seen this combo only a few times. The owners all seem pretty happy with it. When talking with the F250 guys they all love their trucks, then start to list off all of the repairs they've had to do.

We've had great luck with Toyota, and not so much with American iron. What we need now is a small, simple, and nimble rig to tour the country in for 3-4 months out of the year. That would be broken down into two segments in the fall and spring. Hotel stays would also be done while touring.

Currently I'm not Tundra educated, so any advice in that area would also be appreciated on models or options that I need to have.

Thanks for all of the input.

You'll find a lot fewer guys complaining about older Duramaxes than Powerstrokes. Hard to beat a diesel if you're towing a lot of miles, even with a light trailer. My only real beef with my '02 D'max is with the transmission, where some brilliant "engineer" decided that I wasn't competent enough to be able to manually use all the gears, so can't manually select 4th; goes direct from 5th (OD) to 3rd on the column. It's a $500-600 retrofit for an OD cut-off switch. I think it was in '04 when they changed this.

Lyle

Hi. We have been towing a 2014 Open Range Lite 297RLS 5th wheel, which is designed to be towed with 1/2 ton pick-up. Pulls just fine with our 2008 Tundra 5.7Ltr v-8 with tow package, with torque to spare. And BTW, we LOVE our 5th wheel and highly recommend you go to openrangerv.com and check them out.

Scott's wrote:
I pull a 26 foot 5er with my 2013 tundra with the 5.7. Trailer is around 7500#. I use a b&w hide a ball and goose neck conversion on the trailer. I've pulled it 1000s of miles. Never had a issue. I'm really happy with the set up.. The Tundra is way more capable than most people on here seem to think. I had a F250 diesel before the Tundra. I think the Tundra pulls better than the F250 did.

Thanks for the input. We live on the road for about six months out of the year and have seen this combo only a few times. The owners all seem pretty happy with it. When talking with the F250 guys they all love their trucks, then start to list off all of the repairs they've had to do.

We've had great luck with Toyota, and not so much with American iron. What we need now is a small, simple, and nimble rig to tour the country in for 3-4 months out of the year. That would be broken down into two segments in the fall and spring. Hotel stays would also be done while touring.

Currently I'm not Tundra educated, so any advice in that area would also be appreciated on models or options that I need to have.

Thanks for all of the input.

I pull a 26 foot 5er with my 2013 tundra with the 5.7. Trailer is around 7500#. I use a b&w hide a ball and goose neck conversion on the trailer. I've pulled it 1000s of miles. Never had a issue. I'm really happy with the set up.. The Tundra is way more capable than most people on here seem to think. I had a F250 diesel before the Tundra. I think the Tundra pulls better than the F250 did.

Dude down the road tows his Rockwood Fifth Wheel wiyh a Tundra. Not saying right or wrong. I did notice he got new wheels and tires this year.

Unless the fiver weighs in very close to 7,000lbs. (loaded), I wouldn't tow it with a Tundra. I really like my Tundra but feel that it tows 7k or so very well, but from about 8k and up, the Tundra starts to strain when you're not on thevbflat lands.

There are lots of people pulling fivers with Tundras. Problem is, the majority are over weight. Many are naïve and don't realize it, others simply don't care. The Tundra can "pull" no problem. The problem lies in what it can "carry" (payload vs pin weight). Check out the tow/haul section on tundratalk.net for examples of what people are towing. Just keep in mind that just because people tow it doesn't mean it should be towed.

You'll be very limited to the smallest and lightest fivers to be able to stay within the trucks GVWR. You'll be able to tow a lot more in a bumper pull due to the lower tongue weights.

Depending on what model and body style your Tundra is your payload can range from 1,000lbs (loaded crewmax 4x4) to 2,000lbs (base reg cab 2x4). Subtract the weight of passengers and gear going into the truck plus a couple hundred pounds for the hitch and what's left can carry the pin weight. That number is usually 1k or less. Not many fivers out there with less than 1k loaded pin weight. Of course there are always exceptions.