The wife and I are thinking about purchasing a 18' travel trailer and using our 2004 Prerunner V6 with auto tranny to tow it. We have the quad cab with the short bed and have had a hitch already installed.

My big question is, the gross weight of the trailer is just shy of 5k lbs (pretty sure that includes full water tanks). The owners manual says the max capacity is 5k, but how realistic is this? I plan on putting coolers for the oil and tranny fluid in, and a brake controller since the trailer has electric brakes, but can the truck handle it even with these enhancements? We won't be doing a whole lot of steep road driving, just the usual Georgia hillside mainly (max 5% grades), but I would like to maybe take it into the Blue Ridge mountains or other steep inclines from time to time (easily exceeding 12% grades).

Has anyone else on the forum had any experience with this type of setup? If so, what kind of performance can I (not) expect? I know I won't be passing many people, but I don't want to nuke the tranny.

Thanks in advance!

 

i just bought a pop-up camper gross about 3500 lbs. my 4runner pulls it but you know its back there. it cut my mileage in more than half. and its a good load. i drive like a grandma with it on have only pulled about 500 miles bout have had no trouble with tranny getting hot i watch it very close as i have 234,000 miles on my truck. you will have almost a ton more weight than me. let me know how it works out as my sister is looking at a larger camper like you to pull b/h her 4runner