phattey

I just bought a pretty heavy boat.

22 foot bay boat with trailer and motor, with fuel must weigh in at around 4200 lbs...

Can my 2wd 3.4 pull that...??

I'm not going to bother with a hitch if it won't.

MTL_4runner

It could, but very slowly and you'll definately need to upgrade those front brakes.

Rick F.

AND tranny cooler if you don't already have one. I believe the towing capacity of a 3rd gen WITH the towing add-ons is 5,000 lbs but I may be mistaken. I tow a 2800# camper (empty) and then load about 200-400 #'s of poop in it. You don't want to be behind me on any long uphill grades if you're in a hurry..

phattey

The trailer is a twin axle with disc brakes. Would I still need to update the front brakes on the truck...??

quattro

No, a brake upgrade isn't required. If the truck & trailer brakes are in good working order and adjusted well (either inertia or electric), the majority of the braking load will be handled by the trailer. Assuming you're running an in-cabin adjustable trailer brake controller for electric trailer brakes; drag the whole rig over to a parking lot and let the truck idle and get rolling to a constant idle-throttle speed (brisk walk...); then tap & hold the brake pedal enough to get the trailer brake controller to work but don't engage the actual brakes on the truck. Now adjust your trailer brake controller so that the brakes onset smoothly and stop the entire rig. This is your baseline brake setting on your controller at your current weight. As you drive you may find you want more trailer brakes or possibly less. Me personally I like the use the trailer to stop the truck which leaves lots of reserve capacity in a panic stop. It does require a change in your driving style to make sure the braking zone accomodates the engagement time of your particular trailer brake setup.

I used my '97 4WD Ltd (4.10 gears) to tow a 3000lbs race car on a steel tandem axel car trailer with an ENTIRE rally support package packed in everywhere. Easily 6000lbs total load. I used a load equalizing hitch assembly and electric trailer brakes on a single axel. Towed many thousand miles to different rallies. Never a problem. I use a time-based electric brake controller - although I like the feel of the inertia ones better.

Be religious about tire pressures for all wheels on the ground at every fuel stop. I run 36, 38psi cold F&R truck and 32psi cold on the trailer when towing. Make sure your hitch-ball is clean and the receiver sleeve on the truck to help create a good Gnd circuit for your trailer electrics.

Now, to be fair I just did the Tundra upgrade using used parts from a local yard and it was by far the best upgrade I've ever done in the bang-for-buck realm. But I've towed many, MANY miles in my 4Rnr on stock brakes, so worry about your tranny more than the binders. Oh - and get used to driving w/OD-off, and then dropping into 2nd gear unless you SC the beast.

MTL_4runner

Quattro did an excellent writeup for setting up the trailer brakes.
Like he mentioned you will probably be fine if the trailer has on-board brakes.


I've towed a few big boats without trailer brakes and it was hairy to say the least.
(fronts definately need an upgrade then and rears need to be well adjusted too).

snap-on

you might get a load distrubuting hitch. at 4200lbs your looking at something in the 4-500 lb toung weight range (i would think). it will tow a lot nicer with that kind of hitch.

quattro

Definitely load equallizing hitch is a darn good thing. I've added the air shocks to the back of my truck so I could support the extremly high tounge-weights of the race car tow setup. Sure I was able to left the backend of the truck with 230psi in the shocks and level everything out - but the load-equalizers do better.

why? Well near as I can tell the air pressure is effectivly trying to dead-lift the load of the tounge-weight. Whereas on the L-E hitch setup, the torsion bars that you crank up create a twising force that has the effect of the hitch lifting the back of the truck...

ok lousy explanation - but use it once and you'll know what I mean. I got less creaking out of the backend of the truck when using L-E hitch setup than simply adding spring to the back.