Hi Ya'll,
I just bought a 90'Runner (3.0,auto,4x4)and was going to put a trailer hitch on it.How are they for towing uphills? I'm going to get a small utility trailer to tow dirt bikes (mostly).Is it capable?I haven't driven it up anyhills yet ,so i figured i'd ask you guys.Thanks! ,

 

Oh yeah, it'll tow dirt bikes no problem. Anything under about 3,000 lbs it can get along with fine. Over that and it starts getting a little noticeable. Utility trailer and dirt bikes will come in at under 2k i would bet.

 

it should be fine, even though the truck has enough trouble on its own getting up a hill

 

Yeah it should do fine...I've towed a 5x12 trailer with two Kawasaki Prairie 700's on it and about 100 pounds of gear and food so I guess that would come out to about 2300-2400 pounds all together and it did pretty well.

Good luck man,

Fink

 

I've towed trailers in excess of 5000lbs. And much to my surprise the 3.0 actually maintained the speedlimit (most of the time). Once you get er' up to speed she'll do alright. You should have no problem with the weight you are describing.

 

You should be fine, just manually take it out of overdrive (that little button on the side of the shifter) and make it a 3 speed. That will help keep the torque converter from slipping so much.

 

Yeah ,should be fine i often forget that there is a trailer on the back,its so unoticable,its hard to back sometimes coz i cant see it.

 

you'll tow it just fine, it is the stopping that is the problem. make sure you give yourself plenty of room.

 

Thanks Guys ! My confidence is renewed.I'm driving out to the hi-desert tomorrow(sans trailer) to see how she does.I've wanted one one these ever since they came out!

 

Just remember to put a trans cooler on it if you plan to tow a lot.

 

Yeah,going for the cooler anyway.Just got back from the Dez.I really like this thing,It's so smooth / Quiet on the hwy. I did have to kick O/D off up the 5 mile grade but i was still doing 65 without pushing it too hard.I also got 18.8 mpg on the trip and that was with the a/c on most of the way.Now if i can get used to the autotrans in 4lo.I like the control with a 5 speed better in crawling situations.

 

You can still manually shift it, I mostly wheel with the auto in 1st gear low. You can't beat the auto for stoping in the middle of a climb and slowly starting back up.

 

I know.....my 3.slow is a truck, 5spd, and a 92.....but as far as the engine is concerned.....if all is good mechanically.....you will be fine. I used to pull a trailer with either an MGB or MGB-GT behind my truck....no problem, even in the mountains.
You should have more than adequate peformance to haul what you mentioned!

Haul on!

 

I used to tow a 3000lb camper, fiberglass bass boat and a small aluminum boat with my old '90 SR5 with a manual transmission. It did the job, but you wouldn't have wanted to be behind me on a hill in a no passing zone!!! I put a lot of towing miles on that 4Runner, never had any major work done to it and I sold it with 205,000 miles on it. It now belongs to friend and he has 245,000 on it and it's still running strong. I'd say towing was not detrimental to it.

 

I used mine to tow two SeaDoos home from the lake this weekend. About halfway home I had the A/T Oil Temp light come on but during that first half of the trip there were many steep hills. So I pulled over for about 5-10 mins right before we got on the turnpike and let it cool a bit, then when we got on the turnpike it didn't come on again the rest of the way. I have no idea how much the two seadoos and trailer weigh tho.

 

Speaking of towing... I saw a Ford Fiesta - with about a 14 foot trailer on it loaded up with a Broken Down Refrigerator, Range and miscellaneous other items and 4 of our illegal alien brothers crammed inside tooling down the interstate the other day going about 60mph..

Funniest thing I've seen in a long long time. I sure wish I'd had my camera.

As for the 3.slow towing anything... Mine barely tows itself. If you break it - towing something, it's going to cost you...I might tow - if it had a standard, but a replacement automatic tranny for one of these is about 2k

 

I have just towed my 15' aluminum bass boat 300 miles and there was not one problem. I set the cruise control on at 80 on a 70 MPH highway and on the way up a hill it slowed to 62 with the truck floored but other than that no problems .

 

Hey guys, I'm aquiring an older travel trailer that is about 20 foot long. I'm going to attempt to tow it with the 4Runner. I've got a 1st gen 4R with a manual tranny and V6, but I have 4.10 gears, 36" tires, and about 10 inches of lift. I'm not sure how much this trailer weighs, but I'm guessing around 2500-3500 pounds. Do you think this will work? I wont be pulling cross country, just a few hours away at the most. No big hills or anything. The trailer has electric brakes, so I will get a brake controller. My next dillema will be to either get a big ass drop hitch, or lift the trailer up a few inches and get a smaller drop hitch. I'm thinking I should lift the trailer because it would actually help towing two ways. First, would be the fact that with my lifted truck and low trailer, I would be creating an air damn inbetween the truck and the trailer. If I lift the trailer and allow the air to pass under the trailer, I would create less wind resistance. Secondly, a smaller drop hitch would create less torque on the draw bar. Also I would not scrape the underside of the trailer as easy. Does this sound about right? I wonder if I could fit some Jeep wheels and tires on the trailer since it has a 5 lug pattern? Hmmm

 

Wow! 4.10s and 36s? You might seriously think about gears.

 

I've dragged a 61 caddy convertible on a flatbed with a borrowed 94 4Runner. It didn't get me anywhere to fast, but it did get the job done. Trailer did have brakes though, thankfully.