[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by ricqik

Alright guys be serious. I tow a 2900lbs boat quite often spring to fall and I notice a big loss in towing power. And when I tow a 2ton car on a dolly I really feel the difference. All my friend and relatives says they're truck tows fine and don't even struggle that much with the kind of weight that I tow. Either something is really wrong with my truck or people just are afraid to admit it. They have 5.3L sierra, 5.2L rams, 5.2L dakotas, 03 4.7L 4runners, and 4.7L tundras. So I suggest they let me hook up my boat and test it. Sure enough same thing, struggling for power. I tell them" feel the difference" they say "oh that, that's nothing". WHAT!!? I would call that loss in power, they would call it piece of cake. Of those, the sierra felt slightly stronger than my tundra. The ram and the dakota was like driving a 4banger all over again with that tow weight. The 4runner and the other tundra felt the same but the 4runner doesn't lose speed as fast as the tundra when ascending hilles. If I have to be higher than 4k rpm just to maintain speed on my usual MN hills, it's weak. So what's up. I have a friend that modifies honda's and he and my brother's are the only ones that agrees with me that they do feel a significant difference when towing. So really are we(truck owners) afraid to admit this or is my butt too sensitive to momentom.

It's a matter of expectations as much as performance. For people who routinely tow, being able to eventually get the tow vehicle/trailer rig up to 65 mph on a fairly flat road is considered acceptable performance. By eventually I'm meaning that 0 to 60 times in the 25 to 60 second range are normal. If you're expecting sub 10 second times for 0 to 60 with 3000 to 5000 lbs hooked to the back of your truck, you're expectations are simply unrealistic. A trailer over 3000 or so pounds, especially one over 5000 lbs is going to very noticeably affect the performance of the relatively small V8 in the Tundra. With 3000 lbs back there, you shouldn't need 4000 RPM in 2nd gear on a MN hill (the truck really should pull that weight in 3rd at 3000 RPM)...but if you've got a 2 ton car (probably on a half ton trailer), then 4000 RPM in 2nd to hold 70 mph going up a MN hill doesn't sound completely out of line.

If you want to tug around those weights without noticeable effect on your truck's performance, you need a whole lot more engine than the Tundra has...something like a 454 gas engine or one of the heavy duty diesels...Cummins Turbo, Ford Power Stroke, etc...that put out around 600 to 800 lbs-feet of torque.