Long trip- enough truck?

[kiplingroad]

I have a 2004, 4.7L, AC Tundra with tow package. My wife and I will both retire in a few months. We are planning a 10 month 25 thousand mile road trip through the U.S. and Canada. The travel trailer we have decided to buy is the Sunline T-1950. With options, its dry weight is 3,850 lbs. Its GVWR is 5500 lbs. I have carefully weighed the gear we will be travelling with and the trailer will be 4,600 lbs or under when towing. Our GCW will be right around 9,800 lbs or 83% of the trucks GCWR. I will be using a Reese HP straightline W/D A/S hitch and a Jordan brake controller. I will be putting on Michillen LTX M/S tires, Mc Kesh mirrors and a trans temp guage. My question is, in your opinion, am I pushing the limits too much? If yes, would the addition of JBA headers, Gibson 24" muffler, Bilstein shocks and Hellwig anti-roll bar be enough to make the difference? Or should I consider waiting for the '07 Tundra? I would rather not have to buy a new truck. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

[rcbuzzb]

IMHO these type additions improved my truck's usefulness, greatly so. Well worth it towing or just going; the confidence and driving satisfaction factors go WAY up. So much that a Unichip and a valve body came next, oh and some road performance truck/suv tires, some 275/60/17s went right onto the stock rims, no problems there just grins replacing groans, they look nice and substantial without raising the final drive ratio as there is no height increase. Just bigger, stiffer, very grippy footprints... And the Jordan controller's right-now attitude is just superb. I found a need to rely on cruise control, OD off, otherwise the whole rig would keep creeping up past 80 mph, bulky 5300# toyhauler and all, going uphill!

[basura]

check out some of the previous threads - there's a good one from quite a while ago where Rockt Mtn Ray describes his mods & results

I think JBA & Gibson offered some improvements

there was also a lengthy discussion about the installation and benefits of a tran temp guage

The Hellwig is super without a trailer - I imagine it would help with trailering too. Greatly reduces lean.

I too am retiring shortly and am planning a 15,000 mile / 6 month circle of Can / US

maybe we'll bump into each other - had origianlly planned on a small travel trailer - that's why the Tundra - but the current plan is to save those $'s and
tent. With gas & trailer savings should be able to treat ourselves to a few B & B's, and motels.

here's one of the threads
Beginner trailer questions

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by kiplingroad

I have a 2004, 4.7L, AC Tundra with tow package. My wife and I will both retire in a few months. We are planning a 10 month 25 thousand mile road trip through the U.S. and Canada. The travel trailer we have decided to buy is the Sunline T-1950. With options, its dry weight is 3,850 lbs. Its GVWR is 5500 lbs. I have carefully weighed the gear we will be travelling with and the trailer will be 4,600 lbs or under when towing. Our GCW will be right around 9,800 lbs or 83% of the trucks GCWR. I will be using a Reese HP straightline W/D A/S hitch and a Jordan brake controller. I will be putting on Michillen LTX M/S tires, Mc Kesh mirrors and a trans temp guage. My question is, in your opinion, am I pushing the limits too much? If yes, would the addition of JBA headers, Gibson 24" muffler, Bilstein shocks and Hellwig anti-roll bar be enough to make the difference? Or should I consider waiting for the '07 Tundra? I would rather not have to buy a new truck. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Fundamentally, you're good to go as is. If you don't have the TRD package, then definitely you need the Bilstein shocks to help compensate for the increased suspension spring rate that's part and parcel of using a WDH. Otherwise, the '04 has the 2nd generation, almost totally trouble free tranny so no real worries there...especially with a trans temp gauge. Unless you spend a whole lot of time roaming around Colorado's mountains (highest on average in the US), you'll have plenty of torque in stock form to handle a 4600 lb trailer (even with the truck loaded fairly heavily).

Sure, the headers are a nice addition (with few downsides other than cost) and the Gibson adds a bit more torque (with a noticeable gain in sound level). In most (e.g. non-mountain) situations both (especially the headers) will give you somewhat better acceleration (you'll be more likely to be up to traffic speed to merge at the end of a short on-ramp); somewhat reduced likelihood of downshifts on hills (less wear and tear on the tranny); and on 2-lane highways (especially in the less populated regions of the western states/provinces) you'll need less of a gap in oncoming traffic to be able to pass a slowpoke. So if you've got plenty of cash, buy these performance enhancements; if not, you can do quite well without them on 95% of the roads you'll be traveling.

The Hellwig is not going to do much, if anything, for towing stability because it is indeed an anti-roll device and not at all an anti-sway device. If you need more anti-sway, the place to put it is on the hitch, not the rear axle. A Hellwig reduces the understeer proclivity of the truck (by itself) and lends itself to flatter cornering in spirited driving. Since safe towing and spirited driving are contradictory concepts to begin with, there's very little a Hellwig will do to help if you're following safe towing practices. I personally noticed zero, nada, no effect on towing after I installed a Hellwig on my truck. But then, unlike most folks, I barely noticed any difference in the way the truck handled with the Hellwig when not towing...the reason being that I drive quite smoothly, safely, responsibly, and non-aggressively at all times and adding the Hellwig just didn't make much difference.