'Ol Bess Race Car Hauler

My wife and I own a 2005 Sequoia with about 390,000 miles and love the Toyota brand; having also owned the GR86, GT86 and AE86. For a truck, I am used to my old 2001 F350 7.3 Diesel, so I was a bit hesitant on buying a 1/2 ton truck and designating it as my tow vehicle.

With Toyota's reliability, and owning a 5.7 V8 with close to 400k on it, I knew I'd be in good hands for ease of maintenance. Originally, I had found a used 2021 Tundra, which was a pretty basic model, but good enough to tow a car around. The deal ended up taking a turn when I saw the new Tundra, and immediately struck a new deal.

Low and behold, good 'Ol Bess. She'll be carting around race cars for the foreseeable future.



The trailer is a 28' RaceHauler with ramp overs, cabinets, tire rack, tool box, spare parts, a 2500lb race car, and misc items (like stand up A/C and snacks). I'd say the trailer is about 6500lb + 2500lb = 9,000lbs.

I have a weight-distribution/sway hitch, that needs to be reset, but made the tow home a breeze. No sway from tractor trailers passing/being passed, no un-settling feelings whatsoever.

Average about 10MPG through the VA/WV mountain roads. Tow/Haul mode only so far. Just read about Tow+ and will have to experiment with it.

 

I pull heavy trailer quite often, love how well this truck pulls along. I only have the 5ft bed I’m sure the extra foot help stability even more.
How do you find the trailer brake controller? I’m still not satisfied that it’s up to snuff compared to my Tekonsha P3 controller.

 

What kind of race car though?? I have a 24' Haulmark to contain my son's 265 lb quarter midget and all that comes with it. Truth be told, I got it for the extra space to lounge in on long track days. It's more of a garage than a trailer lol

 

2006 Civic Si GLTC Sprint Car. 15 min sprint races, and also an endurance car/team also.

That's what mine will be used for also - garage to store the car, and a cool place to hang out on those hot summer track days.

It seems to do its job. The trailer brakes hold the truck/empty trailer from moving at LEVEL 4.5, so I'm sure it will be OK with another 2500lbs and adjusted.

The 6.5' bed feels great. The sway/weight-distribution hitch is taking some time to setup though. Originally I was sagging almost 5", but I've gotten it down to 2.75" through tuning the WDH. Front has acceptable weight on it - per guidelines, but I am still unhappy with how it sits. I'll figure something out.

Am I not tuning the WDH correctly?

Before:



After:
Trailer is level.

 

I won’t lie, coils don’t hold the weight as good as the leaf pack did but it seems like your torsion bars my be a bit light for the job.. I’ve never had mine tipped up past level even maxed out at 12000lbs.

as for trailer brakes, my old brake controller would drag trailer tires at 3 on pavement when empty. Next day I pinned on the new tundra, won’t drag them on gravel at 6 .

 

That's what I'm realizing.

Yeah, per your comment in the other thread, I agree with you. Too light for the job because they are stressed.

Interesting! I'm sure the gain rate is different on aftermarket models, clearly, but as long as I can still tune it to lock up and back one, I'll be happy. Won't be a happy camper if it doesn't do its job correctly within it's tow weight rating.

 

Pics of racecar?

if the trailer is unhooked and level how high is the hitch compared to the hitch on the truck.

i know we had to crank the torsion bars for pulling into the pits at dirttracks to keep the jack feet from dragging. But that was with an '89 f150 with helper springs.

 

Was looking at you pic when it hooked up, you may do well to unbolt and flip the hitch on the truck, double check once you try heavier bars to straighten the whole works out. Trailer looks tipped down to. Wouldn’t want you to loose the electric jack on bad bump

 

The trailer sits perfectly level according to front cornered rear corner measurements. I'm going to give it a shot flipping the hitch and trying all over. If the nose of the truck is settled correctly, I'll deal with the sag later (on board bag system or something).

Thanks for the help!

 

Absolutely, even the

$126 Firestone 4164 Coil-Rite Air Helper Spring Kit

Firestone 4164 coil-rite bags will help you a lot.. an extra 1500lbs of lift assistance

 

It is definitely not set up correctly. WDH rating appears to be 10k, based on the 1k load bars. I've got to run down and get a tongue weight tool to measure.

Really want to get this set up correctly today.