Why is Tundra so limited?

I am in the process of buying a 22' Travel trailer. About 4500lbs dry. First time ever having one or towing. I knew the Tundra is not rated very high compared to other 1/2 tons.. Does anyone know why? Are Chevy's and Ford's really built better to handle more? Just like to understand what it is that is truly limiting the Tundra. I didn't want a bigger trailer but reading some stuff here makes me feel like I'm going to hate towing even a trailer this size with this truck..Is it really that bad?

 

You will be fine. I tow a similar size all over UT and the West and never had a problem.

 

Guy at the camper dealer said for this weight I dont need a weight distribution hitch.. would you agree? Did you do any mods to help make towing more comfortable?

 

The Regular cab F150 can tow 13k lbs with the right package, but the Crew Cab with 5.0 or 3.5 can tow 9500 lbs. Same jump for GM. Tundra is in the 9000-9500 lb rating. Those guys just make tow king configurations to put out nice commercials, but when you compare apples to apples there's not much of a difference. Throw in the wrong configuration and an F150 can only tow 7500 lbs.

As for a WDH I would recommend it - for the few hundred bucks it makes towing a breeze. The Tundra is a much more confident tow rig than an F150 is - mainly because it's heavier. You're right in the sweet spot for 1/2 ton towing. Get yourself some tow mirrors and soon enough you'll be quite confident towing with a Tundra.

 

I believe the manual says to use a WDH if your trailer is over 5000 lbs, which yours is likely to be once fully loaded if it has a dry weight of 4500 lbs.

 

I would defiantly get a weight distribution hitch with friction sway.

 

Here's a question any guys running a lifted truck two or three inches?what kind of drop do you use on the hitch receiver two or three 4-in drop?

 

I tow a 3500 lb ski boat most weekends during the summer. I just got out of an 18 f150 supercrew FX4 with 3.5 ecoboost that I traded for the tundra. Truck had plenty of power to pull what ever you wanted and was rated at 11.5k but never felt stable at all. I would not have wanted to pull heavy with that truck. Tundra is a different story. With a weight distribution hitch you should have a great tow rig.

 

I have a 3/2 level kit. I don't have to run a drop for my decoy trailer but I have to do a 2" for a 4,000 lbs boat. I have a buddy with a 2018 F-150 and one with an ecodiesel dodge. When we all pull our boats, we all get 11 mpg and they talk about how they feel less stable in their rigs compared to when I pull with mine.

 

I understand to some extent that a weight distribution hitch helps disperse the weight more evenly . What is the biggest disadvantage to not having one? More sway?

Recommend brands folks are using?

 

To some extent?
Do you think they named it because it works in a small way to distribute weight?

The Torsion Bars of the hitch serve to load the weight from the Tongue/Hitch and rear axle where other hitches carry the entire load to both of the Axles of the truck which were designed to carry the load and engineered to provide the mechanics of the suspension design of the truck to control the weight of the trailer.
Once connected and "Chained Up" the entire Truck/Trailer is more like one rig than 2 as it is without a WDH.

You can even see the truck/trailer combo level once the chains are tightened and the difference in ride,tracking and control are actually astonishing from the first mile when rigged correctly!

The front end instead of being "Wagged" by the saggy load of the rear is level and shares control of the load which now excels at steering and braking together.

The trailer that I most often tow is hardly a challenge for the truck from any real perspective at all but at the same time having towed a lot just dragging the trailer along and then adopting a WDH for the trailer I can tell you there is ZERO plan of ever going back to not using the WDH.

I rally with others with the same trailer several times a year and No One that has done the same ever wants to go back and only those who have yet to try a WDH stand by the calculation that they already know it can not help them as they do not really need one.

I used to be one of them.

 

My apologies for the inaccuracy of my previous posts.

I pull a 2872 lb (dry weight) jet boat. According to Shorelander trailers, my trailer is approximately 702 lbs. 40 gallons of gasoline and all other fluids should put me around 320 lbs. 12 life jackets, 1 set of skis, ropes, surf boards, 1 set of trick skis, 2 wakeboards.

I guess for more accuracy I should have indicated I pull approximately 3,940 lbs. Best guess.

 

I am too lazy to add all of those items up @H20Skier . In my opinion some of the other manufacturers are a little over zealous with their tow ratings for real world applications. I was hung up on these numbers for a long time until I admitted to myself that I don’t haul that much weight anyway. I think the Tundra is capable of towing within it’s ratings very confidently.


I am a little embarrassed that I don’t have a picture of the previous rig towing the boat but I do have one of the truck before that for reference. Lol (I may or may not have a truck buying problem).

 

In a word, no. I owned a 2013 F150 prior to my 2020 Tundra. It had 20 less HP, 3.31 gearing (vs 4.30), and made most of its torque much higher in the power band.

Despite that....it had almost the same towing ability as my Tundra? (9400 vs. 9800) Yeah, no. That's a load of crap.

What I believe it comes down to is simple - other manufacturers throw 'max trailer tow' and other packages at it, so they can claim increased towing capability. Meanwhile, Toyota actually publishes theirs on the side of safety...just like they DON'T inflate their MPGs.

I can tell you for a FACT that my 2020 Tundra can EASILY out-tow my previous 2013 F150 (5.0L). Granted, it won't tow as well as an Ecoboost, but with the stiffer frame and the turbos spooling up @ any RPM; no kidding. I've towed the same things with my Tundra (14' trailer and 20' camper) that I have with my '13 F150, and it tows them FAR easier, in a higher gear, etc.

I would have absolutely no issue towing a 22' travel trailer with my Tundra (provided the obvious stuff - that you have a WDH, make sure shocks are in good working order, all that good stuff).

 

This is all good info, seems it's unanimous that a WDH should be used .. does anyone recommend certain brands? Seems Equilizer comes up often.. any others? What model? Is it something I can Install?

 

Equalizer is good; I've used Andersen as well. And yeah, you can easily do it, though in my case (towing noob a few years ago) I wanted someone else around, plus I looked up the process ahead of time. I'd strongly suggest doing the same if you're new to WDHs.

 

1. Tundras are heavy fat pigs for 1/2 tons.

2. It will pull that camper with ease.

3. Yes on the WDH. RV salesmen will tell you anything.

 

Yeah those 2 seem well rated.. There are several models.. wish I was more confident in what I need. I believe I saw a toung weight of like 540 something . I think dry.. I don't know if a 600/6k would be enough or if 1000/10k would be overkill.. I am also not sure how big the frame is on the trailer..I will inquire more about it.. I'd considered getting sumo springs but seems this is money better spent..

I figured the sales guy would want to sell me it to oversell vs under sell the idea..

 

To address the “why” in regards to the Tundra’s towing and payload numbers it’s helpful to look at the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) on the door jamb sticker. That’s the maximum weight the the vehicle can weigh full of fuel, passengers and payload, to include tongue weight from a trailer. In the case of my Tundra, it’s 7,100 pounds. If it were rated any more than that, it would be out of the 1/2 ton and into 3/4 ton territory which is a whole different category.

As another member posted, the Tundra is heavy. There are some videos on YouTube that go in depth on the way the Tundra is heavily built- 10.5” ring gear, biggest brakes in the class (Ram might be larger now, IRRC), heavy wheel bearings and other stuff that make it a strong truck. The trade off is all the heavy, durable stuff eats into the GVWR, leaving less payload available and consequently less towing capacity. An aluminum body (Ford), lightweight materials and weight-focused engineering accounts for the better payload and towing of some other brands. The potential trade offs there are durability and strength. It kind of fits into the old axiom: light, durable, and cheap; pick two.

 

Everything should be light and durable then - they sure as hell ain't cheap

 

I think GVWR on my truck is 7200 lbs. Some T1 GMs have GVWRs of 7300 lbs while some K2s were rated to 7600 lbs. However, most T1s are 450 lbs lighter than the K2s so that should be a net increase in capacity of ~150 lbs.

 

Mine actually had limited on the side of it when I bought it. ; )

 

I just did some rechecking and you are correct. 8,501 pounds GVWR is where 3/4 tons start.

 

IMHO I would pull the trailer without a WDH a few times to see what you think. Yes the WDH is not going to hurt at all, but I have pulled a 19' Jayco TT with a 2014 Tacoma and a 2017 Tundra without a WDH and there were no issues at all. If your not traveling far with the TT or on the interstate you may not need to go through the trouble of hooking up the WDH each time you use the TT and the initial expense of the WDH.
I think the size TT you are looking at is right at the point of needing a WDH.

 

I have a “joke” towing and recovery service running where I live. But I really do tow a lot of vehicles and stuff with my tundra. Here is a few pics.




This is my John Deere 4052m that I run a lot of jobs with. I haul it atleast once a week. Pulls it great. the weight of it (loader, implement, fluid filled tires) and the trailer weight is somewhere around 7-8,000lbs.

 

Excellent post. Years ago I spoke to a friend of mine whose former coworker managed an oilfield vehicle fleet in northern Canada or somewhere; I asked him about reliability and how the vehicles held up. He essentially told me that while GMC's interiors tended to last a bit longer, GMC/Chevrolet and Ford tended to be #1 and #2 in reliability, with Dodge a VERY distant 3rd. I asked him what kind of issues the Tundras had.

He said "They only have a few dozen...and I'll let you know when anything breaks."

 

We have one contractor that's been running the same dozen or so Ram 2500 Cummins on our site since about 2005. Another has a few of everything from Tacomas to new Ram 1500s. Every single other company runs either Ford or GM.