I have a old 79 Ford F250, 3/4 ton, I use for mud races and so forth. I have had many people say my Tacoma can tow it, I have a 3.4 V6 and it is completly stock nothing extra. My questions is what do you guys think about, can my Tacoma tow it and if so would you recommend a TRD Trans Cooler? I have an automatic trans. The most I tow the truck would be 200 miles one way, mostly on highway but some backroads withrolling hills also. Thanks for the help.

2004 Tacoma TRD 3.4 V6
SR5 Limited

With the 3.4L, you can tow 5000 lbs. I believe 'Yota advises that you have the towing package ... but if you put a trans cooler in, you'll probably do just fine. I have been towing a 4000 lb. boat with mine ('01 4x4, Manual, TRD, 3.4L) for 2 years now and one trip was over 300 miles. I had no problem and I do not have the Toyota towing package. Just my .02

Yeah I bought it with a towing package so that should be good to go. I am going to buy a trans cooler and install it. Thanks

If you've seen the TRD cooler, you'll know the one in this article is an exact duplicate and will be waaaaay cheaper
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif" alt="" />
http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/4Runner/tech/trancooler/

Just becase you "can" doesn't mean you should. I would never tow a 3/4 ton truck on a car trailer with a Taco - it's way more than the Taco is designed for.

Your trailer is probably 1200-1500 in itself, so that would mean that your mud truck would have to be under 3500# to be w/in Toyota's tow rating. Given that most mildly built Toyota 4Runners are over 4K lbs, I'm going to guess there's no way your truck is less than 4500# in and of itself. I'd be willing to bet that your trailer/truck combo weighs in at over 6k#.

Even if you can get it up to speed, your brakes simply are not designed for slowing this combo down.

Do people do i? Yup. I've done it myself and it was the scariest 1000 miles of my life. I'll never tow more than Toyota recommends again...

One other thing - if you are over your towing limit, you may run risk of legal issues and insurance issues if you have an accident; If you're over Toyota's max weight, then get in an accident, your insurance company and cops and say "hey, he was doing something in appropriate!"...

be careful.