hi,
my boyfriend and i are getting ready to move to north carolina from arizona. we both have pickup trucks and plan to bring them with us to n.c. He has a 2005 dodge pickup with a hemi engine (not 4x4); i have a 2002 toyota tacoma pickup 4x4. is it safe for his vehicle to tow mine? do we need to disable the drivetrain in my vehicle? is it safe for his vehicle to tow my vehicle?
thanks,
kristina
What is the GVW on your truck? What is the horse power on his truck? are you using a tow bar or a dolly or a trailer? The tow capacity is a function of the Gross Vehicle Wt. I forget the formula, but a 100 horse power will tow about 2000lbs. With the front wheels off the ground, as on a dolly, you want to disconect the drive shaft to the rear wheel differential.
on a trailer, not so much, if you are towing it with all four wheels on the ground, I dont think that is such a good idea, cause a dolly is not the expensive to rent. (I honestly dont know about a 4x4 tow with all four on the ground)
I check the 2002 ‘dinghy towing guide’ and you Tacoma’s not listed:
http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/dinghytowingguide/
I think that means you’ll need to do as stated above, get a dolly for the front wheels and disconnect the drive shaft, and seal the end of the transmission or else all the trans. oil might leak out. Or use a trailer. Is it a manual or automatic?
Best way would be to rent a trailer that gets all four wheels off the ground. I did this years ago through Penske and was very happy with the results–no damage to my car and very reasonable rental.
Using a dolly that gets only 2 wheels off the ground is BEGGING for trouble on a 4x4 truck. Your truck might never be the same afterwards!
as long as the drive shaft is disconnected from the rear diff. I dont agree that it is a problem to tow this thing with a dolly, but I do agree that the best solution is to tow with a trailer, cause it is the least hassle.
It would be safest to drive both. You can spread the load out, take a little extra time and both will be none the worse for wear, especially if one had to tow the other.
she is young and in love, she wants to ride up front with the boyfriend, geesh.
I would just drive both vehicles. If you tow either one, you would need to get the driven wheels (all four on yours or the two rear wheels on his) off the ground, which would mean renting a large car dolly for a one-way trip. Driving both vehicles would definitely be the cheaper option.
i have a 2002 toyota tacoma pickup 4x4. He has a 2005 dodge pickup with a hemi engine
She knows her trucks better than her boy friend. I give her credit for being independent and capable of driving that distance easily; geesh :=)
Either drive both or trailer one with all 4 wheels off the ground.
Okay, I’m stumped. Assuming the Tacoma is a manual tranny, why would she have to discommect the drivetrain? The fluids in the differentials, the tranny, and the transfer case are circulated by the movement of the gears, not by a pump. Nothing is going to go dry and nothing is going to overheat.
I don’t see why they can’t just hook it up with a towbar, put it in neutral, and tow it without harm. Or am I missing something?
That’s the key question…A vehicle with a manual transmission can be towed fairly easily…If the transfer case in the Tacoma can be shifted into neutral, then even if it’s an automatic it will tow okay…You will need to have a proper tow bar installed on the Toyota…