Towing 17'Casita with 2019 Tacoma

[Loring Green]

I've towed our 2006 Casita SD over 60K miles with a Honda Pilot and a GMC Acadia. The tongue weight is 350# and the Casita weighs 3500# and I've never felt the for a WDH. As I've gotten older, wrangling a 50+# WDH into the receiver is something I have to avoid.

I do try to avoid heavy weight in the TV and I do use a sway bar, most of the time, but I'm not sure it does much. The Casita pretty much follows along wherever I go, without much hassle. :-)

Loring

[ldsharp]

I pull a 17' SD with a 4.0L Ford Ranger with factory off-road package (higher suspension, stiffer shocks, added leaf springs, etc.) I've pulled the Casita w/o a WDH and with a Equalizer-brand WDH (includes sway control). I definitely feel the hassle of messing with a 100 lb WDH is worth the effort in my case. I thought maybe new shocks would help, so I installed a set of KYB monomax shocks and it made little difference. The main problem with the Ranger is porpoising when that 400 lbs on the hitch ball causes the truck to rock a bit in situations when driving over rough or irregular roads. The suspension is stiff enough that the 400 lbs tongue weight basically doesn't lift the body off the front axle at all, so WDH is marginal for that use, but it definitely stops the porpoising and is there to provide sway control in an emergency. Another plus with my WDH is that it moves the trailer back just far enough that I can drop the tailgate with the trailer hooked up.

[Casita Ed]

We towed our Casita 17SD all over the Western U.S. with our 2010 Tacoma Prerunner. It was up to the task. We now tow with our 2018 Honda Ridgeline and like it even better as a tow vehicle. We use a WDH and a sway bar with both vehicles. The sway bar was recommended by the factory. We added the WDH later because of porpoising on sectioned pavement and bottoming out going in and out of parking lots. From our experience, I believe you will like the WDH. It dramatically reduces porpoising on both vehicles, but on the Ridgeline we cannot even tell the Casita is back there except when we look in the rear view mirror. The nice thing about a WDH is it doesn't affect your ride when it isn't being used like air bags and such. It only takes an additional few minutes to hook or unhook and it adds stability to your whole rig. But try it without first.

[elswenso89]

I tow my 17' SD with my 2017 TRDOR 4runner.
I run a sway control bar because it came with the Casita and it really feels like the belt to my suspenders. Full weight distribution would be total overkill, imho.

I also have 5100's installed on all 4 corners of the truck. I never towed without them, but I'm sure its an improvement over the mushy front stock suspension.

Last, I would think that if you balanced your payload, you should have no problem with a basic ball hitch.

Just make sure you calibrate your trailer brake controller and know how to operate it if you ever had to stop your rig quickly.

[doctoruv]

Originally Posted by Makwell

There seems to be no consensus on whether or not to use a WDH or sway bar (or both) when towing with a Toyota Tacoma truck. We have a newly acquired 2014 Casita Independence Deluxe which we towed back from TX behind our truck camper equipped Chevy 2500HD with no problems at all.

However, the PLAN is to use our 2019 Tacoma 6cyl./6speed auto, Access Cab with tow package to haul the Casita around the country.

Being from the "keep it simple" school, we would like to forgo the WDH and sway bar stuff if possible; it's just more hardware to mess with as far as we are concerned, especially if it's not really needed. Some say if you properly balance the trailer you'll be OK while others say not using these hitch attachments is to risk at least certain death.

We'd appreciate hearing about your experiences (good and bad) towing 17" Casitas (or similar outfits) with late model Toyotas; with and without WDH and sway bars.

Thanks in advance for your input.

I tow my 2005 17 ft Casita spirit with a 2007. Ford Explorer SportTrac. It has 4 doors, small pick up bed, and a spirited 6 cylinder engine. I use a simple friction sway bar that was installed by Casita. I can tell the difference if it is not installed. I have towed this through very tight turn winding mountain passes and steep grades with no problem. I like the narrow width of my truck vs the full size truck models.

[Kip in Ga.]

We tow our 17' Casita SD with an '09 Ridgeline.

In the past with large stick built trailers and towing with full size V8 trucks, we found WDH and Sway bar necessary.

Sway bar and WDH came with our used Casita, but have never been used. Not necessary for this setup.

My Ridgeline owners manual recommends against using a WDH AS IT MAY AFFECT HANDLING IN A NEGATIVE WAY . AS WELL AS POSSIBLE DAMAGE TO THE VEHICLE , IF NOT INSTALLED PROPERLY.

That is fine with me to not have to deal with the 70+# of extra weight.

Other rigs may NEED those items. But we have not in the 8 years of using this set up.

Be very careful to not use a sway bar as a bandaid. Generally speaking if a Casita sways , just because it is being towed, There is another problem. Poor load balance, trailer not level to tug, under inflated tires, come to mind.

K

[Kip in Ga.]

We tow our 17' Casita SD with an '09 Ridgeline.

In the past with large stick built trailers and towing with full size V8 trucks, we found WDH and Sway bar necessary.

Sway bar and WDH came with our used Casita, but have never been used. Not necessary for this setup.

My Ridgeline owners manual recommends against using a WDH AS IT MAY AFFECT HANDLING IN A NEGATIVE WAY . AS WELL AS POSSIBLE DAMAGE TO THE VEHICLE , IF NOT INSTALLED PROPERLY.

That is fine with me to not have to deal with the 70+# of extra weight.

Other rigs may NEED those items. But we have not in the 8 years of using this set up.

Be very careful to not use a sway bar as a bandaid. Generally speaking if a Casita sways , just because it is being towed, There is another problem. Poor load balance, trailer not level to tug, under inflated tires, come to mind.

K

[ZachO]

I agree with trying it first without. Seems Casitas tow differently, but my Bigfoot has never needed anything. It tows straight and stable. I have a friction anti-sway bar but only put it on if I’m towing in the desert in the spring, or some other really windy place.

[Makwell]

We just spent the month of Sept on the road with our new to us 2014 Casita Independence being towed by our 2019 Tacoma SR with auto trans. We drove 5505 miles thru the plains tracing the Santa Fe trail to the mountains of NM. No sway bar or WDH was needed.

Any doubts we had about the towing capabilities of the Tacoma, and the auto transmission, when paired with the Casita have been allayed. Towing mostly in S4 the rig just hummed along at 2300RPM and in the flats we shifted up to S5 often with no gear hunting to speak of. We ran mostly around 60 to 65 MPH. Very seldom did we need to gear down to S3. Mileage varied from 13.5 to 17+ MPG depending on the terrain and headwinds. The new Toyota is up to the task and we are planning a late Fall trip now. Couldn't be happier with the Casita/Tacoma combo.

[Glenn Baglo]

What does your Tacoma instruction manual say about towing?
My RAV4 V6 Sport manual says to tow in 4, not D and not 3 ( for a prolonged time ).

[slowpat]

I just got the same pickup, 'cept with the big cab. But I've only towed the trailer to the dump station and home.

I do not understand this S gear business. I towed in Drive. I did read that I need to keep the speed under 50mph while towing for the first 500 miles of towing.

I did tow my trailer with a friend's 2017 Tacoma. My Ford Ranger had wheel bearing trouble while on the road towing. We got the Casita home with no problems. I drove and was extra careful because they had no trailer brakes on their Tacoma. It towed my Casita better than the Ranger. There was more oooomph on the hills.

I did think my Tacoma felt a little bit bouncy on the dump station run, I'll have to wait till Spring and figure out if it is. I had just put new shocks on my Ranger and that made a big difference.

Info on towing seems quite limited in the manual.