Toyota Tacoma 2.7L and Escape 17

[RideBC]

Has any one towed a 17 with a Toyota Tacoma with a 2.7L 4cyl 159hp. Truck is rated at 3500 towing capacity and my wet weight should be around 3100lbs. I read through the the variety of posts and can not find a simple answer.

[rbryan4]

When it comes to tow vehicles, there usually is no 'simple answer'. I'll just offer this - you probably can tow a 17 with it, but you'd benefit greatly from a bigger engine.

[amirie]

We have a 17B and our next vehicle is going to be a Tacoma but with the bigger engine, our current tow is a Ford Escape 3,500 pounds towing and it has always done extremely well. We are within our legal limits.. But for next vehicle I want a bit extra room and a bit more power...
We had originally planned for a smaller Ford ranger and "they" said it could tow 3,500.. But when we realized how much it actually weighed and the real numbers of GCWR. It would not work... Hence the Escape.
Hoping the Escape lasts at least two more years then it will be interesting to see the new Tacoma models
Our trailer fully loaded weighs about 2,900 pounds...

[Loren & Cathy]

I have always been one who has believed in having a generous safety margin in whatever it is. When I ordered our tow vehicle, we thought we were going to get the Casita trailer and I said I wanted a tug that would use only about 25% of its towing capacity. We ended up ordering the Escape and I will be using about 40% of its capacity. One of my bad dreams has always been lugging a load up a grade in low gear with about 20 highly irate drivers behind me and no place to turn out. Loren

[Mike Lewis]

I was going to do this originally-- I had a 4-cylinder Tacoma 2WD I had inherited and looked at towing an Escape 17 with it. There was a posting on this forum from someone who had driven this combination on a 10,000 mile trip to Alaska and back and had no complaints.

After looking at a 17 I decided it would be too small for me to live in for weeks on end, so I ended up with a larger trailer and Tacoma. I'm happy with the result, but I miss my dad's truck. It was a great little truck.

[Donna D.]

I've been a member of the big all-molded towable forums for years. I'm not a visionary, but have often posted... find the perfect all-molded towable trailer first! They're not sold on every street corner, like the stick builts.

How tragic to find the trailer of your dreams and then find out your brand new tug can't tow it.

[RideBC]

Thanks for the opinions - looks like a review of the plan is needed