Here's Why the 2024 Toyota Tacoma's Tow Rating is 6,500 LBS

We’ve just driven the 2024 Toyota Tacoma and come away impressed.

The mid-sized truck is thoroughly updated in the ways that matter: refinement, tech, and safety. It’s a bit better on fuel efficiency now, too.

A quick scan of the spec sheet shows its maximum tow rating has dipped a bit for the latest generation. Sheldon Brown, chief engineer for the Tacoma, sat down with AutoGuide to explain why that is.

“We made a decision to not chase a bunch of catalog numbers,” Brown says to start, adding “we’re not going to get into a towing arms race. If we’re going to tow, I want to tow well.”

Brown explains that the team tested at the Baker grade, a steady 6-percent climb out of California heading towards Vegas. The Tacoma endured warm summer temperatures while achieving the goal: avoiding de-rating. “You’re going to continue to cool, you’re going to pull, you’re going to be able to hold 65 (mph),” explains Brown. “If we say 6,300 pounds you’re going to pull 6,300 pounds all the way up.”

Other brands don’t always stick to that same approach. Brown suggests, as an example, de-rating to 45 mph on steeper inclines. Or perhaps a percentage de-rating based on elevation changes: Ford for example has previously recommended shaving two percent off the max weights per 1,000 feet of elevation.

Brown also addresses the driving dynamics of the truck. “It’s about that towing experience, so making sure we’ve got a proper amount of mass behind the truck, that the truck can handle—we want to make sure we have a little bit of understeer, but we don’t want to get to the point where the front wheels are up in the air.”

Over the course of development, Toyota looked at how most current buyers use their trucks. According to Brown, any towing over 6,000 pounds was basically one percent of the base. It’s bound to happen. His recommendation: “get a Tundra,” he chuckles. “It’s going to be a lot more fun—it’s going to be a lot less white-knuckling. You want the truck to drive the trailer, not the trailer to drive the truck.”

Brown continues: “When you start getting bigger and heavier trailers, you get the advantage of the longer wheelbase and wider tread width on the half-ton trucks. That’s not what the core purpose of this truck is.”

The Tacoma required compromise in other ways as well. Brown talks about what would need to be done to tow more. Stiffer rear springs would help, but the trade-off is a worse unladen ride. Upping the limit would have forced additional cooling, which would increase drag and hurt fuel economy. It isn’t all bad news, though: Brown says the team has seen campers getting comparably lighter in recent years, so the same weight limit allows for a larger trailer than a decade ago.

Brown is honest about how the plain numbers can appear. “Sometimes it’s not always a popular choice—you know, it looks good in a catalog—but we wanted to make sure that whatever we decided to do, we’d do it well.”

The 2024 Toyota Tacoma will arrive in dealerships right at the end of the year in the US, and in January in Canada.

Discuss this on our Toyota Tacoma forum.

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