Toyota Tacoma.....Good Idea or Bad Idea?

Currently have an opportunity to take over some mowing accounts from a guy who is downsizing and have been looking at getting a used Toyota Tacoma to haul my trailer and mower. I will be hauling 1 zero-turn mower, a small push mower, weedeaters, ect.

#1. How well will the Tacoma tow this rig?

#2. Do any of you currently use or have ever used an older Tacoma as your Truck for your mowing rig?

It all depends on what engine is in the Toyota . I had a 98 with a v6 4x4 ext cab with 35inch mud tires it had no problems pulling my 16ft trailer with a 40hp Kubota 4x4 tractor and bush hog to deer camp to mow shooting lanes.I would not buy a 4cyl with the 5speed won't be very happy with it .

aclutter said:

Currently have an opportunity to take over some mowing accounts from a guy who is downsizing and have been looking at getting a used Toyota Tacoma to haul my trailer and mower. I will be hauling 1 zero-turn mower, a small push mower, weedeaters, ect.

#1. How well will the Tacoma tow this rig?

#2. Do any of you currently use or have ever used an older Tacoma as your Truck for your mowing rig?

Click to expand...

I think as long as it has a v6 you should be fine. When I first started all I had was a Ford ranger. And it pulled my 6x12 trailer pretty easily

It will do the job, but you will get annoyed after a while.

I have a chevy 1500 with the 4.6 V8. It pulls fine, but in hills it gets little slow and I hate flooring it to make it downshift. I pull a 7x14 with 48" WB, two Lexmark 30", one 21", trimmers, blowers, tools, etc.

Didn't want to sound harsh here. It'll do the job fine. Just don't expect too much from it. Respect its limits.

aclutter said:

Currently have an opportunity to take over some mowing accounts from a guy who is downsizing and have been looking at getting a used Toyota Tacoma to haul my trailer and mower. I will be hauling 1 zero-turn mower, a small push mower, weedeaters, ect.

#1. How well will the Tacoma tow this rig?

#2. Do any of you currently use or have ever used an older Tacoma as your Truck for your mowing rig?

Click to expand...

I own a 2009 Tacoma 4 door V6 4 litre 6 speed stick. I pull a 25 foot 5th wheel camper with it. Long grades or stiff headwinds give it a little trouble. Your work trailer should be a piece of cake. I also run a hay and grain farm. I can pull 5 ton wagon loads of grain with it too.

I have a 2001 Toyota Four Runner, V6, automatic and have towed my boat, a 20'4" vessel with a Yamaha F150 engine (4 stroke, 4 cylinder-somewhat heavy) on it.

Likely 4 x's the weight your looking at. It does have the "power mode" button (shifts differently) and you can turn the over drive off if you like...

A V6 Tacoma won't have any issues with it..

I just want to point out that what trailer you have and how you set it up and load it becomes more critical when you tow with smaller/lighter vehicles. You need to have your hitch height correct and your load distributed properly or your machines will get bounced around a lot and you can have handling issues. Single vs dual axle trailer and whether you have trailer brakes will make a difference too.

FWIW most of my customers use small tray tops with 2.5 to 4 litre engines in various configurations.
Then again we don't suffer the Texas disease down here thus very few of them run mowers bigger than 61".
Most have a ZTR + a Greenfields 32" tractor a pair of HRR21Us + 2 trimmers in the trailers.

After all you are not doing a cannon ball run so driving slowly & carefully should not be a problem.
Your gear will also benefit from slower driving, being bounced around in a trailer will not do them any good.
Some forget that their name & thus reputation is hanging on the sides of their truck & trailer so screaming around the roads will not get you more customers.

Keeping cots low is a good idea, not just for start up but for every day.
No good making $ 2000 / day if it costs you $ 2200 to do it .

As previously mentioned, a 2 axel trailer will be a lot easier on your gear and the extra cost will be recouped from lower amounts of trailer damage.
Sorting the trailer so it is very quick to load & unload will save you a lot more time than doing 100 mph between jobs.

I use Mitsubishi L300 vans left over from our delivery business to run the service company & tow a 14' x 5' trailer to pick up & deliver the mowers, regularly with 2 ride ons in there and several push mowers + tools in the back.
Does not go too quick, but driving slow with a couple of mowers in the back allows others time to write down or photograph my phone number.