Tercel Towing Capacity?

simon84 · Post by **simon84** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:15 pm

Wondering if I can tow a trillium camper trailer with my 87 tercel 4a with weber?
I trillium is a 14 foot fiberglass body camper much like a boler.
Apparently it's 1700 lb.
I don't think it has trailer brakes on it so I am thinking that the tercel brakes may be a weak point here.
Also not sure exactly what class hitch I have on the car.

I'd appreciate any advice on this.

Post by **dlb** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:31 pm

so the lurker appears!

you could do petros' brake upgrade pretty easily but that is still a lot of weight for such little brakes to handle. i would think about installing a surge brake on the trailer. when the towing vehicle brakes, the inertia makes the surge brake slide forward and engage the trailer brakes. you'd have to install brakes and lines on the trailer so it would probably get fairly expensive pretty quick but i'm not sure what else to suggest.

as for towing capacity, i would say you're fine as long as you check your route and avoid any mountain passes you can. at worst, take mountain passes in the morning or at night when it's cooler out.

is this for BM?

Tercel__jon · Post by **Tercel__jon** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 3:29 pm

I would go with electric trailer brakes...just to be safe.

Also...while the brake upgrade does help the car...it wont help it when pulling a heavy trailer. There is only so much traction that the tires have.

I pulled a 1500 boat with a 90 ranger...and while the ranger had the stopping power...the tires didnt have the gripping power and the heavy boat just pushed us on down the hill. Granted the stop sign was at the bottom of the hill...but you get the picture. REALLY REALLY wish I had electric brakes on that trailer.

splatterdog · Post by **splatterdog** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 4:08 pm

I believe the owners manual says 500lbs total trailer weight, which coincidentally is the weight difference between the camper and the T4.

Aggressive trailer brakes and granny driving if you do it!

Post by **Petros** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 7:29 pm

splatterdog wrote:Aggressive trailer brakes and granny driving if you do it!

Yup, and no hills or you are doomed.

So_Powerful · Post by **So_Powerful** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 8:37 pm

I don't have anything to contribute to this thread except that it is nice to see another Albertan and natural scientist on the forum. I'm a geologist.

xirdneh · Post by **xirdneh** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:39 am

I just towed a small utility trailer 90 miles today
total wt of trailer and stuff in it was abt 600 lbs
slow going up even slight hills on 60 mph road
braking was not good
should have electric brakes for anything more than that.
gas mileage dropped quite a bit too
i filled the tank and checked mileage
had been averaging 32-34 mpg he last two months
it was 27 mpg this time

simon84 · Post by **simon84** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:37 pm

Yeah David it's for BM. A friend said he'd lend it to me. But now I think it's a bad idea to tow it with the Tercel.
I think we'll rent a Uhaul instead.

simon84 · Post by **simon84** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 3:38 pm

Thanks for all of the input everyone. It will probably come in handy someday.
I have towed a small motorbike trailer with my bike on it and that seemed fine.
I don't think I'll try anything heavier than that without trailer brakes.

emmahumpfritter · Post by **emmahumpfritter** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:57 am

I recently picked up a 10 foot 1962 Shasta camper that (I think) weighs about a thousand pounds. Splatterdog did the best job he could with limited metal and time installing a hitch on my tercel--I'm considering fetching the camper from it's temporary parking spot in Port Angeles, Washington, drag it to burning man, then slowly home to Minnesota where it will be further transformed into a funky ice fishing shack. Of course just doing all of this with my tacoma makes more sense....but...

I'm sure at some point I'll find out if the tercel can pull it. It's flat out here for the most part anyway

Post by **Petros** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:07 am

Swing by for a visit if you come out this way. You have to cross three mountain ranges to get to the flat parts out your way, it will be slow going, and you will likely conume more fuel than you might expect. Might be cheaper to find something closer to home (unless this is your idea of a vacation).

4wdchico · Post by **4wdchico** » Wed Aug 03, 2011 2:57 pm

My policy on towing something with a t4wd is that if I would not tow it with my bicycle, it is not getting hitched to the car...

emmahumpfritter · Post by **emmahumpfritter** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:26 am

I tend to take a lot of "vacations" out west. The 10 footer campers seem to be in short supply out here in no-mans-land. Before or after BM will be convenient enough for fetching--I'd LOVE to visit another fellow T4wd fan. David will be at BM proper so that would make two in one trip--I'll see what I can do to swing in. I hear ya on the MPG's....I can pull 24mpg out of the Tacoma (with a V6 and 4wd...amazing!) the tercel would undoubtably dip near that number with a trailer. I'm a 3 Toyota owner these days: Echo (for the massive MPG's) Tacoma (for hauling anything I own) and Tercel (The perfect middle of the road car) They really are the people's car them there Toyotas.

Barto · Post by **Barto** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 2:10 pm

I have towed 1686lbs with my old tercel everything from my boat, to my tramper with two dirt bikes and 2 weeks worth of camping supplies and gear (went over the scales during my trip). The Tramper had "air-brakes" though............. and by that I mean the front of the Camper was Flat and would catch enough air to slow the thing right down LOL. It never liked doing it but still did it no problem. I built the bumpers on my old car and the rear was capable of towing way more weight then I ever did so that was never an issue. Maybe not for a BM trip but I've gone 800km round trip fully loaded and it was fine and all of those 800kms were through serious mountain passes and roads from victoria to tofino. Don't drive like your 16 and I was good to go. MPG were thrown out the window to 3 full tanks for 800km but it was well worth it.

HomeSkool · Post by **HomeSkool** » Thu May 14, 2015 11:20 am

I know this is an old thread so I'll see if I can get some action going. I want to purchase a hitch system for my Tercel.
I think the following hitch would work. https://www.hitchweb.com/product/88/112 ... ca-Corolla

Is someone who has installed a hitch able to confirm that this style will work? I will be rebuilding my rear bumper like Barto did in the future but want to make sure this style of receiver system is compatible with the stock bumper. My concern is the website says it fits many cars. I don't want a super generic kit that is "universal" that only kinda works. It says 4WD Tercels. But still. I've been fooled before.

I have heard what people are saying about not pulling much weight. I am putting a corolla rear end into this tercel and converting to rear disc brakes in the near future. But plan to only pull a super small utility trailer with a light weight motorbike anyways. So the disc brake upgrade is not necessary. But the corolla axle has the disk brakes anyways so why not.

Also. I'll have to wire up the brake / signal lights. Anyone with experience on this one able to make any suggestions?
Thanks everyone!

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Tercel Towing Capacity?

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