JAJ
You'll want to know the
GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) for the trailer, which is the maximum weight of the trailer fully loaded. This number will be posted on a sticker along with the "dry" (empty) weight. Also posted is a estimated tongue weight assuming the trailer is properly loaded with a balanced load. It will be a rare occasion when you're not "fully loaded"...and perhaps then some.
You say your Tacoma has adequate towing capacity. Be sure. Two numbers will be in your vehicle owner's manual: Maximum Tow Rating and Maximum Tongue Weight. The trailer GVWR should not exceed the max tow rating, and your trailer's tongue weight should not exceed the Tacoma's tongue weight rating. While a WDH will move some of that tongue weight to the front axle of the tow vehicle (TV), the weight is there loading the frame, hitch, and so on regardless. Also bear in mind that a WDH itself is heavy.
Next, consider the GVWR for the TV. Once you load the truck with passengers and all the detritus you put in the bed (say a 2 KW generator, lawn chairs, coolers, firewood, and, and, and, you'll likely approach the GVWR of your truck, especially when you add in the tongue weight of the trailer and the WDH. There's no free lunch. All those pounds count, and than tongue weight is on the TV.
You MIGHT find numbers for GCWR (gross combined weight rating). This is what the whole rig weighs in combo when ready to roll. Truck, trailer, hitch, and all the various "cargo."
Bear in mind that these weights also impact your TV's rear axle, bearings, brakes, frame, hitch, and so on. When overloaded, things break.
If your owner's manual is shy on info, you can find it online. You'll need the model, engine, transmission, rear axle ratio, and other details to find "your" TV on a chart with these capacities. 4WD reduces tow rating. Crew cab reduces tow rating, and so on. And aftermarket wheels and tires (are you running giant mudders?) will also give you "taller" gearing and reduce tow rating.
With all that, you'll be able to determine how much (if any) reserve capacity your TV has towing that trailer. The SMART and highly recommended choice is to load up as if you're heading out and go to a local truck scale. Put the trailer on the scale and unhook. Weight the trailer. Pull the trailer tongue off the scale and weigh just the axle(s). A little math gives you both the axle weight and the tongue weight. So far so good.
Next weight the LOADED TV. Then hook up the whole mess and weight everything together. 20 minutes well spent since you're crowding the margins.
Now, let's assume you're weights are good. About "Driving."
1. The Rocky Mountains are REAL mountains, and climbing one grade might go on for 30 or 40 miles, and you might climb 6500 vertical feet. (I-70 out of Denver is 5280 and the Eisenhower Tunnel is 11,150.)
2. Your truck loses a substantial amount of power at altitude.
3. Patience will be essential, as will vigilance. "CO Natives" will blow by you like you're parked You WILL get run over. Use your flashers and settle in the right lane with the semis...and be prepared to be passed by lots of them, too.
4. Learn to manually shift your automatic. Don't be shuttling between gears back and forth as you climb—forcing the transmission to kick down often. Every up and down shift wears and heats the transmission. Pull it down into something it can handle and stay there. If you hit a flat spot, upshift, then as you approach the next climbing section EASE OFF the gas, drop a gear and then go. A clutch is a clutch is a clutch. Baby your transmission.
5. Watch your temps! And bear in mind that your transmission, crankcase oil, and even the differential(s) will overheat if worked mercilessly. Don't be afraid to pull over and cool off.
6. If you have a tachometer, know where red-line is. Don't be afraid of revs. That's where the power is. 500 to 1000 RPM below red-line is reasonably comfortable for your engine, because it’s not working as hard as it must at lower RPM.
If you don't have a tach, find red-line easily. Take your empty truck out on a flat, empty road and bury the throttle. Don’t let up until you get to about 65 MPH. You shouldn’t be going more than 65 MPH with the trailer, and if you can maintain 65 MPH, this info is superfluous.
Watch the speedo for the shift points...with the throttle to the floor. That’s your engine/transmission’s practical definition of red-line with some margin for error. You can maintain about 5 MPH less uphill (or downhill) in any of the lower gears without fear of blowing the engine. This will be surprisingly high revs...and speed.
My Ram 1500, with the big, slow-turning 5.7 Hemi, will pull 45 MPH in first and I can cruise at 55 to 60 MPH in 2nd with ease (mine is a “4-speed with OD” which is really the old 3 speed with a multi-purpose electric OD).
7. I tow a 4000 lb. GVWR/400 lb. tongue weight high-wall popup, and I spend a LOT of time in 2nd in the mountains.
8. Use the transmission as the PRIMARY speed control on the downhills. Save the brakes for when you really need them. Hot brakes are useless in an emergency. This is FAR more important than dealing with the uphill. If you’ve put in 20 miles coming down off a mountain pass, and you come around a corner to find a truck stopped in front of you, you’d damned well better have cool brakes to make that stop.
9. When you must brake, do it and get it over with. Brake firmly and get off the brakes. Let them cool. Don’t drag the brakes. I’ve followed many RVs down mountainsides with brakes smoking and stinking. If anything went wrong, they’d just plow right through it.
10. Depending on your brake controller, that device is not a set-it-and-forget-it proposition. My controller and trailer brakes require regular tweaking. Sometimes there’s not enough, and sometimes I feel the trailer doing more than its share. Learn to adjust on the fly.
Too little is a problem, but too much is a bigger problem. Those chintzy electric drum brakes are ancient technology. Abuse them by asking too much and you will pay dearly.
You should be able to feel them working, but they shouldn’t be stopping the whole moving mass. You’ll cook them in no time.
11. If you have a manual transmission, be even more careful. These days, a light-duty truck's manual transmission is no match for an auto. Remember that a clutch is a clutch is a clutch. It's easy to cook a clutch on a manual on a compact truck that's not really meant to be a TV.
Why the long diatribe? If your TV is up to the job of towing your “Mini-Lite” (which is really neither), it’s just barely so. If you’re switching to your Durango, it’s better, but not tons better. “Normal” towing is one thing. Towing in the mountains is a far more challenging proposition. And, MANY of the roads in the mountains have NO guard rails on the edge of 1000 foot drops....see this image of the
Million Dollar Highway. This isn't some obscure mountain road. This is a main highway, with semis and motorhomes and lots of traffic...and sometimes it SNOWS in July! Mountain driving is no joke.
Good luck, be safe, enjoy Yellowstone.
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