[rtql8]

Thought I'd post a few impressions from my first outing. The route was I75 south to the KY/TN state line, and then up into the hills with a lot of switchbacks. I was towing my Jeep on an 18' steel deck trailer, and estimate the weight at 4650/1800 and with tools, gear etc. I should have been pulling about 6600 pounds. There are some fairly signigicant hills to deal with, and overall I will say I was quite happy.

I have towed the same setup with an 02 F150 5.4L, and also a 2500 Dodge Cummins. As expected, the Tundra is between the two, but it was a significant step above the F150. Without getting real wordy, it felt solid, it responded to throttle demand, and handled the steep stuff without digging deep into it's reserve. On hills that would require the F150 to hit 4200 rpm to hold 65mph, the Tundra did it at 3000 rpm with a lot less stress. It handled the switchbacks uphill with good shifting and power, and there was no "wag the tail" coming down, with amazing braking capability compared to the F150.

It was a 270 mile round trip, and I got 10.5 mpg while only having 800 miles total on the Tundra. And that was with some significant climbing. The only real negative, is that I most definately experienced the torque converter shutter. That was only thing that was aggravating.

Dont get me wrong, I have loved my F150, but not for towing more than 4k pounds. The 600+ ft lbs of a diesel is nice, but I can say that I'm pleased with the Tundra's performance, and since I tow 8 or 10 times a year this is going to work out really well.