The Tundra Supertool

[JCMatthews]

I am seeing just shy of 17 on the hwy. I am taking a long hwy drive this weekend, I will get exact numbers.

 

[JCMatthews]

Last summer on our trip to Jellystone Park (Hey Boo Boo), we saw in the 16.5 range with the M416 in tow and 265 BFGs. In November, we saw almost 17 on a long highway trip with the first 75 miles in 4 hi, again with the BFGs. This last trip, with the bigger Coopers (285s), and my wife in one heck of a hurry, it was more in the 15.5 range. If I get a chance this summer I will monitor it again.

 

[JCMatthews]

Here is a teaser shot of the Tundra on Dollhouse Rd. just after the Z turns in the Maze District of Canyonlands. The other shot was our destination, Dollhouse camp #2. There is a thread on this trip with a great video. My pics are on page three. I have a short video of me negotiating the Z turns on my youtube channel (sorry for the dirty camera lens). Also, I have a video of our Easter weekend posted on my channel. There is an explanation of our trip in the completed adventures section.

 

[midwayliberator]

Thanks man im in a debate with myself on trading my taco for a tundra but the mpg is the only catch.

 

[JCMatthews]

Thanks man im in a debate with myself on trading my taco for a tundra but the mpg is the only catch.

In the end gas mileage will be a wash. They are just to close to matter. The Tundra does not have to work as hard when all of your gear and friends/family are loaded. Less work, means better efficiency. The Tacoma works much harder when loaded to the gunwales. Overloaded and working hard equals less efficient. I do still really like first gen. DC Tacomas, and if I was single or had fewer kids, I'd be driving one.

 

[marathonracer]

I couldn't speak to the 2nd gen Tacoma but I had a friend who had a 04 DC TRD Tacoma on 265 bfg at that got worse gas mileage than his 05 DC tundra on the same tires when loaded up with two canoes. From my own experience my 06 DC tundra gets about the same if not better than 03 Tacoma trd did. But the Tacoma was on 33 10.5s. You just get a little more sticker shock at the pump BC the tank is bigger. And like JC said when my truck is loaded that's when you really notice it.

I miss my locker and the narrowness if the Tacoma but comfort factor when all loaded up especially with baby seats...tundra ******

 

[TwoTrack]

Most people always say the 1st Gen's are too big, but if you compare them to the current DC Short Bed Tacoma, my 05 AC is less than 1" wider and taller, 10" longer, and has less than a 1" longer wheel base. Comparatively the dimensions stay the same when comparing a current DC long bed Tacoma to the 05 DC Tundra. The Tundra actually has a .1" shorter wheelbase . Really shows how fast these are "growing" up.

 

[JCMatthews]

After our trip out to the Dollhouse in the Maze District of Canyonlands, there were some things I needed to do. I smashed my trailer lights on the last obstacle half a mile from camp. In preparation for Elephant hill over Easter weekend, I installed a new wiring harness, but this time put it through my bumper so I won't break it again. Also, while on the Maze trip, I used Gordon's Viair air compressor. I have been wanting and sort of needing one for a long time, and when my wife encouraged me to get one it was a no brainer. I ordered the 450P. Just a couple of shots to document that it happened.

 

[JCMatthews]

So I had a clunk in my front end that I had been ignoring, because I did not want to admit that off-roading the Tundra had hurt it. I also did not want to face a repair bill. I finally took a close look and found two broken sway bar links. A trip to AutoZone and $29.00 later, I had new sway bar links. Here are a couple pics of the links, and my little helper.

 

[JCMatthews]

We are headed out to Idaho for some family camping. The Tundra needed to have a little bed maintenance. The shell was leaking and needed to have new weather stripping. So a friend loaned me his front yard and helped me take off the shell flip it over and clean off and replace the weather stripping.

I decided that we also needed more fridge space than our little camp trailer provides. We own a Coleman 40 qt. Power Chill cooler which I have really liked even though it has not received the ExPo Seal of Approval. What we have found with the Coleman is that I can't use it in the back of my truck without a 12V outlet, so I picked up a double outlet from O'Reilly and had it wired in. It also only cools to 40 degrees below the ambient temperatures. Well if that is 90 degrees, it only cools to 50 degrees and that is not cool enough. The last big trip we took it on we added a container of ice, and that worked really well. However, I don't want to give up space for ice, so (with the help of my mother) we made an insulated transit bag. I also added some insulation to the underside of the lid. I hope that I will be able to report that this made a huge difference in the efficiency of the cooler. It was quite easy to make, I purchased a roll of Refelctix at the local hardware store, and we sewed it on an old Bernina.

 

[ebg18t]

The transit bag does help. I run one in my Engel MT-45. What I noticed helped more though was blocking the sun that hits the fridge/cooler. In my 4Runner I added the same Reflectix to my rear windows, used little self-adhesive Velcro squares. I keep the rear-side windows installed during the whole trip, I install the rear-back window when we are stopped for period of time (all day) and running off the battery. It blocks all the direct sun to the fridge which helped keep it cooler.

 

[JCMatthews]

The transit bag does help. I run one in my Engel MT-45. What I noticed helped more though was blocking the sun that hits the fridge/cooler. In my 4Runner I added the same Reflectix to my rear windows, used little self-adhesive Velcro squares. I keep the rear-side windows installed during the whole trip, I install the rear-back window when we are stopped for period of time (all day) and running off the battery. It blocks all the direct sun to the fridge which helped keep it cooler.

Thanks for the info, I have enough Reflectix to cover the window of my shell.

 

[JCMatthews]

It's been over a year since I added anything to this thread. Nothing had changed with the Tundra until the end of May first of June 2015. We spent 31 days on the road this summer traveling to and from Alaska. I will get a thread up about that trip I hope. To have enough room for everyone to sleep I built a sleeping platform in the back of the truck. The cool thing about it is that it is not screwed into place. The pieces fit together like a puzzle and come out in about 5 minutes tops. I designed it to use Sterilite underbed storage containers as drawers, and they worked great. We did not use them with the lids how it is in the picture. I left the lids off so that we could put taller things in them. You can see in the pictures that the front half of the platform had doors in it to be able to use the front for storage. We used a 2" memory foam pad and our therm-o-rest pads for sleeping. We spent all 31 nights in the truck and slept great. I also did a major remodel on my M416 and I have a thread for it here.

 

[hedmisten]

Great platform

 

[Dances with Wolves]

I was thinking about you the other day as I was cruising through Price past the Big O. Did you get the ABS issued sorted out?