Brunson
Well-known member
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- #1
Impressions and photos by @Alt-atl, a 3rd gen Tacoma owner
I went and saw the Tacomas at Overland Expo today. The Trail Hunter is cool except for the bed bar thingy which is not my style but some people like them Im sure. The bronze color is really really nice in person. The front bumper, even without the airdam, hangs down incredibly low. I get it they need to meet mpg goals...but its bad. The link suspension is nice looking but not exactly compact, there is a lot going on down there. Upper and lower links, track bar, swaybar, enormous diameter coils, big old obnoxious shocks etc. The exhaust had to be dumped before the rear axle which looks aftermarket. The spare tire hangs down really low. The rock sliders are bolted on so that is going to be a super common add-on for a lot of non-trail hunter people. They are also very "fabricated" looking, not at all OEM looking, kinda surprising. They were definitely using the trucks on the obstacle course as evidenced by the beat up skids, control arm mounts etc. Up front, everyone has seen the pictures of the Trail Hunter and Pro upper control arms that are some kind of billet/thick aluminum. The front spindles are also aluminum. Time will tell how they hold up to abuse and bigger tires. Adding gussets looks like it will be much more difficult than it was to the steel spindles on the 2nd/3rd gen. They had the doors locked today so I couldnt do any more than look in through the window. Interior of the Trail Hunter is really nice. I only have one gripe, the T O Y O T A raised letters on the dash trim piece in front of the passenger. They are disgusting, they stick up half an inch and are completely unnecessary. I hope they are able to change that before production.
As for the Prerunner, its not my thing(because 2wd trucks that are supposed to go offroad are stupid) so I didnt pay much attention to it, other than noticing that the rear leafs are spring under. This will make the guys turning their trucks into Baja racers happy but the leaf pack, with its pancake flat overload leaf, sticks down comically low for something meant to go offroad. It would have been way cooler if they did a 4th gen X runner instead of the pre runner.
As for the overall look of the vehicles. They have either made the front fenders and cab larger or the bed smaller, or both. Both trucks on display had the 6 foot bed and it just looks short. Front to back it takes up a smaller proportion of the length of the truck than on 2nd and 3rd gens. On the 4 door long bed it looks great, on the xtra cab it looks bad. The bed is too short. Im not sure how the dimensions compare to previous generations but it looks off. In the past I was all about the access cab+long bed but now it looks better in a double cab+long bed configuration. Im really curious what the wheelbase is. I passed on the double cab+long bed when I bought my current truck because I like the 127" wheelbase. The double cab+long bed has the same wheel base as a full size truck that is a 4 door with 6 foot bed. I would have just gotten a full size truck if I wanted a 140" wheelbase.
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