Price...Base vs Off-Road, Double Cab

You've answered your own question. Buy simplicity. I also recommend looking at other manufacturers.

 

DCLB 4x4 FTMFW

 

x2 on the ridge line. Parents have one. Its great for storage space. Way better storage than taco. But I think my tacomas more comfortable it has more power and the 4x4 system is way better. Ridgeline doesn't even have a selection for 4Lo just lock the wheels. It is similar to 4Hi is all. Taco is definitely preferable off road.


As to OP. The TRD OR would of course be better than the base but everyone here has put it quite well and clearly that simplicity is probably preferable. Sometimes you have to work the E-locker to engage sometimes it doesn't want to disengage so you have to mess with it a little. Someone could easily just do something wrong and you'd be replacing the rear diff. Better to get 4 maxtrax and some real good recovery gear and id even go dedicated heavy duty off road tires instead of just A/Ts since the truck is going to be used primarily for off roading. A winch would probably be a good idea as well. With all that for the desert environment it would probably be better than the locker. And in that case some guys mention DCLBs maybe even worth looking into one of those. Would be nice to have an extra foot of bed. Plus with good recovery gear itd be able to get out of almost any situation. Probably a good a idea to carry 2 spare tires as well. Would really suck to blow a tire going in. Then blow one going out.

 

Damn, I'm studying geology here in saskatchewan and I wish we had a taco for out in the field. Oh wait, I have a taco... I REALLY wish we had the topography that you guys have over there in Cal. and surrounding states

 

Good point, op the non TRD route grants you the option of the 6 ft bed.

Get a winch, traction pads, and pull pal, you won't get stranded

 

Clearly most of you are quite unable to imagine what the terrain is like in the southwest! (Ridgeline? 2wd Pre Runner? WTF is that insanity?) I was in the Calico Mountains yesterday, and was darn glad to have A-TRAC most of the time, and used the locker several times, just because I had it. One of our students did his dissertation here. These guys in this video are doing it the EASY way....because they are going DOWNHILL. Looks like a pretty much stock 4Runner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVBXi-uLsrM

Next canyon over is pure rock crawling. I will only do it on my ATV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihI89FcO5os

Another consideration is how the terrain can change in an instant with thunderstorms and flash floods. The perfectly wonderful road that you drove in on, can turn into a mud bog or gigantic chasm in minutes. This is Anza Borrego, where we have students working all the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwKvlHfNg6A

 

Don't ask people for advice if you're going to ignore half of our responses. I hope your students get their work done without damaging the truck.

 

Just get like 4 of these, they're only 15k each

Vroom vroom

 

no way... new canyon with all that awesome low ground clearance.

 

But seriously though, what about a fleet of atv's? Each guy carries his/her own stuff or something

 

No way. My dumb ass would engage that at 60 mph

Not that you would know this, because OP hasn't answered any of my questions, but he did mention at one point there is a lot of gear - although I don't know the size or weight because of that thing I first mentioned.

I have a feeling op just really likes Tacomas, as we all do, and saw a chance to incorporate one into his work. Which sounds awesome and I support it but I think it's at the expense of choosing the actual best tool for the job.
Oh, and there's that whole donors' money thing. But if the university told him to buy a new vehicle I guess that's not an issue

 

I'm wondering why a university educated, possible doctorate, is on TacomaWorld asking what truck he should buy when he has pretty much already made up his mind...

Loving the last few responses though .

If you want my serious answer, by a couple of CanAm or Polaris UTV's. Not the sporty versions, just the haul shit versions with some lockers. Together they will MAYBE equal the cost of a truck and be far more capable of going where your students are going. Plus they will have the redundancy of having two vehicles instead of one. They are also easier to fix if rolled or bent then a new truck will be. Get a cheap used 2wd half ton to tow the things out there and your money is better spent than on a new Off Road truck.

 

I have the urge to speculate what's best, towing, riding in one vehicle the whole time, etc... but I don't know what the students are hauling... we could all probably agree on the best option if we had some facts

 

I know Polaris has a couple of UTV's that combined (two units) would exceed the Tacoma's payload either with box capacity or a small custom built offroad trailer. Food for thought right there.

Polaris even has a defence line. You could order a good set of UTV's and the military spec trailer. Then there's no where you couldn't go and he could carry more weight in gear than the Tacoma.

 

Paging Mike Deason

 

That would be a great solution but they can't drive out to where they need to go. They would have to be towed which eliminates the payload benefit and military trailer benefit, no?

 

I think he mentioned to purchase a cheap old half ton or something and a cheap flat bed trailer to haul em out there, expensive to begin with but a solid option never the less compared to a 1 taco

 

Picking up the truck this afternoon. Went with the Off-Road.

In the end, having A-TRAC as the default setting in 4Lo (vs. the silly wide open diffs that you get with and SR5 or Sport), made all the difference. Doing the yellow wire mod on an SR5, would mean a blinking warning light that would just confuse everything. With A-TRAC, it is highly unlikely anyone will ever actually need the locker, but it is there if someone who is into off-roading wants to use it. Same with DAC, it is there but will probably never get used.

Although the AC Powerpoint seems like a small thing, that was another feature that recommended the Off-Road over the SR5.

A set of BFG All Terrain T/A KO2's go on tomorrow, and I will spend the weekend doing break-in driving. Then some off-road training time with the users, and a shell in a couple weeks, and it should be good to go....