I gotta say I am not super happy with my '16 Taco after pulling trailer.

Nice camper for sure. If you get some pics out camping, try and post them in the camp photo thread for the 3rd gen. Trying to get some more camping stuff out there.

 

just an honest question,.. Why can't you put the trans in fourth gear to stop the "hunting"

 

It was in s4, and there wasn't any hunting with my Gen 3 (on this trip). The hunting I was describing in my post was my Gen 2, and 4th seemed to low a gear for 65mph. The Gen 3, 4th gear seems just about right for 65mph while towing.

 

Wrong, look at the sales. The V8 option was nearly 40% through the years. I've owned a v8 runner and it was a blast to drive. That was my favorite Toyota vehicle to date, it just felt quality and well built. Lots of soft touch padding, lots of cool little features (small back up mirrors before cameras were out), I liked them so much I have look tirelessly for a mint 2009 V8 to replace my Tacoma. Sadly no one bought a 4Runner in 2008/2009 which is why the body was changed. The new 4Runner is a step down once you own a 4th gen V8

 

Sad but true. The only chance we have at any real torque in a Toyota midsize will be the next gen. When they will likely be forced to go turbo.

Even Honda who has been very anti-turbo has stated installing them in the majority of their products because they simply are an efficient way to get power when needed and fuel economy when you don't.

 

What, VTEC didn't solve all of the worlds problems .

You are dead on about FI though. All of these next generation vehicles are going to move to lower displacement FI injection because of the higher efficiency that can be attained relatively easily.

Ford is driving the bus right now. When they remade the company a few years before the crash forced other companies to do the same they decided to take a risk and develop the first Ecoboost engines. That risk, while painful in some ways and very profitable in others, has given them more experience with tuning for efficiency and usable power on gas than anyone else has. If Toyota, Honda, and GM, who all have FI engines that are trying to do the same thing, want to catch up they are going to have to spend some coin.

 

Vtec is and was a marvel of engineering at the time. In 1988 Honda had an engine with over 100hp/L of displacement.

Vtec (variable valve timing) is on nearly every product today and was pioneered by Honda.

If you have ever tuned a Honda vtec product from the 90's and early 2000's they are a blast. I built 3 Honda's for drag racing in my young days and it was always fun to watch 5.0 fox body mustang owners faces when a 1.8L vtec Honda CRX ran the same 1/4 mile times as them, albeit with more money spent.

My 1990 CRX had a b18c1 (integra gsr engine) with just mild mods and a chip and ran mid-high 13's all day long.

My 2006 civic Si with full bolt ons, cams and Hondata dyno'd at 232 whp from a 2.0L. Definately a fun ass car that got 33mpg and was dead reliable.

 

Spend that same money on a 5.0L Mustang...

Anyways, yes the VTEC system was the first VVT out their in mass production in large numbers. Honda gets credit for that. It also became one of the most oversold features of a Honda that lingers to this day.

 

Just as oversold as Ford's ecoboost, Ford aluminum usage, Toyotas legendary reliability.

All automakers do something to show their product is the top dog, even when it isn't necessarily true.

Toyota/Honda aren't the only
Manufacturer making reliable vehicles anymore.

Ford wasn't the first to turbocharge an engine for mileage and power.

Ford wasn't the first car maker to extensively use aluminum ( see NSX, Touareg, Audi)

And back on point, I would be curious to see how the 3.5L tows a 4000+ pound trailer.

My 4.0L struggles at times with my 3000pound off road A liner

 

The Ecoboost may be oversold in 10 years, right now they are in their golden age much like Honda was in the same era. Just my opinion of course.

No Ford wasn't the first but they were the first to make it a standard engine in their flagship product, and sell that engine in the majority of configurations as the main flagship engine. Honda is just putting a Turbo now in the Civic and Toyota hasn't put one in the Corolla. That would be the equivalent. It's one thing to boost your high performance high luxury high cost cars you sell maybe 100,000 total of... it's another thing to make turbo engines the mainstay engines of your company.

You're wrong. The english were the first to make all aluminum bodies for performance cars. They did it in the 50's with several models. The Japanese followed 3 decades later. Ever since then it's been done sporadically, but never again on the flagship mainstay product of a company. Ford is the F150. Cladding it in aluminum is a bold move and with the Superduty following this next year Ford is likely moving towards an aluminum fleet of vehicles at some point.

As for the 3.5 L on a big trailer, I'd say it'd be fine at operating speeds but very stress when pushed. The Tacoma weighs as much as the F150 (within 200 lbs) and my 4500-5000 lbs loaded trailer behind an F150 takes a good chunk of power on hills and into the wind. My 5.0 L has over 100 HP and 100 ft lbs of torque on the Toyota engine... so I'm guessing things won't work out well for the 2 GR much past 4000 lbs.

It boggles me why people try to tow more than 3500 pounds with mid sized trucks anyways unless they have to. If the trailer comes later down the road I can understand using what you have instead of buying something else but why would you buy a Tacoma knowing you want to move ~5000 lbs around regularly... there's so many better options.

 

Well said Sterdog.

 

Or toyota could have offered a transmission with more than 6 gears like all the other manufacturers are doing and kept the newer 4.0, no replacement for displacement. GM with 8 speed auto, ford coming out with 10 speed auto, and i'm pretty sure the new honda pilot offers a 9 speed auto to go along with the 6 speed auto...and I wouldn't be surprised if the new ridgeline does the same thing.

 

Thats Cute... My Fox Body Mustang makes 557 whp. And it goes sideways at the drop of the clutch. ;-) Does donuts in forward gears (Yes, plural) and not in reverse. hahahaha

just Busting you a bit. I had an 87 CRX Si. Was fun at that point in my life, but I still just wanted a Black 5.0 GT

 

I don't understand how my truck works, therefor, it is crap.

 

One of my Fears with Toyota is they will fall behind the times and Not keep up with Ford and the others. Seriously think back, Toyota dropped the Supra which was one of the most impressive cars of the era. They Dropped the MR2 when it was leaps and bounds ahead of anything else that could try to compete with it. They brought it back, but they killed it with lameness. Same with the Celica... Celica GT-4.... wow what an insane bad ass car of the 90's. Never did bring the bad ass ST205 Turbo AWD model to the US. Then they remake the Celica... hahahah made it nothing but a high school/college girls dream ride. LAME.... I loved my FR-S, but still after all these years of production there still isn't a Turbo model. :-/

With Toyota's history of Killing the cool stuff, I will just be happy with my 2016 Taco for what it is. I can't see Toyota setting any records anytime soon.

 

I had a 2014 TRD Sport (with tow package) and it came with a brake controller harness which plugged into the truck to the left side of the brake pedal.

I recently got the 2016 TRD Sport (with tow package) and noticed it didn't come with the brake controller harness in the glove box. In the manual, it shows a picture that the plug in for a brake controller is in the same spot as before. I looked for it today and couldn't see the plugin by any of the wires down there. Could I have missed it or is it not there? Can anyone explain how to install a brake controller for me?

Thank you!

 

well I came from a 15 tundra 5.7 crew 4x4 and no question the 16 Tacoma is gutless compared to it. I don't tow anything much and when I do its a small bass boat weighing loaded about 3500 pounds. The Tacoma does fine but does hold higher rpm towing and mpg is only 10 to 12. My tundra towed it and got 10 to 12 towing also and didn't know it was back there. I knew this going in because I have had v6 smaller trucks and this is always the case I have found. Only benefit to smaller truck is it fits in garage easier or in my case it fit Tundra did not. It is much easier on narrow city roads with traffic not being so big. Mpg is about 5 mpg better overall when not towing. Cost of truck up front is about $5k less. Parking is also much easier in smaller truck also when at malls and other stores where many times its tight for overall room. For me it makes since to own the smaller truck commuting 5 days 80 miles a day and just me 95% of time and then other 5% me and wife. So don't need the big truck although I do miss the big front seats and power it had i gained many other things more important. Plus off Road this size is better for those narrow small trails to get through.

 

My buddy towed 3500lbs with his gen2, and now with his gen 3.
He likes the 3.5 better.

This is my first Tacoma, and I came from f150 and Titans.
I absolutely love this truck. I tow a 6x12 trailer with rzr1000. It does just fine with it.
Takes some getting used to with shifting and higher rpm's but for the 1-2 times a month I tow it's just fine.

 

My thoughts are same coming from 15 tundra 5.7. For little towing I do on boat couple times a month it does as good as any six cylinder.