Do you real offroaders think the 2016 tacoma is too big ?

The physical size of the 2016 Tacoma has grown by a lot from the first gen and first Toyota trucks. Damn , my 2016 ORDCLB is only 2" shorter than my 98 Dodge Quadcab short box was. I am not a real off roader/ rock crawler, but for me it used to be easier to get down trails / fire roads and turn around with the older compact trucks. Anyone else think this is a problem ? Maybe Toyota should start offering a compact truck again. ( not a unibody rave 4 type thing)
Manual shifting of gear box /trans case / front hubs / manual windows etc. Bring back an upgraded rock solid old 22R or 22R-E . It would have to be road legal though .
I am very happy with my 2016 but it is more of a street truck than a trail truck .

 

let me be the first one here, real off roaders think anything bigger than a buggy is too big, and at the same time real off roaders will go and off road just about anything that runs and moves. i.e. anything and everything with a motor.

 

The small end of the off-road spectrum seems to be doing fine with the side-by-side vehicles. They can even be street legal in Arizona.

Yes, these trucks are big. But that's what sells. If a small truck sold for a price that covered the cost, they'd be making them. Keep in mind that customer expectations as well as the nuances of federal requirements for fuel economy and safety influence vehicle size.

From Edmunds:

But the truck standard is still a challenge for the makers of traditional pickup trucks. They won't necessarily have to meet the standard by simply getting smaller and less capable. That's because CAFE includes a size factor, called the "footprint."

A car or truck's footprint is a measure of the shadow it casts on the ground. But instead of overall length times overall width, the agencies make the measurement where the tires touch the ground, using wheelbase length times track width.

The standard gets somewhat easier as footprint increases, meaning that full-size pickups aren't in immediate danger of extinction. This may pose a problem for compact trucks, though. Their fuel-efficiency target is relatively high for their carrying capacity. Even though it may seem logical to simply downsize, the makers of trucks may decide, ironically, that compact pickups don't pencil out.

...Or they make them a little bigger.

 

it's why I eventually will get a 1st gen or older just for wheelin. Until then... I'll be draggin ass all over the trails LOL

 

Depressing ! Really CAFE and EPA depressing !

 

I don't give a shit about what anyone thinks. I buy vehicles for me.

 

This is my 4th off-rig/build in just under 10 years. That alone must make me nuts.

Anyway, the FJC was too small for family, 4th Gen 4runner was great for young family but no locker, 100 series Land Cruiser great for family and power but no locker and heavy...

My concern is wheel base and how will that will wheel off road....?

FJC wheel base 105.9
4th gen 4runner wheel base 109.8
100 Series Land Cruiser wheel base 112.2
2016 Tacoma DBC SHBD wheel base 127.4

 

Ok...

 

I spent an hour today looking locally on Craigslist for an older Toyota 4x4 that was not roached .

 

I feel it is "large" but it fits fine on trails made for jeeps. It can be a pain in the ass to see over the hood and guess where the front bumper is at times though.

 

Great pic. !

 

Only one I have of it actually on a trail. I usually don't have a passenger, and if I do, it's not practical to let them out to take pics

 

I managed to get mine all over the local trails for HOURS without much issue. I did lightly pinstripe the passenger side on a small branch but I didnt see it.

 

I am with you on that ! I was just thinking of how to stop my truck on the downhill side of the path to my target practice hole and get out to take a pic without the truck sliding down at me. !

 

I noticed my 16 double cab long bed is about 6 inches shorter than my son's 15 Tundra. If we took the back bumper off the Tundra I'm not sure which truck would be longer. My taco is much longer than my Suzuki Equator was and just plain huge compared to what my 99 taco was.

 

OP, park your truck next to one of those new four door jeeps and see if you think your truck is still too big for offroading.

It's also still smaller than a land cruiser and they do just fine.

 

Not that much larger.

I actually measured both once for comparison and was surprised how close they were. I don't remember the specifics but I think the 16 was less than a foot longer and about 4 inches wider.

Pics are a little misleading, the 04 is actually pulled further up the driveway than the 16.

Tape comparisons really surprised me as to how close they were.

 

New jeeps are huge here is my sister's jeep compared to my truck before I lifted it. Jeep on 35's, tacoma on 32's in this pic.

 

Here's the jeep in the same spot as my first pic

 

My god that jeep is HUUUGE !