Who gets tired of hearing that the TRD Sport 4x4 isn't off road capable? It's a Toyota truck!!

Hate to break it to you fellas but this is how you use your truck to announce your penile girth

 

Nope. No matter how big it is, penis envy comes standard with the OR.

 

Wow....bet that guys name is Sewer Pipe

 

The new Highlander hybrid will be available in FWD and AWD. The FWD hybrids will be all over Florida and Southern California. If Toyota builds a hybrid Tacoma, and or Tundra they will probably only be available in AWD.

 

The sport is a good vehicle, as is the SR5 and SR. It depends on your needs. If you are deciding between the Sport and the Off Road, I say get the Off Road. But that doesn't mean the Sport isn't capable. I have a relative who has a 2nd Gen sport and he wheels with it a lot, upgraded the suspension and tires, and loves it.

 

True....but the Highlander Hybrid uses a modified Camry Synergy drivetrain that started out life as a FWD set only. So it's easy to set it up either way. Any FWD version will be produced only as a price point option. Toyota opted to keep it simple in the RAV hybrid and offer 1 option, as it had minimal impact on price.

The '22 Tundra will have a hybrid option. But it will be more for performance than fuel economy. Expect a strengthened version of the Lexus 2GR 3.5 V6 twin turbo has the standard mill and a 3.5 TT + hybrid booster as the top powertrain. That combo is expected to produce 600+ lbs ft of torque at less than 2k rpm.

That engine in the current LS500 with out hydride assist lays down 442 lbs ft at 1600 rpm.

The modular V8s will be gone

 

Hybrids (they assist in getting 10-20% better gas mileage) are a con. You pay more to get better gas mileage. When the big battery shits the bed ($5000 to replace) the vehicle is inoperable even though the engine and everything works.

 

Wish someone would have told me non-OR's weren't capable before I bought the Gen1 SR5....







^ Over 50 miles one way to deer and elk camp through this kinda shit and considerably worse. Only time I ever needed the winch there was while towing the Jayco Quest Baja trailer back there in a rain storm like I'd never seen before. Brutal drive. But had the entire area to myself for 4 days before I saw the next guy who tried to venture in that far.









Actually, I did know the OR was more capable. But back in 2002 when I bought that outstanding vehicle, I didn't want to swing the cost difference for the OR package. Put some of those savings into getting a winch on there. Mandatory for any truck I own.

Gen2, Gen3 Sport surely more capable than a Gen1 SR5 (traction wise) with standard "Trac" not available on Gen1's. SR5 open diffs with no traction aids was how I rolled in that rig for 15 years.

For my uses (destination off roading for camping / hunting), Tacoma SR5 / Sport with winch > TRDOR without winch.

Having said that, now I have both. TRDOR and winch. I definitely appreciate the added traction capabilities over that SR5. Engage rear locker and MTS, and feel like this thing could crawl up the side of a canyon with hardly spinning a tire. But that SR5 always got me where I needed to go. And back. Without breaking anything.

Good example of differences here. My open diff Gen1, and brother's locked 80 series. Me on 32" MT's aired down, him on 35" MT's aired down.



Lotta loose dirt and rock, and considerably steeper than it looks. Locker would have prevented wheel spin (which of course can lead to broken shit...though I never have). Trip around would have been a 6 mile detour. Were it raining or snowing, I'd of taken the detour. With the Gen3 TRDOR, I'd give it a shot. But have been up that section a dozen times, and never failed to make it up, though a few times it was a bit uglier than this attempt.

Brother started to spin a bit 1/2 way up, stopped and locked, and made it look easy. That 80 series is a damn tank.

The Gen3 OR has been up it a few times. Hardly spun a tire. Big difference, but not insurmountable.

YMMV. I've never been one to off road just for the sake of off roading. If I have two paths through an area, I'll take the easier one every time (assuming it doesn't take me unduly out of the way).

 

You're missing a lug nut.

 

That's an old argument. Toyota warranties the Synergy Drive components, including the traction battery for 10 years or 150k miles. And the cost of the battery replacement has fallen and continues to fall every year....particularly with the move to Lithium technology.

The fear of a traction battery failure is about as likely or not likely as any other major drivetrain component. One only as to look at the number of 10-20 year old Prius with 200, 300k miles, still running strong on original components.

As for the Tundra? The switch from the V8s to the 2GR TT and optional hybrid booster is expected to net better MPG, at least on paper. But ultimately that may be more of a byproduct. The real gain will be performance....and that's the intent. The new system will absolutely donkey stomp the old I-Force engines in terms of power, torque and overall performance

 

8 pages and counting, first world problems eh, lol!

 

Wound up losing two (but had a spare). Did not re-torque that steelie after driving for a bit after the change, and didn't notice them missing until I got bogged down from the mud packing in behind the steelie and the truck just wouldn't continue forward anymore. Craziest mud ever. Stuff was like clay mixed with epoxy. Had to pull the wheel twice to clean out and free things back up. Miserable work.

 

It looks nasty! Makes for life long memories though!

 

That may be the case on the newer hybrids. From what I saw, not many Prius' had over 250k where the battery lasted. It's still more money for better gas mileage. Not to mention the incessant whine of the electronics even with the stereo on. My wife had a prius (3rd gen) and I drove it extensively. I'll never buy another hybrid, at least not anytime soon.

edit, I'll add I just bought a Camry 3.5L (301 hp) and "looked" at camry hybrid 2.5L, but it's 204 hp, the corolla gas hatchback is 2.0L 168hp. So no way on that huge car with that HP. The hybrid does get 52mpg, probably low to mid 45 real world driving. The best we could get on the prius was 44mpg even with her driving.

 

Hang out on Prius Chat. Lots of high mileage stories there....particularly the 2nd and 3rd gens. Very robust vehicles.

As for the whine? There are 2 distinct types. One is the regenitive braking....which turns the traction motor/s into generators when the brakes are applied. The other is the electric only drive noise. This noise is actually intentional and mandated for pedestrian safety. Combustion engines make noise and are easy to hear. Hybrids running only on electric at low speeds and/or the normal cycling off of the gas engine make very little beyond tire scrub. Pedestrian need to hear them

 

The stiffer suspension actually helps quite a bit in the rough stuff when mobbing at a decent speed. What I found most though was that once the fronts get warmed up after extended periods of time they start to get soft.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CB1yoBrlo0w/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

The diff lock has made a big difference for me on steep snow and ice in the backcountry while hunting. I owe one elk to it for sure. I’ve been stuck unnecessarily a bunch of times with a Jeep I had, which I believe wouldn’t have happened with a locker. And I like factory installed, so I’ll take my OR.

But I don’t doubt that sports and sr5’s are quality offroad vehicles.

 

Good info. We did drive the piss out of it, you really had to because the HP was so dismal. It ran well and lasted and never had a major issue. But, I still had to change the fluids.

 

This is false. Stats show that trucks with a skewwwp are 69% better at rock crawling than trucks without one.

 

The 3rd gens ('10-'15) were actually pretty quick off the line. Toyota made the switch from the 1.5 1NZ to the 1.8 2ZR and added a larger traction motor and battery vs the 2nd gen. The trick was the the "Power" button on the console. Most Prius drivers are unaware of it. Pressing it tells the CVT to keep the engine on boil and allows the traction battery to dump more juice into the electric motor. They'll scoot for the 1st couple of hundred feet because of the torque. I drove the piss out of the wife’s Prius when she had it.

The look on truck owners faces while they got walked from a stop light (up to the speed limit only) was always priceless.

However, most Prius owners drive them like there's an egg between their foot and the pedal and have never pushed the power button.

To be fair though....the 1st 2 generations were pretty slow