New Tacoma Owner. Do's and Don’ts when owning brand new Tacoma??

Don't be a whiny little ...

 

dont's- raptor lights, yeah just no........,
do's meso customs, hotshotoffroad for everything

 

can confirm, white stuff on carpet is edible.

 

Do: swap out the interior lights with leds, I went with diode dynamics, but meso has maplights coming out soon if you want dual color ones.

 

First things first…….
Do buy a pair of Oakley sunglasses.

All real Tacoma BROs have a pair.

 

It bugs me that I had to do this with my new truck.... I was pulling my boat out on a slimly launch so I was in 4WD(L) and then I had to turn sharp right due to another boat being in the way. I tried to disengage the 4WD(L), but it didn't right away and my tires were hopping on the pavement. It makes me mad that I still kept going because the guy was waving me forward so I could clear his prop.... I was boxed in at that point and I had no other options in my mind other than to go forward...

 

Really not a big deal every so often in cases like that. Honestly I completely brain farted coming off some trails once and left it in 4hi for a good mile or so Didn't hurt anything.

It is just very important new owners know that because now that every other car is AWD I could see someone very easily just leaving it on thinking it's like a Subaru and driving around all day like that would really end in tears.

 

-Do enjoy it.
-Don't fart in it.

 

If you live in the rust belt, do spray the undercarriage with a good rust inhibitor like cosmoline or fluid film.

 

/thread

Uh oh...

In all seriousness, pretty much anything else is just about preference. Enjoy!

 

do the rear diff breather mod before you start driving through water, creeks, mud holes.

 

I guess it was not the time to sign on to TW if I'm planning on waiting to buy a new Off Road/DCSB.

The other "don't" tips are good ones as well it seems.

 

Truly no offense intended but this sounds out-dated, like it was from the days of carbureted engines or single-stage paint you couldn't wax right away.

Modern manufacturing is much more precise with way better quality control, and there is no way those engines get installed without being broken in to some extent (I'm assuming they are started, warmed up, and have some tests run before they go into the vehicle.)

Highway miles are easy on a vehicle, and short city or hilly trips can't be good if you don't let the engine warm up fully, right? Not towing at max capacity seems very reasonable to me, but I'm not worried about pulling a uhaul trailer with some appliances a week after I picked up the truck.

Can you elaborate a bit more?

 

You can find this (and more!) in the owner's manual.

So the post you quoted wasn't far off. The only point I disagree with is keeping to shorter trips. IIRC there was something somewhere else that suggested trying not to take short trips for the first few hundred miles. I do know that when you get to the oil change section, it advises an oil change every 5,000 miles (instead of 10k) if you are towing OR make frequent <15 mile trips.

 

Ah very cool! The first one seems like a "make sure the brake lines are good" recommendation. I have an MT but I guess the AT could dislike sudden stops.

The others make sense, too bad I bought mine out of state and road-tripped back home! I only violated the last bullet point, and that's gotta be the least important one right?

 

Do:
Buy some real AT tires for it (265/75r16's maybe). Sell the originals soon so you can get more money for them (figure a net $500 upgrade).

 

What is this "Owner's Manual" thing you speak of? You mean there is a book that tells you just about everything you need to know about your truck? Who knew?!

 

Realistically you'll probably be fine. I bought mine about two hours away so it was a lot of highway back. I just changed gears on the highway a lot more than I ordinarily do - 6th to 5th and occasionally spending some time in 4th - to let the motor spend some time at various RPMs which is all Toyota is encouraging you to do with that point. Your average driver just has less impact on that with an automatic.

I learned about it on the app. I've never actually seen one, so it could be fake news!

 

Don't launch your Tacoma from a drainage ditch.

Don't crash into a semi after a high speed chase.

Do look for the half eaten sandwich behind the dash.

 

Dude, grip it and rip it.