Locker vs. fake hood scoop

I see a lot of people post builds of off road rigs, with winches, light bars, etc. But they purchase the TRD Sport, which is a street truck, to build on instead of the TRD Off Road. Is the fake hood scoop so alluring that a person would give up the locker, and other off road electronics?

Sorry if this topic has been beat to death somewhere else, but I'm new to 4x4 Toyota's, and TRD's in general.

 

Other than MTM and a sway disconnect, what does the OR offer over the Sport that you would not be replacing already when you do the lift?

 

Some people prefer to build it their way. The off-road gets you a locker and upgraded brake booster for the upgraded traction control system and crawl control. That and some mildly upgraded shocks. The new off roads finally get a disconcerting sway bar which is reason enough to switch IMO to an off-road. Way better flex. If you want to add aftermarket lockers and don’t care for crawl control or want a manual for off-road, the sport is a good choice. Throw on some better shocks, tires, amor and call it a day. You can do 90% of trails with 4Lo and open diffs anyway.

 

It depends. There were years when the only way to get a manual transmission and an access cab was to get a Sport. Well worth it in my opinion. If you’re truly going to “build” a truck you’ll be replacing the suspension and rear locker anyway so might as well spend the initial money on a hood scoop I guess.

 

Cost, availability, they bought the taco that was the right deal for them and customized it to their liking from there

 

From my understanding, the rear locker, crawl control, downhill descent assist or whatever it's called isn't available on the sport? I guess I should have researched better before creating a new thread.

 

Just FYI, the 4th gen no longer has the hydraulic booster for off-road oriented models. They’re all vacuum boost. They’re handling the brake controlled functions through the typical fender mounted ABS reservoir which I believe is on the left fender with the new gen.

I do agree with your assessment on the trims and that both are decent trims.

 

I'm sure that plays a big part, but in the case of someone who goes to Toyota and allocates a truck, or has a selection to choose from and buys the Sport model, you know where I'm coming from.

 

Interesting. I wonder if that means the non off road 4x4 will have A trac standard even without MTS and crawl.

 

Meh, plenty of reasons why they may have ended up with the sport. Also keep in mind there are tons of guys with off roads that don’t ever use the locker. It’s not always strictly down to the few exclusive features as to why someone chooses one model or another.

I wish the Sport had a torsen LSD and full time 4WD. That would be the ultimate way to live up to the Sport name. Instead, even though a Sport is what I wanted, I was okay with the off-road because I really didn’t lose anything by going the offroad route. It was all just cosmetics. Still wanted the sport though.

 

Not sure. The owner’s manual probably details it out to some extent but I haven’t looked. I’m glad they made the change, I was not a big fan of the hydraulic booster feel as far as braking goes. It works, but I’d much prefer a conventional booster, especially if all the same features can be maintained. Which makes me wonder why the hydraulic booster was ever used to begin with.

They did the same ATRAC and such features in the Tundra a while back with the vacuum booster, so it’s always been possible to do it that way.

 

All good in my book as I was not aware of all that either.

 

To be specific, I'm not speaking in general about the truck in the photo that I used, but it did get the gears turning in my head.

 

Your picture is interesting. The hood scoop makes me think it is a Sport. Black fender flairs makes me think it an Off Road. Definitely some building going on.

 

Yeah, I know. The “they” in my post was general about Sport owners also.

If I were getting a 4th gen, I’d probably go OR just because I like the 17’s. Though I like the Sport 18’s better. But I’d rather have a locking diff I’ll never use than an open diff, so I probably lean OR anyways.

 

Yeah I noticed that as well. It is a Sport model though:

 

If you drive the truck 100,000 miles how much of that did you truly need a locker or any other off-road electronic gimmicks? Maybe 1% tops (1000 miles) in that entire time?

 

I do understand that many of Toyota's electronic add-ons are viewed as gimmicks by many.

 

2nd gen sport was the sweet spot, 3rd gen offroad was.

4th gen is yet to be seen, but I prefer the black fenders on the offroad models.

Big thing on older gens was adding an air locker was much more effective than the e locker.

E lockers are awful. They are nice to have, but functionally a pain in the ass. MTS and Crawl are 100% gimmicks, I put them up with fake hood scoops.

 

I do too, but the fake hood scoop is neat also. It's not neat enough to purchase a Sport model to do an off road build, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it.