My thoughts on how Toyota did on the 4th gen

Those are all point to point, straight run distances. The reality of having a short ranged vehicle in sparsely serviced areas is that you are constantly having to fill up in order to make short side-trips between those points. I spend a good amount of time bird hunting in eastern Montana and North Dakota. That requires lots of gravel road (no services) driving for scouting and getting to good spots. You can easily burn through a 300 mile tank just scouting within a 50 mile radius. Having half a tank is a "bad idea" if you are going any distance from town and plan on hitting a couple of spots.

 

You can easily haul 10 or more gallons of gas.

 

Yeah, I have a Lexus, as well……….another Toyota product…….shocking.

where felt is totally inappropriate, is, as an engine cover/skid plate, as in my ‘24 Sport……..since replaced by a metal one……..

 

Yeah, having leaky plastic gas cans sloshing around in your bed is totally better and safer than just having a vehicle with decent range to begin with.

 

They don’t leak and slosh around if you have any sense. Just responding to your whining.

Go kill some birds.

 

Has the aftermarket caught up to offer a larger capacity fuel tank for the 4G yet? The range is fine for me for now in my daily life, but I also haven't taken our trailer on any cross state road trips yet either...

 

I still am having a hard time understanding that material, but I like it too. I only have 1,000 miles but have been through some mud and it comes right off with the power washer. Looks new, I didn’t think it would hold up, but it is better than plastic so far.

 

Buy Scepter.

 

What generation? I had a 1st gen 2001 TRD Offroad and I could only get 250 miles hwy before gassing up. My 3rd gen TRD Offroad I could stretch it to 370 miles before gassing up of hwy driving, city I can get between 220-280 miles. My 4th gen I'm getting 300 miles before fill up regardless of city and hwy driving. And this doesn't take to account that when the gas light goes on and it indicates 0 miles left, there is 3 gallons left in reserve. I average 21 mpg mixed driving. My previous trucks both averaged 15-17 mpg in the same driving conditions. If you look at the average mpg vs tank size, the 3rd gen and 4th gen range is similar.

 

For my use case (daily small hauling of lumber & materials for woodworking and maintenance, some light off-roading) the SR5 Taco is perfect. Everyone complains about the gas tank and range but I have no real issues with that. I'm usually around the city or Boston suburbs, or the Berkshires not far from civilization. Always a gas station around.

I don’t have the power tailgate so can’t comment on that OP, but I can definitely confirm that it is no issue to just slam the tailgate shut with my actual arms. It is not heavy at all and this is a very easy procedure!! I do agree folding power side mirrors would be awesome. We have that feature on my wife’s Lexus.

After after about 7 months with the truck my complaints are pretty minor:

- I wish I had a little more storage for things like my ratchet straps, bungees, and small tools. I know the upper level models have some in-bed storage compartments. But this is on me; I bought the SR5.

- I added the rear bumper step. Love it, but it cost around $400. Other trucks, bigger trucks that I didn't want, like the Chevys I think, mold a basic bed step into the rear bumper. That would be nice. Plus you wouldn't have to remember to fold it back up. Seems like some kind of bed step should be a standard feature.

- The bed tie downs are bad. The sliding tie downs on the rail are clunky and barely functional. They don't slide well and the loop isn't really large enough because the lock-down dial is in the way. It's just a bad design. I've looked into some of the aftermarket upgrades, but everything I've seen so far requires a wrench to loosen and slide. That's a PITA. The folding bed loops are just shitty. Mine are already corroding and hard to lift. I'll probably upgrade these with aftermarket.

- The pop out dashboard speaker is just dumb. I’ll never take it out & wouldn't really care except for the fact that it rattles - really really RATTLES LIKE A MOTHERF**CKER. I've tried a few fixes with foam tape. No real dice. I'll be at the dealer for an oil change soon and I'll see what they can do. I have posted about this a few times.

- Only other issue really is my aftermarket side steps. I went cheap, with a set of $300 RealTruck 4 inch tube steps. They are slippery in the snow/wet. They are not wide enough. They're already showing signs of corrosion. This was my own mistake and I want to upgrade soon. I'm open to suggestions.

I'll probably upgrade the stock tires before next winter. The stock SR5 wheels are...fine. I've been poking around Marketplace for some takeoffs but considering just getting the stock wheels powder coated and putting the cash into some nice woodworking equipment instead. Would really love a nice jointer/planer combo machine...

 

Yep, dumb. It seems like only the content creators love it, and most of them aren't even owners. I wondered about rattling so thanks for confirming. If you take it out completely, and after adjusting front/rear balance, does sound still work from the remaining speakers? Or is that speaker actually important for the overall sound quality?

I see a JBL flex speaker on ebay for $359, so if that's really what replacements sell for, it's a crackhead theft target.

 

I thought the speaker was dumb and useless. Then I actually ended up using it??? Less than 30 days of owning the truck. Nobody was more surprised than I. And it worked really well? Shocking, I know.

Of course, my TH isn't a work truck or daily driver- I bought it for doing trips/vacations/camping/etc. Having the removable speaker in the TH trim sorta makes sense from that perspective. But either way, I get that I'm like 1% of Taco owners who will actually use the damned thing. But doesn't change the fact I actually like it now.

 

Kinda my experience. I thought I would hate that speaker. Now, just eh. Don't really care.

Neutral on a powered tailgate on a truck. Now looking to remove the gearing on that POS. I hate it so much. Does not work so well with caps and is slow as muck.

 

Yeah, the powered tailgate is dumb. I know some day it's gonna break and then opening/closing it will be harder since you have to work against the piston. There is a way to disable it, but it still doesn't swing free like a regular tailgate. Yes, I don't like putting my stuff down to open the gate when my hands are full, but the rest of the time, it's annoying and slow. Once I get my cap on, I'll decide if I need to finally do something about it or just learn to deal with it.

At least the TH didn't come with a sunroof. That and not having a black interior made it much easier to find my way into a TH over an OR.

 

I am not an audiophile but I do find if I take the center speaker out the JBL system sounds tinny. And I paid for the JBL with the upgrade package so I want it to work. Seems there are a lot of guys who are ripping the entire system out (the JBL amp and speakers) and upgrading the entire audio system. More power to 'em. I probably would have done that in my 20s - tossed a Radio Shack base tube under the back seat and who knows what else. I did that in my first car, a 1982 Buick Regal. But I'm just too old and tone deaf for that now!

 

Like I said I don't have the powered tailgate. But we have the powered hatch on my wife's Lexus. Yeah - it's gonna break one day. And it is SO FREAKING SLOW. Id so much rather just slam the damn thing and walk away!

 

There was someone here that posted that if you went into the EQ and reduced the midrange by a lot, that would make you crank the overall volume up. I forgot who it was, but hat tip because that worked for me. And yeah, I can't hear past 12K anymore.

 

Toyota did it right this time truck stays in high gear brings on boost to maintain speed uphills on my 3rd gen 6th gear was useless.i consistently get 25 mpg on highway with 33 inch tires.jbl sound system is pretty good also.dont dare drive one you’ll buy it

 

Toyota has to get it right if they want to continue to be the midsize sales leader and be competitive in that space. GM has been selling turbo 4, 8spd midsize trucks since 2023, and Ford has been selling turbo 4 10spd trucks since 2019. Nissan even put a 9spd in the Frontier in 2021. My opinion is the 4G is a nice truck and Toyota had to catch up to the competition.

 

wonder if anybody has or researched a way to delete the power tailgate. The parts are there and available to make it manual obviously. Just worried about the truck bitching with an error because it senses it.

looking to upgrade and I like a lot of the features on the premium but that stupid tailgate is holding me back and the upgrade package tacos are non existent in my area. I know it’s going to break and it’s annoyingly slow. It’s just Toyota making money off you solving a problem that doesn’t exist with 95% of truck owners