2.7l experience

This is my first post. I'm looking for advice from people who have experience with 2.7l tacomas.

I want to get the truck I need, so I spent a couple hours a day for the last 2 weeks reading through posts on this forum to do my best to understand the options. But I still feel out of my depth and would definitely appreciate some specific tacoma wisdom for my situation

Here's what I need a truck for:

I live in Chico, in northern California. No winter snow unless I go up to the mountains, which I mostly do in the summer. I won't be doing any serious off-roading. Mostly driving around stuff in town, e.g. loads of mulch and compost, bicycles etc. And also some highway trips now and then. And lots of camping during the summer with my wife and 2 year old. Mostly paved roads with some gravel roads and forest service roads but no hardcore off-roading. If I do any towing it will be less then 2000lb.

My wife doesn't drive stick shift and so we need to buy an automatic.

From what I've read it sounds like a 2wd 2.7 l will be sufficient for my needs. I want a long bed so we can sleep in back in a pinch, so I'm leaning towards an access cab 2005-2009. I know double cab would be more comfortable for us but don't want the short bed and mpg of the 6 cylinder engine.

Here are the things I'm unsure of:

1. I'm worried about the bed bottoming out on some of the rougher roads if it's loaded up with 50+ gallons of water, 2 big ice chests, 3 people, access cab, lots of camping gear, wood, kayak etc. Also, a lot of my camping trips involve climbing up from Chico 6000ft in less than 2 hours into the mountains. I don't need to go fast but will the 2.7 l auto make it up OK with that kind of a load?

2. I've read on some of these posts that the 2.7l prerunner has close to as bad mileage as a 4x4 and V6 tacomas because of the gear ratio. If instead of a prerunner I took the basic 2.7l access cab and had it raised a little would this be a good way to deal with the heavier loads on camping trips and would the lift cost me much in terms of mpg? What would be the best way to raise it?

3. Does anyone have real life estimates for the mpg differences between 2.7l auto basic, 2.7l auto basic with a lift, 2.7l auto 4x4 and prerunner auto?

4. I've heard that air bags can sometimes be lethal to small children. Are the side curtain airbags that are in some of the access cabs safe for small children?

thanks for your help. I appreciate all the sharing of information that goes on here

Luke

 

You can't get a 2.7L auto in 4x4. They only come with 5 speeds like mine. If you don't need 4x4, I would go with a v6 prerunner. The gas mileage is close to the same as my 4x4 and you will have more than enough power and a 5 speed auto instead of only 4 speed auto. JMO. Welcome to the forum.

 

Get a 4x4 if you can afford it,having that option says enough.

 

I have the bare-bones 2.7 liter 2WD taco. I've had it for 14 years, lived in TN where it did snow, now live in Nor-Cal, and have taken the thing everywhere. We take it to Yosemite in the winter every year. If you put sand bags in the back, believe it or not it actually does really well in the snow. I spent two weeks with it in Death Valley on roads that you could barely call roads. It does everything I want to do. Plus the 2.7 liter 4 cylinder taco engines are absolutely indestructible, have a timing chain versus a timing belt that has to be changed every 90k, is EASY to work on, and will run forever and ever. I guess I'm biased since I have one, but this truck is flawless and I have over 220,000 miles on mine.

 

thanks for sharing your experience Bob

did you ever have problems with the vehicle riding too low when on the rougher roads and when heavily loaded in the back?

 

I did and Toyota fixed it with the rear leaf TSB

 

Its been on some pretty nasty roads fully loaded with camping gear and it does ok. I probably wouldn't recommend outright off-roading with it though.

 

rd263 - I thought the rear leaf tsb was for the bigger tacomas, not the 2.7l basic ones?

 

I agree completely. That sucker is a beast for me.

 

haha just don't ingest water through the intake!! its indestructable but if you f$*# it up its gonna cost your left testicle to replace. cost me 4000 dollars to replace and minor upgrade mine. the 2.7L 4x4 will do everything you ask it to, though heavy hauling just isn't its forte. a budy of mine installed air bag helpers and can now haul anything the engine can handle.

 

I agree the 2.7 is 1 tough Lil Motor. I have 121,000 with auto and it runs like a beast. Just maintain it well and it won't let you down. 99 Prerunner with Off Road package.

 

is the 05+ 4 banger the same as the old? Only ask because I thought the OP was looking at 05+.

From my understanding on the power from access cabs with the 4cyl (and the test drive I did), and the lack of that much better fuel economy, I'd probably vote the 4.0L. Personally, I'd rather have more engine and have it when I need it than not enough, but that's me.

 

I had 1,200 Lbs of plaster in my 2.7 bound for the dump on Monday,
Handled it like a champ!!! No bogging down!! I had the spring tsb done and it didn't bottomed out. before i had it done 700Lbs of plaster bottomed out on every bump.

the 2.7 is a tough motor!

only thing is they only make a 2.7 auto in the regular cab 4x2..

 

2. I don't think that increasing the offroad/payload capability of a non-prerunner truck would be any more beneficial than buying a prerunner to begin with. You're looking at at least a lift and larger tires, then your gearing wouldn't be right so you'd have to re-gear, prolly around two grand to do it right. And after all that your mileage would probably be close to that of what you'd be getting with a stock pre-runner to begin with anyway. If it were me I'd get an Access Cab PreRunner and teach my wife how to drive a stick (which is what I'm currently doing with my wife).

3. For what it's worth my latest tank yielded 24.5 mpg 75% city driving but I have a Reg Cab.

 

my wife said no to my offer to teach her stick shift. Sounds like from what bobwilson said, I could get by with the base model 2.7l auto access cab and still ride some gravel or fire roads with a full camping load. Then I'd get 19/25 as opposed to 17/21 with the prerunner.

Sounds like a big mpg difference to me over the long run

 

I have a '07 2.7L 2X4 manual trans reg cab. I use it for most everything; daily commuter, hauling, fishing, hunting, camping.

I bought the 4 banger for the mpg and the reputation that Toyota has building 4 cylinder engines.

I found the engine to have a good deal of torque, but you have to view 5th gear as overdrive. Downshifts to 4th are necessary on long hills to keep the engine on the power band. It does fine in the snow and off the pavement as long as you keep to logging/fire roads. One of the things that surprised me was the way it handles at highway speeds.

Mileage has been good (28/25 - hwy/city on OR eth'blend). Easy to work on. Completely trouble free.

My wife and I take it on week long camping/adventure excursions. Went to Crater Lake last summer. I have a soft top camper that works like a charm and keeps us nice and dry on those stormy nights.

I paid $15k, for it, new, a couple of years ago and I think I got very good value for my money. Considering how rare it is to see a used Toyota pickup w/<150,000 miles on it, in the classified ads, I could probably sell it for nearly what I paid for it.

 

Yeah, you'll be fine if you're going to be sticking to fire roads or similar unimproved surfaces. You'll see a significant difference in gas mileage by sticking with the base model 4 cyl although it'll drop once you get it all loaded up for your camping trips, but that's to be expected. I think you'll be happy with the 2.7L, I won't be going back to a V-6/V-8 unless I absolutely need it for routine towing purposes.

 

I have a PreRunner 4 banger, which only comes manual... I kind of went through the same indecisions you did.

While many people get great mileage out of their V6s, I have yet to get great mileage out of any car or truck I've had, so for the way I drive I determined I needed the 4cyl. Remember for every person that says they regularly get 22mpg in the V6, there are those that only get 15, so your mileage may vary! So far the 2.7 has been good. It has plenty of power (I've towed a 1500lb boat with ease) and gets me 22-2mpg combined on a mostly 75mph freeway commute.

Since you need an auto, you will have to get the lower to the ground 5 lug model. Honestly for what you are doing, it should be fine. The 4spd auto is a bit old school, but works fine. I test drove one and it had plenty of pep around town. You will get better mileage than me due to it's more adventagous gearing. You should be OK with light off roading (it probably still has almost the same ground clearance just not as much articulation). If not, you can lift it to almost prerunner height rather cheaply - bad that leads to new wheels for looks and shocks for comfort.

Finally, the best advice is test one and see if it meets your needs. Happy hunting!

 

What is a "bigger tacoma" ?