More Aluminum in the trucks

"Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change"
-Confucius

Which do you think we all think we are?

 

Stupid

 

No, that's what YOU think we all are, you damn Canandian. Whatever that is.

 

I thought you were asking me ?

 

Reread.
"Which do you think we all think we are?"

 

Stupid ?

 

Toyota will probably change non-structural parts like the hood, fenders and doors to aluminum first. Toyota already used aluminum for those parts on other models (e.g. Supra) where weight was a bigger priority. I think the only reason Toyota hasn't used aluminum extensively on Tacomas was the slightly higher cost: if they saved $50 in materials per truck by using steel in lieu of aluminum, that adds up to about $71 million in savings over the model's 10-year production run.

 

I think it would be a decent trade off to only pay fractionally more for some weight savings

 

^As do I. However, note some people still prefer to pay less and buy a truck with steel wheels (with 40 lb unsprung weight penalty). The Tacoma userbase is sufficiently diverse. And with aluminum body panels, Toyota has to switch over completely.

 

Stupid is as stupid does, I guess.

 

I think that with the new fuel economy regs they may want to

or give us the hybrid diesel / electric powerplant we all want.

 

I dont think insurance companies are gonna like the impact resistance of aluminum or tolerance for reshaping like steel. So therefore your wallet will be a lot smaller than it is now. The auto repair industry will love it though.

 

chevy has decided to put an all aluminum engine in the 2014 silverado (5.3L)...I guess they figure people have forgotten about the chevy VEGA of the early 70's !

 

Toyota will.have to step it up with there dinosaur truck. Ford coming out with the Atlas in 2015 which is nice looking. I hope it's not the size of there f150 right now. My neighbor just picked up a ecoboost after her last ford truck was blowing out spark plugs. It's big sitting in the driveway. With trimming 750 pounds off the truck, 10 speed transmission, direct fuel injection and cylinder deactivation in some models they are trying to get 30 mpg out of a truck. Ford is also bringing out another ecoboost motor 2.7 litre v6 called the nano to achieve better fuel economy. So a smaller truck might be in the works for Ford after the smaller GM truck comes out in 2015.

 

G.M. Was using aluminum body panels in the 80's. You could get an olds cutlass with a aluminum hood, trunk, inner bumper, and core support. Some other similar cars came with aluminum parts to but I think it was meant as a mpg upgrade not a performance one.

Also some cars came with aluminum brake drums, gnx's also came with them.

 

Hey, if Toyota wants to start selling the Aluminum wheels for less than several hundred dollars a pop, I'll be interested.
But until then, it's not worth it from an economics standpoint. I'd never make up the cost of the wheels (and the required new Tire PMS) in fuel savings.

 

There is no such thing as "Military Grade" just like there is no such thing as "Aircraft Grade".. those are just marketing terms. Just because the military uses a BIC pen does not mean that the pen is "Military Grade". Now Mil-Spec is another story but even that has overstated meaning.

Aluminum just comes in grades: 6061, 2024, 7075 etc etc. And just like steel, some grades are better for a given purpose than others.

Aluminum is great for saving weight in some areas. But it has horrible fatigue performance compared to steel. Aluminum frames would be a very bad idea. (Yes, aircraft use aluminum extensively... they also have insane inspection/maintenance requirements you do NOT want on your vehicle!) As was mentioned, it is harder to repair aluminum body panels as well. But there are deffinetly places it could be used to shed weight, but you will pay for it.

 

No sane person makes extra trips out of the way to get gas.

 

They do if they've got a smaller tank...
The alternative would be running out of gas.

 

I had a 2006 Mustang with an aluminum hood. It saved a lot of weight - the Tacoma's hood is really heavy and I'm surprised that it's still made of steel. That said there were problems with the Mustang hood in production. The welds on the bottom edge were not cleaned properly (of finger oils) which led to corrosion and paint bubbling a few years later. I hope Ford is up to the task in production.

I'm not sure about the extensive use of aluminum in trucks for weight savings. Wouldn't this lower their towing capacity?