Going Alone - Single Vehicle Wheeling & Safety

Forgive me, I haven’t been through all 14 pages of this thread. Someone else may have covered this here or some other thread, but being able to get back in the truck and starting it is vital especially in the cold. Keys get forgotten sometimes. Worse they can get lost in the bush. In “the old days” I always kept a spare wired up under the truck somewhere. Even after keys included some security chips and couldn’t easily be copied. At least a plain key could get you back in.
Now, I’ve experienced a failed key fob recently. 2019 model Subaru actually. But I want to know what folks do to make sure when it’s sub freezing, you’re far from the road, and you can get in since you wired the door key up somewhere but can’t get the truck on to warm up or get home due to a lost or dysfunctional key fob? I can hot wire my old Plymouth. I’m not sure I could do that with my 3rd gen Taco. Anybody have guidance?

 

When I go out in the woods, I leave the OEM key in the centre console. A 4$ "dumb" key locks and unlocks the door. Easy to make extra keys for my pack and buddy, and leave a set in my ski jacket too.

 

Thanks, this is what I do as well. The interesting bit about the Subaru failure was that the car and fob became "unpaired" somehow. The result was that the car would not allow the dumb key to unlock the doors either! We were at a car show and had to load everybody up in a 55 year old car (with baby seats fortunately) and get the spare fob from home. Which didn't work either. The car had to be towed to a dealership.

Has any Toyota owner had anything like this occur? Is this why the OP suggested keeping a pack of survival gear to hike out if need be? Pretty sever for a key fob, right? I'm having trust issues at this point. Can anyone reassure me that this can't happen to my Taco?

 

By "dumb" I mean a key cut at a locksmith or hardware store with no electronics in it whatsoever. It will always unlock the physical lock on the driver side door.

 

I know, that's exactly what I carry outside the truck. It is exactly what is included with the Subaru. The physical lock was "overridden" by the computer in the Subaru. The physical, dumb key, would not open or disengage the lock!!! I wonder if we had pulled the negative terminal if that dumb key would have let us in???Moot cuz you'd still have to get in to open the hood, anyway. I guess that key that slips outta the fob does in fact have a chip and the two can talk, Yes? Thinking out loud, but this is my concern. Either way, with a push button start '22 Taco and automatic transmission, a dead fob means a non-operative truck, even if it doesn't work like the brand X Japanese car, no?