Well, anyone towing with a new Taco HYBRID yet???

As I milk along my Gen 2 Taco - and crawl over mountain passes with our 3,500 trailer - I am SUPER curious if anyone has the new hybrid Taco yet.... and is towing with it.....with the much greater horsepower and torque I am hoping it might be significant enough to make towing over mountains a bit - 'easier'..... inquiring minds want to know....

 

I had been waiting for the hybrids to come out, and then when they released the details, two things steered me into a non-hybrid model: the first was no long bed option except for buying a TrailHunter edition (and that was too much money for a bunch of stuff I wouldn't use), and secondly, Toyota appears to drop the official tow rating from 6400 to 6000 with the hybrid (assume because of the weight of the battery?). Its not a huge difference in capacity, but if you've ever rented trailers, sometimes those places get excited about official towing ratings, so I wanted as much capacity as I could get on paper.
Will the Hybrid tow better than the non-hybrid? I'm not sure - I wanted a long bed for wheelbase and its added stability, and that is a big part of the towing experience for me, so I stuck with my initial plan on got a non-hybrid long bed. No complaints yet with the towing I've done so far, but I'd like to hear from anyone that's used the Hybrid for towing as well. Should Toyota ever offer it with a long bed option on an SR5, I'd consider trading up.

 

yeah I hear ya.. I prefer the long bed myself also.... I saw there was no long option with the hybrid... ergg....I don't love loosing some payload either, but I could live with it...I just want to get OVER mountains a bit easier and a jump to a Tundra is a BIG jump that I don't really need (nor want as my daily driver)....

 

I’m in the same boat…I love the size of my Tacoma - Access Cab with LB - and do not want to squeeze a full-size truck into my garage. So, Tundra is out and all new Tacomas are too. Forced induction is what is needed to handle the mountains really well and keep weight down, which gives you the towing/payload numbers. My payload is 1500 pounds on my 2012, precisely because it’s a 4x2 with a four cylinder. I put a supercharger on it and got everything I needed for towing and it’s low mileage, so I’ll wait to see what they bring next year.

I know it’s not everybody’s thing, but a kit supercharger on your V6 would do what you need and these Gen 2s are so easy to customize/upgrade.

 

I rented a 6x12 U haul open utility trailer this weekend, and had it to move a storage unit, and my Kubota BX23S. The tractor was a snug fit in the trailer, but my '24 Taco really impressed me this weekend. The torque comes on like a diesel in the lower RPMs and it pulled some steep 2 lane routes without a hiccup or having to wind it out at all. Most of the time, it was chugging along in the 2k's RPM range. I don't know if I'd miss the hybrid or not given this weekend's examples.