HOw are the Tacoma 4cly as a truck ?

I haul 3000lbs or a bit more, regularly with no problems. Thats 50-60 bales. Pushing 80,000 miles and haven't put one dime into the truck (except oil). I'm very happy with the 4cyl.

 

I have a distinct feeling the previous owner of my truck didn't know to do this, which is probably why my tranny sings a bit between 50-58 mph only in 5th gear. The weakest link in Toyota's minitruck trannies has always been either the input shaft bearing or the bearings around 5th gear, both of which get stressed towing in 5th (but not 4th, which uses no gears). Supposedly the R-series is stronger than the W-series, but the design is very similar from what I've seen and it happens to both.

For all my looking around this forum, all the 4 cyl guys I can find with over 400k miles have the 4 spd autos. I know qnyla has a v6 stick well over 300k but that combo sucks fuel. I had one.

The four cylinder is pretty decent power-wise. Same peak torque and at least 14 more horses than the 3.0L vulcan, and about the same peak power as the old pushrod 4.0L, but uses far less fuel than either. It just needs to be revved up a wee bit more to get it.

As for the V6; I drove a 1990's 5.0L F150 for a couple years and the Tacoma 4.0 makes 60 more horses and 12 more ft-lb torque than that beast while weighing 400 lb less.

Working on the 4 cylinder is easy compared to most modern vehicles. The engine bay was designed for a big ol' 90 degree V6 and with the 2.7L there's lots of free space. Plus, fluid changes are a snap because everything has a drain plug. No pulling diff covers.

Parts? From the toyota dealer, the cost of some things is reasonable, others are much higher. For example, you can get a high quality oil filter and a crush washer for the drain plug for less than $6, or an excellent Denso air filter for $16. On the other end of the scale, the good OEM spicer u-joints are $80 apiece and the driveshaft center support bearing is about $280; if you need to replace the clutch on the Delphi A/C compressor, that's $550, or $2200 for the whole compressor unit from the dealer (which rockauto has for $362), or if you want the 2.7L longblock, that's $10,700 to get a shiny new one probably because no one ever buys one. That's the prices in the States.

I have a couple NAPA parts in my truck.

4x4 helps a lot in the slippery stuff. That bed isn't steel and the beast is a little (lot) front-heavy.

 

This post makes me miss my last Tacoma soo bad!