PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

We should go back to melting our own steel!

 

My truck was made in TEXAS!

my truck was made in TEXAS!

 

Sorry it's been so long; It's been a busy few days and I actually forgot about this thread...

If the formula for the chassis steel comes from China, then that would explain a lot!

I also remember that when my dad was in the Navy, he went on a business trip to Japan in the early 2000s and brought back souvenirs for my cousins and me; He bought my one cousin this wooden jewelry box thing, done it traditional Japanese design, and one of us found a "MADE IN CHINA" sticker on it...

 

I keep forgetting to see where mine was built; I think Fremont...

 

5 VIN built in US
3 VIN built in Mexico



My truck was made in Cali, my engine is from a J VIN built in Japan General consensus is the Cali plant had the most screw ups of the ones in the US. Researching VIN's is actually pretty interesting if your bored one day.

 

My truck was assembled by illegal slave workers then.

3TMM...

 

Assembled in Texas with Global Materials. You know, the same thing that everyone hates about Dewalt tools even though they’ll go buy Milwaukee which are completely made in China.

 

we are...

So a very brief and uneducated lesson on steel making- the old "rust belt" of the US operated on blast furnace style steel making, which put us behind a lot of the world in steel technology. It is an expensive and not at all flexible way of pouring metal. They require a very strict level of raw material purity, and can't swing with demand. If you shut one down it costs nearly 50 million to turn it back on again. (The upshot is that they are efficient as hell once they're rolling, compared to modern plants.)

However...

I'm recent decades the American south is slowly taking over the steel industry, with Electric Arc furnaces. They are much more tolerant to trash - throw in a crushed Chrysler with an old dishwasher, and you still get high grade carbon steel on the other end. They are much easier to swing production to meet market demand. And since 2000, new plants have been springing up everywhere.

The short version - we are now recycling a lot of our own steel now. 'Murica.

 

The trucks may be assembled in the US but willing to bet 90% percent of the parts are sourced out of country.

 

My truck was made in California...

 

The Tacomas actually have a very high N. American parts content (Canada, USA, Mexico). And both Texas and Baja draw parts from the same suppliers. There are no seperate Texas or Mexican parts, except what may be specific to the models the plants produce. Powertrains for both plants come from Alabama and W. Virginia. For now Toyota does not have powertrain production capability in Mexico.

But now that Texas is winding down Taco production and all Taco production shifts to Baja and the new Mexican plant...some of that may change.

We'll have to keep an eye on the parts content sticker on the window of the new Tacos and see.

And NUMMI produced both 1st and 2nd gen Tacos. Texas and Baja produce 2nd and 3rd gens

 

Lmftfy

 

What?

 

Lmftfy= Let me fix that for you.

 

I don't see any problem with ir being made in Cali...

 

It’s not really “made” in Cali. The parts are made all over the world. That’s where it’s all assembled, this me fixing your statement.

 

No, the formula for chassis steel should come from the design engineer. It's up to the designer engineers quality department and or supplier quality control department to make sure the supplier is sending what is spec'd out. With out going in to a long explanation, it may be a PPAP failure. I can see a few failure issues here. I think Toyota got off light.
I've welded on a almost 20 year old semi tractor frame that had only surface rust on them, not this type of descaling rust we see on our Toyota frames. This tells me, or my suspicion is that the steel formula may not be right. Granted a semi tractor frame uses thicker metal than our Toyota frame, it's in the formula or composition of the material that plays a roll in how rust resistant the steel is. Even stainless steel can rust, it depends on the grade of stainless.
If it's a frame design issue, I suspect Toyota hasn't changed the design of the frame because it would be like admitting you're wrong. And who likes to admit they're wrong?

 

It is gonna be really hard to boycott Chinese products...