Switching from Gladiator to Taco / Concerns

Hey all. Jeep diesel gladiator overland build I have is giving me so many electrical problems that I’m thinking of making the switch to a TRD PRO with I force Max hybrid engine. My concerns are this.

The current overland rig I have built with 37” tires and lift, roof top tent, rsi smartcap decked drawers fridge and all my gear for over landing is such a heavy payload. So much so that iv needed HD springs to offset the weight as well as have relied on the diesel to supply enough torque to comfortably drive at highway speeds with all that weight. It has performed very well other than the factory problems the vehicle is having. I mean my rig is laid out for comfortable overlanding off grid for a week.

Can a TRD pro provide me the same power but in a reliable package or have users experienced issues that would be of concern. I cannot afford another vehicle that is unreliable because I go too far off road to areas where recovery would be crazy. Can I get 37” tires on this thing easy? Are they reliable. With the new engine.

 

Toyota is more reliable than Jeep … but time will tell . There has been reports of failing transmissions on the new taco but it’s been isolated incidents so u should be fine .With all that gear u still will need some modifications to the set up on the pro .the engine is a hybrid motor don’t think anyone has done a build like this on the platform . I don’t see why it wouldn’t be able to handle it as long as u don’t exceed the weight limit . Tires search the forum for biggest tires u can put on the taco . Best of luck and welcome .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y08ujYbpnM

Any of the Taco hybrids are going to have plenty of power. Payloads looks to be similar. There should be companies coming soon with aggressive viper cut winch bumpers that make it easier for larger tires. Gladiator has always had the advantage there. It is easier to get winches and larger tires. You going to have to do more exploration and modification with the Taco. Solid front axle is also a better tool for offroad.

Browsing this forum, you would think Toyota has shit the bed. There is no guarantee that any specific vehicle will be trouble free. But with recent highly chronicled events has shown, auto brands are still not the same. One still seems interested in fixing what has broken. A few here have detailed their struggles and resolution. Their stories are here for you to examine. Seems to me I can still reasonably expect Toyota to back up their vehicles.

This is IMHO. You will certainly hear from the other side soon enough.

 

I realize you’re asking about the Tacoma, but here’s a story about the new Tundra and going to remote places. I rented a 2023 Tundra in Alaska last month. It had 19k miles on it and blew three different “See your dealer” codes. The transmission was banging, the rear camera was flickering, and the gearshift said it was in both reverse and drive! Fortunately, I was just at the start of the Dalton Highway. It had to be towed to a dealer in Anchorage. The owners brought me a trusty 4Runner, and commented, “We’ve had no mechanical issues, just electrical.” They were glad they didn’t have to recover the Tundra from the arctic circle where I was going.

Personally, with any new model, I’d wait a few years. Tacoma included.

 

After seeing 37s I'd stay away from building a hybrid anything for overlanding. The Hybrid trucks are going to be the least mod friendly.

 

If your going to be offroad for a week at a time I cannot recommend a newly redesigned vehicle, there is a known transmission issue with the current tacomas that I would not want to fail while overlanding. Granted I would never recommend buying the first 3 years of any new vehicle generation cause there seems to always be quite a design issues, be they large or small.

 

Sat in a gladiator a few weeks ago.. The interior layout and materials is terrible.

 

There were issues with the manual transmission that have been resolved. The same for the automatic transmissions.

You might drive a non-hybrid because they have more than enough power.

 

Long term reliability is an Unknown at this point. The transmission problems, according to Toyota TSB did not effect the pro and trailhunter VIN's (I think). I would suggest looking into the Trailhunter over the pro for increased interior space (no shock seats) and possible 6ft bed if interested!

Some YouTubers have the 37's and made videos. You could watch them for feedback on power. I think Independence Overland is doing a build series on his channel if interested.

 

I dont personally believe that 400+ lbs of torque is needed for any overland vehicle.

Torque isnt what you really need with the 37's, what you need is the right gears, and I dont believe either truck comes with the right gears for 37's.

Torque just makes a good bandaid and gives you some bragging rights. But in reality youre just wasting that torque on the wrong gearing and placing undue stress on everything else- like the transmission

That said, Id look at a non hybrid Tacoma and just buy some 5.29 gears for your 37's.

It'll drive so much better with gears than a hybrid without them and a hybrid with the right gears will probably just make it easier to break and lose traction on the trail.

I doubt you would be regretting the switch from Jeep to Toyota.

Surely you are on some Jeep forums, are there a lot of previous Toyota owners over there?

We don't do the duck thing but we still manage to have a pretty good time

 

Tacomas have no duck-holders, so...

 

If you’re dead set on a 4th gen, you should be looking at a Trailhunter vs TRD Pro.

 

The trail hunter is nice and all but it doesn’t have anything that will help you with the 37’s. Trail hunter is for someone that won’t be modding anything and wants something they think is ready to go. Coming from a gladiator w 37’s, it won’t be and you’ll be removing a lot of what you pay for on a trail hunter

 

Was just watching a guy on Youtube with a TRD Pro and he was talking to someone with a new LC on 37's. Guy said the torque was great and no re-gear, that it was handling it like a champ.

 

Does it really need the 37's for what youre doing, or do you just want the 37's?
I wouldnt want 37's.....

 

Tacoma's have horrible payload's. You can beef up the suspension all you want but it just hides the problem. It doesn't change it. I'm betting your Gladiator is overloaded too.

Traditionally Tacoma's have great reliability but it's too soon to say about the 4th gens. But even if they have some issues Toyota goes above and beyond to make things right. Much better than any other manufacturer.

If I wanted a truck capable of carrying that much weight and be turnkey off road capable I'd look at a Ford Raptor.

 

If you’re going to build it get the Hybrid TRD off-road. Or the trail hunter. 37’s can be done? but no where near as easily as a jeep. It will almost certainly be more reliable than a jeep.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=independe...i=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ4OlfDe-Ws

 

I'm not very knowledgeable about gearing so I'm asking from a point of trying to learn.

Is regearing done to access available torque at a lower rpm for the larger tire size? Does the electric motor offset that need?

 

Regearing is done to offset the larger tire. Not a perfect example but its like taking off in 2 instead of 1. The gearing multiplication is lower in 2 so its harder to get things moving. The larger tire effectively does the same thing by covering a greater distance per revolution. A 37 inch tall tire will cover about 116 inches per revolution vs about 103 for a 33.

My guess is that a lot of that is masked by the turbo and the hybrid system. A turbo works based on load. So even though the larger tire is creating more load, more load makes more boost and more boost makes more power.

 

Accessing torque at a lower rpm would be a vague description.

With larger tires you will lose rpm’s and the regear will give them back

I may not be the best person to describe this but I will try.

it all comes down to the mathematical problem of restoring the rpm’s to where they were when the truck had the stock tires for a given speed.

A taller tire will make less revolutions per mile than the smaller stock tire, therefore the speedometer has to be recalibrated for the larger tire but this does nothing for the gearing.

So let’s say you’ve added the large tires and fixed the speedo…

With the stock tires you were at 2200 rpm’s at 70mph but now at 70 mph you’re at 1700 rpm at 70mph with the larger tires. If you had this problem with a manual transmission, 6th gear would become useless under 70 mph and if there was any incline you’d be down shifting. A lot. Having the turbo and the torque from the electric motor would help mask the issue but you will be placing massive additional wear on those items along with the transmission.

Being able to select a new gear ratio will eliminate all of this and you can restore the rpms and powerband back to where they were with the stock tires. This will improve Mpgs as well.

All these numbers I’m giving aren’t accurate- they have calculators for this- they are only for sake of example

People don’t change the gearing for fun- they do it because it is absolutely necessary for the truck to mitigate the loss in performance associated with larger tires. Granted you will still have the added weight of the tires but you can’t do anything about that.

Tacomas come geared pretty well for 33’s - My 2nd gen speedo said I was going 5mph faster than I was until I put 33s on it and then it was accurate.

The next question to ask is: would there be a loss in articulation resulting from a 37” tire? I don’t know the answer to this but if I was betting I’d say yes, however it may only be negligible.

Different, longer shocks could be the answer which is why I advised against the trail hunter because for serious overlanding you’d remove almost everything you pay for except for the skid plates and the compressor.

This is all the science and math that the YouTubers leave out- they just post videos saying “look it fits!”

But there’s a bit more to it than just buying bigger tires