Trail Hunter, Short bed or Long bed?

Toyota finally put some effort into their upper level trims and is giving us a fairly formidable truck from the factory in the form of the trail hunter. OME 3 inch lift with 2.5 shocks and UCAs. Full skids, including rear diff and rock rails. Factory sway bar disconnect, high clearance exhaust, high clearance ARB steel bumper (although the frame now drops with the tow hitch so it’s not really high clearance) larger brakes and higher payload.

It’s awesome to see them still offer the 6ft bed option especially in this trim which focuses on over-landing. For those interested interested in this new trim what bed length will you choose? Will your prioritize utility or capability on the trail?

I am super split on which bed length to go with. I currently own a 16 access cab. It’s perfect because I get the short wheelbase and still have a 6ft bed. I like the 6ft bed because it allows me to sleep in the bed with a topper. I can easily fit my skis and snowboards, and I can fit my motorcycle in the bed along with all my gear with the tailgate up. That being said the access cab can be cramped. I wouldn’t mind having more storage inside the cab and space to bring friends and family on my adventures.

I am worried the wheelbase on the long bed will be limiting. I am currently running a 2 inch lift, full armor, high clearance rear bumper and 265/75/16 tires. With this mild lift I am able to run some fairly technical trails and don’t feel the need to move up to 33’s.

The wheelbase on the 4th gen grew on both the DCSB and DCLB. The DCLB wheelbase is the same length as the shortest wheelbase tundra. So basically it’s in full size territory in terms of wheelbase. Not interested in cross shopping half tons because the rest of the truck will still feel smaller and more nimble and it still has better articulation, departure and approach angles than the tundra or other half tons.

One important thing to note is the trail hunter and Pro come with heavier duty steering racks. That along with the factory 3 inch lift and oversized fenders will allow us to easily run 35s without durability concerns. So will a trail hunter on 35s cut it or is the SB ideal. What will you guys choose?

 

I voted short bed because I want the maneuverability of the shorter wheelbase. The long bed is as long as an F150 and for me I'd rather just go with a 1/2 ton if I'm already going to be that long. I'm currently driving an F150 and it feels very big anytime I'm off road and the length makes tight corners or turning around on a blocked forest service road difficult.

With that said, I'm not an overlander so if you have a lot of gear to carry then maybe the long bed would make more sense. My F150 is the 5.5' bed, but Ford makes the bed so deep that you can pack a lot of gear into the short bed. I know Toyota made the 4th gen beds a little deeper. Hopefully that helps people carry more gear. I think an access cab version with 6' bed would have been perfect, but unfortunately that's not an option.

I love the Trailhunter, but I don't think I'll be able to justify the premium that's going to come with them (same for the TRD Pro), so I'll most likely be in the market for a TRD OR or TRD Sport once the hybrid models are available.

 

Will you be parking it in a garage? That might be a deciding factor on bed size.

 

If you don’t feel the need to move up to 33s currently, and don’t want to run more challenging stuff, the long wheel base should meet your needs off road.

 

I’m too tall to sleep in a long bed anyway so I vote for the off-road capability!

 

Good point. Not at the moment, garage is occupied by bikes and the wife’s car but that could change in the future. Not a necessity for me though.

 

Yea currently find 31s and the 2 inch lift gets me up some tough trails while keeping me off the stuff that should really be driven on with a dedicated trail rig. I don’t find myself needing anymore diff clearance for the trails I do, but I did find myself scraping the tow hitch on certain trails before I upgraded to a high clearance rear bumper. Also I believe the 4g has worse running clearance than the 3g. A third gen on 31s is equivalent to a 4g on 33’s in terms of running clearance, or so I’ve heard. So maybe a Trail hunter long bed on 35s will be more than enough. Switchbacks may require a little more patience though.

 

That length definitely has me wondering. I have been in many situations where I’ve had to do multi point turns turning around on blocked fire roads. My truck barely made it some of those times. I guess more careful planning would mitigate that. I carry a fair bit of gear on trips but with better planning a more careful packing a 5ft bed may work, just allows less flexibility. Just hauling dirt bikes and snowboard bags and surfboards is a little easier with the long bed.

 

Where did you get information from?

 

https://www.theautopian.com/what-an...-thinks-of-the-new-toyota-tacoma-trailhunter/

 

Thanks!, I can't tell if that guy liked the new Trailhunter or didn't. There's quite a bit of snark. In his ground clearance bit, he was actually comparing a 2nd gen Tacoma to the Trailhunter, not a 3rd gen.

 

Long bed. Better to have a little too much length than not enough. How many situations are you realistically going to be in there the wheelbase length will be a serious consideration?

 

Ripping up the dunes in a trail hunter.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVzrJ_-jqsQ

 

Go with the long bed. The short bed is going to seem super small coming from a long bed. The long bed should also have some extra space to install a larger fuel tank someday if the range turns out to be terrible when loaded down and with bigger tires.