The Great Tow Hooks Conspiracy Thread

What the heck Toyota! This is a disgrace. At the price charged for Off road package, unconscionable! All the badging and stickers do not make up for plastic plates and no recovery hooks.

If you want to go into the bush and come back in a Toyota consider any other 4WD model they make, literally.

Toyota needs to fix this.

 

Today we are supposed to get 20 inches of snow. Definitely a potential tow hook day. Parked the Tundra. So I drove my FJ Cruiser this morning to the shop - it has skid plates that slide over the snow. And it does not even have "Off Road" sticker on it. I need to paint the hooks red though.

 

One of my great regrets is getting rid of my FJ.

 

I think the idea of skid plates on this new Tundra is kind of silly. I could be seeing it wrong, but it looks like the plastic front end hangs down much lower than the rest of the chassis, and even on the TRD Pro the plastic chin is lower than the skid plate.

Anyways, you'll be tearing up the plastic chin before the plates get any action

 

The air dam on the front of my F150 hangs down about 4" lower than the rest of the stuff under the truck and yet I've never had issues with it. Buy I had to take off my running boards because they have tried to remove themselves on rocks several times. They were an upside down U when I took them off.

When you have a 145" or 157" wheelbase, things in the middle of the truck tend to contact the ground.

That said, the lack of front diff skid doesn't worry me as much since its tucked up in the cross members. You'd have to hit it just right on a rock to have it actually whack the diff.

 

The front bumper is actually about the same height as everything else. It just looks lower in pics.

 

Sorry in advance, but I must beg to differ if you plan to go off road.

Skidplates being "silly" falls into same category as recovery hooks being "unnecessary". From an off road standpoint neither statement is wise.

The front air dam is 100% not a critical component. You can tear the whole bloody thing off and toss it in the bed. Try that on front diff, transmission or fuel tank. You let the bush bang or poke a hole in one of those and you ain't coming home.

 

Skid plates don't matter at all in a mall-crawler.

 

Yup, makes the SR5 TRD Sport seem like a good idea. I've been warming up to it...

 

Does the 2.5 gen Tundra, Raptor, Tremor, Power Wagon or any other truck have a front diff skid plate? That's not one I've heard of before.

 

Nope. Ford and Ram just do the exact same thing. They remove the Recovery hooks and skid plates on the off road oriented models. As we have established, these are totally unnecessary for off-road and just for silly people.


Just kidding- see photos below.

Ford Raptor


Ford Tremor



Ram Rebel






Toyota Tundra 2.5




Toyota 2.5 Alternate Perspective



And finally the current 22022 3rd gen TRD "Off Road" package per the poster in this forum....

 

Just saw a newer Ram 1500 in a parking lot. No tow hooks.

 

I'm sure it used to have them, they just broke off from over use.

 

2022 will have paved roads everywhere so the idea of needing off road capabilities is so old fashioned

 

This made me laugh a little, as "world class city" Seattle actually has gravel roads in the SODO area. It's really weird

 

Because the twin turbo will put truck into limp mode and just be easier to pull it home

 

what if I see a Prius or Echo that slide off of the side of said unpaved road?

if I don’t have front hooks to pull them out maybe I just keep driving??

 

Didn't we decide it's hard on your truck to pull from the front when pulling someone out?

 

I didn't. In all seriousness, it is my preferred method (winch and no winch config).

 

oh maybe it is best practice, I’m not sure really

but I just mean sometimes the environment dictates what the best way to pull someone out is.

I don’t wanna get in the muck while pulling someone out of a ditch bc then I might lose traction

Point is there have been times I can’t safely get my rear end in a position to help someone

we have an illegal u-turn that people do by my house and the FWD cars get stuck a lot bc they don’t realize once they go off the asphalt even a couple inches it turns into nasty nasty mud

 

Well damn, that front diff pic shows what I think is the same ridiculous 10mm Allen drain plug. I hate them so much. However, Lexus has 24mm drain and fill plugs that are a direct swap. Work fine on older Toyota front diffs and hopefully work on the new Gen.

 

The cheaper models don't come with them, however you can add them. Toyota doesn't even give you the option, on any model.

 

Exactly! Hopefully Skid plates are a different story on the TRD Pro at least.

Standard TRD Off-Road package includes a locking diff, mild shock upgrade and an extra button to select MTS/Crawl Control. Oh and a bunch of stickers....and for that they are asking $3,100. Most will be better off just skipping it and putting that towards aftermarket.
Locking Diff is nice. I have had one, but it that would be way down my priority list vs. skid plates and recovery hooks.

 

I have a theory that you’re supposed to remove the whole cab if you get stuck, that way you have unfettered access to the frame to attach recovery gear to.

That ole’ Mike Sweerg is a genius!

 

I hope there’s a quick-release option

 

What are the odds the Sequoia has tow hooks.

 

That would be delicious. The salty tears of rage would cause major flooding.

 

No tow hooks on the Sequoia either from what I can see. No V8 either.

 

Welp

 

Im sure once more of these are sold, we'll start seeing pics of folks stuck in some way and needing pulled out from the front, and how they got it done. My bet is the guy that rides his hard in those videos will be the first in that predicament. lol