May go back to the 5.7

Hot Springs.

So I’m in the southern Black Hills. Hope you had fun, too bad it was blazing ass hot!

 

Yup 100* in a tent no fun ha.

I’m east river for the next year and a half ish then moving back that way as soon as I can find land that some yuppie hasn’t bought up… secretly hoping for a crash so I can afford it again? Not me…

 

We don't really need more fuel economy on the highway though. We need it in town, while accelerating from stoplights. Which is where a small turbo that spools up at low RPM shines. That is what will bring the average fuel economy way up on a full size truck. Also, it would help while pulling trailers or hauling loads in tow/haul mode with OD locked out and the engine at higher RPM.

And no, we definitely do not need cylinder deactivation tech.

 

Yeah there’s going to be a crash in real estate. Kind of looking forward to it.

 

Been saving

 

We all have great rigs and are proud of them. What's important to one person is not to another, and there are valid points on all sides. I do have to laugh at some of the comments.

1. Who wants tow hooks? That's hilarious. When I bought a RAM 1500, I made Dodge put them on. I would not have closed the deal without them. I'd think anyone who uses their truck outside of an urban area wants them. They are to help others, not just you.
2. The new truck probably tows like a locomotive compared to the older version.... I suspect there is some weight to this argument. I had a 3.5 Ecoboost before my two 5.7 Tundras and it towed better at high speeds. It didn't hunt for gears on the freeway like my Tundra, but then again I probably shouldn't have been towing that fast. I suspect the new Tundra will tow similar to my old Ecoboost. In town, the 5.7 tows just as well.
3. Gas mileage argument. We'll see how this pans out after time. All of the brands claim high gas mileage, but I've never got decent mileage out of a truck. I've had Powerstrokes, Ecoboosts, Hemis, Tundras, and nothing has lived up to the estimate on the sticker. Maybe it's driving habits, but they all suck. Hopefully the new Tundra does do better.


I posted earlier saying I stayed with my Gen 2.5 for specific reasons, but if I was the OP and already had the new truck, I'd probably stick with it. It's these forums that gets us second guessing our decisions. Enjoy your new ride and don't look back!!!

P.S. Add tow hooks, when they come out aftermarket.

 

Same here.

 

Heck they’re even on sale!

https://afepower.com/afe-power-450-72t001-r-afe-control-front-tow-hook-red

Perfect? Nope, at some recovery angles a recovery strap might put stress on the front bumper cover.

Then again if you’re being recovered from a strange angle your truck got into that odd position somehow, the ground, ditch, rocks, snow bank etc didn’t just appear surrounding it. So chances are that if you’re being recovered from an angle like that your front bumper cover already got the shit kicked out of it on the way in.

Just saying.

As far as helping others, man I don’t know if I’m willing to anymore. I observed some remarkably silly shit this past winter, frankly some of these people shouldn’t be helped.

For example the dumb dumbs in a Ford Focus with bald tires high centered in the middle of the highway. Helped them get out of the middle of the road in a blizzard at 0300 in the AM. The guy driving had his girlfriend help me push because he was too much of a pussy. No way to hook up a tow strap to his car without damaging it. He then promptly drove right off the shoulder like an ass hat.

Were I not a married man I would have told his girlfriend to hop in with me so we could go warm up in a more enjoyable manner.

This was frustrating enough but then I heard from a Conductor who got in later than me that he helped the same idiots a few miles east of where I helped them. They’d been pulled out, and decided it was a great idea to keep endangering themselves and others by driving some more in that mess.

 

Nice... I'm sure more will be out soon too. Nothing is perfect.

Enjoy your ride OP!

 

I hear you on this. People are idiots. I totaled my first Tundra because some dumbass decided it was a good idea to fly by me on a completely icy interstate at 60'sh. She was in a 90's 4X4 blazer/tahoe with bald tires, spun around and hit me head on. Thankfully the Tundra and airbags saved the three of us from serious injury.. Although, I could say the crashed Tundra stranded me that day. lol

 

I can't grasp it.

I'm one of the biggest whiners about payload in the forum. I agree the new Tundra closed the gap a little on payload but it still is at the bottom of 1/2 tons and the F150 is in a different league than all the rest even without the heavy payload package.

How does Toyota go to lighter weight materials, smaller fuel tank, etc and only increase payload ~100 pounds accross trim levels? I don't think it's unreasonable to want 1500 lbs of payload in the SR5 DC 4x4 trim. That shouldn't require buying a heavy duty truck.

 

Agree 100000%

 

The best part is I don’t know how many people don’t believe me that that’s not “the amount the bed can hold” haha. They’re not even subtracting passengers, mods, additions, gear, water, fuel, what have you.

 

I need someone with mad Photoshop skills to create my new avatar. It should show a 3rd gen DC with a unicorn in the bed and it's new owner, Bigfoot, standing proudly beside it. Please label it "Now with 1,900 lbs Payload!".

 

Do it.

 

I can make that happen … if we put 4500 on it

 

You can't compare a ford to a Toyota, apples & pineapples. The V8 was "revolutionary" when it was new too, some growing pains, and here we are. Same story.

 

Do the 2.5 Gens have a flex fuel option in the 5.7L?

 

You must not have towed a travel trailer into a 30 mph headwind. Even a 4000 lb 21' one has the same aerodynamic drag as a 9000 lb 35'. There is a reason almost no one here in Utah tows with NA V8's. They either are towing with HD diesels or Ecoboosts because they are the only two that don't completely suck. Ok, actually, I might see the random GM 6.2L and I am sure the 7.3L godzillas will start popping up because those two are significantly stronger than any other V8's and are backed up by 8 and 10 speed transmissions that allow them to hit peak torque and HP better.

If I didn't own a travel trailer I probably wouldnt own a truck at all. I'd drive something smaller, more efficiency and more capable offroad. Even owning the trailer, I may end up in something like a Sequoia or Expedition, because even those are considerably shorter than a crew cab 1/2 ton.

 

I gotta admit, I've never used tow hooks either. But I have a winch, traction boards, shovels, etc and have used all of them many times. Never tow hooks though.

 

Flex Fuel is crap, I would avoid the government subsidized failure corn gas if possible. I don't use ANY ethanol if NON Ethanol is available. We have a CEFCO that carries Non Ethanol. Yes it is more expensive. Another anecdote while I am at it... I had a brand new Stihl chainsaw that stopped working. I took it in and an hour later the tech said "you use regular ethanol gas huh... DON'T DO THAT". Since I stopped doing that it runs flawlessly and starts every time... NONE of my gas equipment gets ethanol gas anymore.

As an easy example, if you go to Fuelly and search (this is the example I recently did) 2019 Tundra to look a the mpg, scroll through all the users and look at their mileage, you will notice that the flex fuel vehicles are mostly 12 mpg, where the gas vehicles are average 14 and up (in general).

 

When you tow frequently and for long distances, not having to spin the motor out on every hill is nice. The TTV6's tow in a very quiet relaxed manner and nothing else quite matches them in that respect other than maybe the 3.0 Duramax.

 

I'd say it's more common than non-FFV

 

I’ve never used my CCW before either, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop carrying. Tow hooks are a life line kind of accessory. Bottom line, everyone keeps making excuses for Toyota for not including tow hooks for reasons I don’t understand. Just convincing ourselves to love the new thing being forced down our Throats even if it doesn’t make sense, or what? They could have easily provided a factory solution for a basic truck necesssity. The Westcott designs tow hook solution is perfect, but a body panel made with the holes for the protrusions at the factory would be substantially cleaner than cutting them in yourself at home. The photos I’ve see of the cuts look like garbage. The previously mentioned AFE tow hooks are nothing but bumper destroyers and are frankly unusable.

 

Toyota is sandbagging the payload numbers on the door stickers from what I can tell. Every single truck, no matter the configuration or trim, has a payload sticker with a number that is 1 of 10 or so numbers from the owners manual. So it appears they are calculating the worst possible payload for a particular configuration and putting that same sticker on all trucks of that config.

Also, the Tundra is not light. They might have gone to the composite bed but they are still pretty heavy trucks. The lightest Crewmax 4x4 is 5400 lbs, which is 450 lbs more than an F150 supercrew.

While I dont think they hit the numbers that ford or GM, I think trim for trim the actual payloads are probably within a couple hundred lbs(IE an XLT crew cab 4x4 to an SR5 Crewmax 4x4)

 

Kidding. Nice LTC analogy.

 

A tow hook doesnt do anything if you don't have another truck to hook it too. All the things I listed work whether I am by myself or with other people.

If anything my winch is the CCW.

 

True but when all of those other things fail what do you resort to? Tow hooks! Sure a winch is great but also requires investing in an off-road bumper. Plus when you’re stuck in the sand and there’s nothing to winch to you once again need another vehicle there anyway. Watch some videos of Matt’s offroad recovery on YouTube. There is countless videos of him pulling people out by their front tow hooks. And it’s not just Unsticking them, it’s pulling as they get out of loose sand and keeping the momentum going for 50-100 yards so they don’t get stuck again on the way out.

 

Agree… Using the “hardly ever use it” excuse should then justify that all vehicles should immediately drop the spare tire. While Toyota actually did ditch the spare in the Prius but let me tell you the flat was one PITA to deal with and took hours to fix.

 

Chevy 6.0 tows just fine. As did/does the Ford 6.2 (if you can stand riding in farm equipment).