Tundra vs Silverado LT Trail Boss

Ah yes, that’s right. Thanks for the clarification! What were the deciding factors per your choice to get an AT4? Any particular concerns with it moving forward - maintenance areas you’ve been told to look out for?

Though I believe everyone on here is a Toyota loyalist (for good reasons; I’ve owed 12 different Toyota / Lexus SUV’s and Trucks), a significant strength of this community is the fair, welcome discussion of all brands for the education and benefit of individuals and us all.

 

I didn't test drive thr AT4, but to answer your question, I liked the looks of the Trail Boss LT more.

No maintenance issues to report. I did my first oil change at 3k miles and used amsoil and wix filter. I don't trust oil centers or the dealership service center, so I did myself. I want to know for sure the oil was changed.

It's great not having to lift truck I up to get under and the oil filter is right next to the oil drain, so a piece of cake to change.

 

I actually like my '17 Tundra interior more than the recent GM pickups.

Not a fan of the new design on the GM truck at all. not even the 1500. I think GM pinnacle of exterior design was the GMT 900 series.

 

That’s helpful info; thx!

I’d lean toward the AT4 from a cosmetic standpoint. The Laramie Longhorn is nice too. Yet, my “gut” doesn’t trust FCA vehicles. GMC/Chevy, though I know they’ve had issues with certain parts / systems in the past, is more trustworthy to me.

As such, one option I’d consider is getting an AT4 and owning it two-three years as we wait for the redesigned Tundra (which I’m guessing will show up as a 2022 model). That ownership period would be fully covered by the warranty. Then, if Toyota does the Tundra remodel well (and I think they will), I could go back to a Tundra.

 

Hey boys. I aswell have been looking at the new trail boss. As much as it hurts me to say, it is sexy looking and I really do like the look. I used to have an older model and it took me anywhere, but let’s all remember.. IT IS NO TOYOTA. For the bit extra you save on the truck you will spend after 20 -30? On stupid shit. Nothing is built like a tundra and I don’t care what these fucks say on the tundra vs trail boss videos bc I have owned them all and the only one I rely on is the tundra.

 

Trail Boss does “look” good! Maybe good enough to be tempted? Short term and or easy/light use you’ll be fine? Not for me I just want my shit to be reliable and take abuse. None of my GM products held up. 2013 Tundra 113,000 trouble free miles, still solid, rattle free, and “looks” good!

 

Sure, buying a GM and only keeping it until the warranty expires ensures you won't have to spend any money on repairs but there's still a high probability that you'll have to take the time to return it to the dealer for them to work on it - or more likely say either "working as intended" or "waiting on fix from GM engineers". Lots of guys on the GM Trucks Forum are reporting lots of problems that show up shortly after taking possession of their trucks. Might still be worth the gamble for some folks (including my brother). Not so for me.

My Tundra has so far gotten even worse fuel economy than I was expecting, though I'm still breaking it in and it was bitterly cold here in January. Payload and towing are lower than I would have liked. The truck is too tall to properly sweep snow off the roof and scrape the windshield. I'm not a fan of some buttons being hidden down in front of the shifter. Heck, I'd rather have a console shifter (and a flat floor under the back seat and automatic 4WD, but I digress).
On the other hand, I love the way it looks and how it feels to drive. I'm happy it actually came with Sirius XM, even if it is just a 3 month trial. I'm very happy the rear window is unlikely to leak, not to mention it's full sized, unlikely those dinky windows from the competitors. And most importantly, I'm confident that there's a very high probability that it will start and run every time I need it to and take me anywhere I ask it to (though I'm admittedly not into off roading).

Could I have bought a GM and not had any issues? Possibly. But it wasn't a gamble I was interested in taking. We'll see what the market looks like when I'm ready to buy my next truck, which should be in 10 or 20 years if everything goes according to plan.

 

That is just plain crazy.

But Toyota gets grief for their fuel pump recall that goes back 6+ model years. jeez...its a cruel world.

I'm on 4 runner forum over 4 years, and this forum for over 2 years and have yet to hear of any one actually experiencing the problem toyota describes.

5th gen 4runners and 3rd gen tundras have super long runs and alot of people using their trucks hard. Haven't seen anyone post about it yet.

Goes to show that recall stats have alot of things baked into them. Toyota's fuel pump recall is a customer driven recall and has some safety element to it. GM likely should recall alot of things but choose not to.

On the subject at hand LT trail boss vs Tundra..

I was just in this spot. I researched 1/2 ton trucks and large suv's for over 1.5 years. All options were on the table.

I needed a large SUV for 4 door truck with significant trail capability. Its a narrow lane. TRD PRO Sequoia, TRD PRO Tundra, Trail Boss, AT4, Z71, Raptor, Power Wagon. Didn't consider the Nissan pro-4x. Its a great package but very rare in my neck of woods. I wasn't gonna drive more than 250 miles to get truck.

Sequoia and Raptor were just outside of my comfort zone for price. I could have afforded it but didn't want to commit over 61-62k into a vehicle.

The Z 71 package was interesting but wasn't capable enough.


Power Wagon, Trail Boss, AT4 and TRD PRO.

Trail Boss was nicest exterior styling. I think its the coolest looking truck out there. However compared to TRD PRO the tech specs weren't there. Approach and Departure were a big deal to me. I wanted as much as I could get in full size vehicle. Ground clearance was close.

I ended up not liking the styling of AT4 as much in person.

Power Wagon is a beast of a truck. On pure technical grounds its the most trail capable. I really liked a factory winch. I didn't like styling as much as Trail boss or TRD PRO. It was right at top of budget. It may not have fit in my garage also

And I couldn't get over possibly relying on a Dodge truck in remote areas. It really bothered me...I mean it'd be fine for the time when truck is new. I'm looking long term. I wanted a truck that, above all, was gonna be a legit trail truck for 200,000 miles.

So that left the TRD PRO.

I'm a huge Toyota nerd and Toyota fan. Tundra was the reference standard. It was gonna take a lot for me to move away from a Toyota.

The Power Wagon came close. The Trail Boss is a great looking truck with some decent trail capability.

But in my marrow I knew my pride of ownership would be highest with the TRD PRO.

 

The Tundra dash is so dated it’s sad.

 

I don't mind my 2018 dash at all. Then again, I like it simple. Some would love new Ram's big gadgetry dash and infotainment screen but I see them as big repair $ when it's out of warranty. But I do like looks of Trail Boss but all that computer controlled fuel active management.. An other big $ headache if it ever breaks.

 

I wouldn’t even consider it, my father in law got a brand new GMC Denali at 20k the A/C went out, diagnosed the compressor went bad, was not covered under warranty, now at almost 45k transmission shifting weird. Not worth the trouble imo.

 

Literally just traded my Silverado trail boss about a month ago, was sick of the electronic gremlins and constant recalls (recalls for things like “your electronic braking unit might stop working”, loose alternator cables, and leaking rear windows). Touch screen would sometimes just refuse to work but they wouldn’t do anything about it because it wouldn’t do it when they had it at the dealership. Never had any of the really bad things (like brake failures that many other people had), but was sick of those things looming over like a potential disaster.

 

I loved my 15 Sierra SLT, no issues at all but man the 5.3 was gutless. Not a single problem though, traded it on the Tundra with 65k on the odo...

 

I test drove a Trail Boss earlier this year just because I really liked the styling but hated the way it drove. The 10-speed transmission had some hesitation from a stop and kept hunting for gears between 40-50 mph. The Goodyear Durtacs are loud - much louder than my Falkens.

I was disappointed but glad to get back in my Tundra. On a funny note, the sales people were more interested in my Tundra for a trade than to sell me a new Chevy truck....

 

I’ve been following the rear window leaks thread over at the GM trucks forum. It’s just a poor design. And the dealer fix for it instills very little confidence. A guy over there posted his step-by-step process for taking the top rear of the cab apart, using sealants and rubber washers where there were none to stop any potential leaks, and putting it all back together. He even ordered a solid rear window to get rid of the sliding part that opens. That’s probably what I would do if I were swayed over to the dark side. If I went there, it would be that 6.2L’s fault. Haha.

So you traded a new Trail Boss in on a 2016 Tundra? Hope you didn’t take too much of a bath on the new truck.

 

Good question @tunamac - how did you do on the trade?

 

Well, 2019 trail boss (custom trim, cheapest one) was 37k including the destination charge. Got 34 trade in for it. Paid 34 for the tundra Crewmax 4x4 SR5 with 40k miles, it had one owner and already had Kings, camburg UCAs, Tow mirrors, and backflip tonneau cover. Probably not a great financial decision, i knew i would lose some money, took a gamble on the Silverado and wasn’t happy, but I’m so glad to be back in a tundra and not worrying about checking my rear seat for water after it rains, worrying if my electric brakes will fail randomly, have seats that are actually comfortable, and a screen/back up camera that doesn’t just take a shit twice a week.

I should have bought a used tundra instead of the Silverado in the first place. But I was shopping for tundras and our local Toyota pissed off my wife and I so much that we boycotted buying anything else from them. We wandered over to the chevy dealer and they had crazy rebates at the time, and the trail boss does look cool. So we took the gamble...just wasn’t for me.

 

I had a 16 Sierra SLT Z71. 100k mile warranty and the transmission went out at 104k miles. The only thing I miss about that truck was the Bose stereo. Other than that, the truck sucked. Always felt underpowered and the interior wasn’t comfortable. My SR5 Tundra has more comfortable seats than that truck did. Sad suspension for a z71. It would beat you to death on a bumpy road.

 

Thanks for the intel, actually don’t think you got too bad a deal on your trade. The Trail Boss looks cool and that’s about it. Hope you enjoy the Tundra. I bought a lowly SR DC and have really enjoyed putting upgrades into it.

 

Another thing about the trail boss. While they look cool with the 2” lift, the Rancho shocks are hot garbage. So bouncy. Going over speed bumps was comical. So realistically you’d want to change those out for something else long term.

 

Toyota dealers around me are notoriously shady. The absolute worst part about Toyota.

 

I am also looking at the trail boss w/ the 6.2L. My Tundra Limited with 2350 miles on the odo is finally being bought back by Toyota Corp. hoping to make my new purchase within the next couple of weeks.

 

The 6.2L is a really fun engine. Before buying my Tundra, I strongly considered a 6.2L TB.

Take an extended test drive. And try to drive it on 87 octane fuel (vs 91 or 93). That motor has a very high compression ratio, and they do recommend running it on premium. There is a difference in the way it performs depending on what you put into it.

Look up the issues people have with it at the GM Trucks forum. Lots of strong opinions over there regarding the latest gen and the 6.2L!

 

What happened to your Tundra?

 

Trail boss looks cool......true story. So does the Tundra TRD PRO. Had a 2015 Silverado 1500 with the 5.3L which had their AFM which dropped the same 4 cylinders when it felt like running around trying to appease the Thornburg crowd. I liked the truck. Had put a CAI and Borla cat back on it. Had purchased a set of American Racing long tube headers to put on it after it came off the extended warranty at 100K. Problem is......at 95K or so.....the truck started randomly cutting out while driving. Chevy could not duplicate nor diagnose it. Couldn't trust it any more. Pissed me off since I had spent the money on the LTH (still sitting in garage in unopened box).

Anyways......the new GM 1500s have DFM which is worse than AFM. Now any of the 8 cylinders can drop off depending on what the cpu senses in term of throttle input. NO THANKIES.

Test drove new GMs, new Ford F150s, and new Ram 1500s. Look at their forums and see the gripes about recall work and or electronic gremlins etc...etc...

They all either shut off at stoplights like Ford.....or drop cylinders for the environmentalists etc......again....NO THANKIES!

Now Chevy does make a good 6.2 L LS3 motor in in my mid life crisis vehicle........a 2017 SS. But that engine rocks because it stays a V8 all the time.

Can't understand why they won't put same motor in their pickups.

Either way......I am very happy with my 2020 TRD PRO. I wanted a proven V8 and transmission combination......and Toyota has that!

 

Thanks for the link, much appreciated! Will check it out shortly. Otherwise, I am not worried about running premium gas as, I have never put anything but premium in any of my vehicles (and that includes my old 2001 Dodge Durango 5.9 lol)

 

3 weeks after purchasing it, I took it to the shop and kept it there for 6weeks. Then after picking it up, had to take it back again because the o-ring got busted during installation. Even though, the mechanics pointed fingers at “faulty brand new transfer case”.... (calming that the leak was coming from the case and not the o-ring - even though I have pictures of it showing the leak by the ring) funny business, I am just glad it’s almost over.

 

Wow glad you got it taken care of. Best of luck in your next purchase.

 

Lol man! I will literally need your best wishes..... if you read my posts, you’ll understand! At this point, my friends tell me that, I should get a bicycle next - or a scooter..
Just a week before buying the Tundra, I returned my brand new RAM1500 to FCA. It too was a lemon, and they bought it back from me.
At this point, I don’t even care what I drive, as long as it’s not going to break down on me... lol

 

They're claiming DFM will be more reliable than AFM because it does a better job oiling the cylinders that are shut down or something like that. I can't remember the exact details but I guess time will tell if that's true or not.