Toyota Tacoma Xtracab V6

tbunder

i actually tested this this last week. i put my 27lb 2yr old's toddler seat in the back part of a tacoma ext. cab. it fit, but barely. there is little room for legs, but you're saying your child is 60 lbs. they don't have to be a safety seat at that weight. the 3point seat belts back there should be perfect. i wouldn't worry about it.

tallmanswife

obyone said:
One thing that is recommended is a booster seat until they are 80 lbs. Can one fit back there?
Sort of... but the seat is really not a seat, just two very flat cushions with the back at 90 degrees to the seat, and the seat is very shallow so that booster seat doesn't ride correctly and it's not comfortable for her at all. She uses a booster seat in our van, and it works well, the only problem being her embarrassment because none of her friends use them.

Not only that, but I fear that she is positioned too closely to the back of the front seat and that her face might slam into the front seat right before her head smashes into the rear window. I just need to be able to convince my husband that it is not safe for our 8-year old daughter to ride anywhere in this truck, which is what I personally believe.

Anybody have any evidence to the contrary?

eagle63

"I just need to be able to convince my husband that it is not safe for our 8-year old daughter to ride anywhere in this truck, which is what I personally believe."

-I'm not sure why you would think it's unsafe to ride anywhere in this truck. There's really no data to support this, as its crash test ratings are fine. My biggest beef with riding the in the extended cab portion is just how uncomfortable it would be. If you plan on transporting more than 2 people on a regular basis, then this probably isn't the vehicle I would buy. have you looked at the tacoma doublecab?

countsmackula1

the Tacoma actually did poorly in NHTSA and IIHS crash tests, scoring "poor" and "marginal" in several catergories. See for yourself: nhtsa.gov.I wouldn't recommend carrying a small child on a regular basis if you travel a lot of higher-speed roads, at least. For some reason, the 4Runner, which shares many structural parts with the Tacoma , scored quite well in the crash tests.

eagle63

I checked out the NHTSA site for 2001 tacomas. they scored 3-4 stars in every category tested. (frontal impact, driver & passenger, and side impact)
am I missing something??

human_guise

I have had my '02 Tacoma since 11/16 (it's a double-cab, but still a Toyota, lol!) Both the dealership and the owner's manual advise against exceeding 55mph for the first 1000 miles, and no cruise-control use for the first 500 miles. I have stuck to the speed limit as closley as possible-but it still stings a bit when I'm getting passed on the freeway by old Suzuki Samurai's, lmao; the truck now has about 450 miles on her. The speedo has crept up to 60 on a couple of occasions, but this should not be any cause for concern, should it?

sc0rpi0

I couldnt tell you, although I've had my truck since about teh same time. 1 week and 200 miles later I went for a nice 250m trip to College Station (from Austin, TX), beautiful scenery, beautiful 4-lane highway, no cops, I couldnt resist...so I gave it 80-85, truck just rocked! Nothing better than taking a 45-60 deg turns at 80, truck was like glued to the pavement.
I don't worry about the speed limit of 55 too much, it's hard, especially on roads with 65/70 mph limit, however, the one rule I follow is not redlining the engine (I went to 3500rmps maybe 3-4 times in 800 miles), I keep the driving rpms to 2K, unless I'm on the highway, then it's around 2.5-3K (doing 75-80), and I rev up to 3K when shifting gears. You should be fine. To tell the truth, I didn't read the part about break-in until after I drove to Coll. Station, but even then, the opportunity would have been too hard to resist.
P.S. Yeah, and don't let those stinken Samurais or Rangers pass you!

bugster

I'd like to tow a 1,000 pound pop up tent trailer with a V6 Tacoma - anyone done this? Does it feel safe? Thanks!

eng208

Bugster,
Your V6 will tow that pop up very well. I have a Coleman Americana that weighs roughly 2000 lbs. and recently had a flat while my wife was towing it. She did not know that the tire was flat until she happened to let the window down and heard the metal of the rim on the pavement. Yea, the truck pulled so well that she did not even notice that the tire had come completely off the rim.
Don't worry about that camper. It will pull it just fine.
Chris.

plutonious

I've pulled a U-haul trailer and all my belongings (total weight approximately 3500lbs) cross-country twice now with my Tacoma V6 and had no problems at all. Mine has the TRD package and the beefier suspension and did very well. 1000lbs will be a breeze for you.

bze

When my friend stopped by today he asked why my taillights and parking lights were on in my ('96 Tacoma) truck. When I went outside to check the lights I found that they were not turned on inside the cab but the rear lights and front parking lights were definitely on. When I started the truck I could tell that the battery had been partially drained as it took a few tries. That means that whatever happened must have occurred during the night. It was raining quite hard during the night here in the San Francisco Bay area and I was parked outside.

I removed the appropriate fuses for the headlights and taillights and the lights remained on. The only way I could get them to go off was to disconnect the battery.

About 20 minutes later when I reconnected the battery and restarted the truck the taillights and parking lights did not go on (by themselves). Everything seemed normal again.

What happened? Should I have the electrical system checked out or is this something I can check out myself?

eng208

If you have a trailer connector, it is possible that water got in there and made the connection for the lights to work. Maybe. I have seen it before but in that case, the lights acted funny when turned on by the switch. Just a thought, don't have any other ideas.
Chris

craig64

I used to pull a 1400 pound pop-up with a 1993 Toyota 4 cylinder short bed pick-up. Towed it from Portland Oregon to Yellowstone, Wy. and back. I could not get over 55 MPH, without the trailer wagging the truck, and the only vehicle I could pass on the straight-a-ways were the mini-vans pulling the pop-ups with a van full of kids. The truckers just loved me, but we made it!

You should have plenty of power with the V6, and if you have the longer wheel base, the tail won't be wagging the dog.

Happy Camping!

leomort

always see those high mileage Taco in Toyota's brochures. how many miles on your Taco?

Leo

sc0rpi0

4000 and running flawlessly

plutonious

51K miles on my '98. I think it's just starting to get broken in...

leon_v

Hi, i am trying to decide between frontier extended cab and a tacoma x-cab. either model I’ll get will be v6 4x4. i am planning on doing some off-roading with it but it will not be too demanding.

I read some reviews on both trucks that discussed its on-road performance, but i haven’t found any discussion on these truck’s OFF-Road performance .. Any help?

Thanks in advance...

sc0rpi0

As far as I am concerned, Frontier sucks. It may be cheaper than Taco, plus a bunch of standard options, but considering that it has weak V6 that drinks more gas than any others, I'd rethink it. Tires on it are also not exactly made for offroading. And overall, looks are horrible.
There was a big flamewar/conversation about Frontier vs. Tacoma on ttora and nissan sites about a month ago, and yes, Frontiers can perform reasonably well offroad, but they lack aftermarket accessories like body lifts, suspension lifts.

plutonious

&#8127s mean?

obyone

has malfunctioned. Which btw, is one of the many bugs in the program that runs this board.......

sc0rpi0

being replaced by codes without proper syntax.

plutonious

speaking the same language here. I'll admit I'm not the most computer literate person but I'm learning. How do the codes get there?

BTW Scorpio, I'm working on seeing if I can get to the Den next weekend. Is this a pretty major function or just a casual get-together?

sc0rpi0

Some characters in html are used for tags (or in databases, can't use a " or ' in the data as they act as database field delimiters), and what some programs (and programmers) try to do is they replace them with special codes. For example, nbsp stands for "non-blank space" in html, and when you need to put a non-blank space in the webpage, you use that. What happened was that spellchecker has tried to insert codes like that instead of special characters like ', but messed up.

As far as Den is concerned: there'll be a bunch of Texas TTORA members from Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The whole thing started when one of the TTORA members was going there with a bunch of ZR2 LoneStar clubmembers. So it'll be a friendly run with ZR2s who'll show up around 1pm. I don't know exactly at this point how many TTORA members are gonna be there, sounds like a bunch.

crimike

I used to have a '99 Tacoma, and if you left the lights on, it had a warning bell to remind you to turn them off. I just got a '02 this last week, but it doesn't have the warning bell. The only difference between the option packages is the '99 was a TRD and the '02 is a SR5. Is this normal, or do i have an electrical issue?

smgilles

You no longer have a warning bell because the lights automatically shut off when you shut off the engine. Therefore, no need for a warning bell. It guarantees you never leave the lights on after shutting if off.

crimike

I suppose i should have read the owners manual. Good deal. Thanks for the response.

leon_v

is there info on mpg for 4x4 vs 4x2?

thanks..