Off-Road Clearance and Suspension Flexibility - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited February 2016 in Toyota
imageOff-Road Clearance and Suspension Flexibility - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test

The short trip up our Ramp Travel Index (RTI) ramp showed that the 2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road was designed with rough terrain usage in mind.

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  • desmoliciousdesmolicious Member Posts: 671
    That last shot shows a relatively low hanging tail pipe. I can see the tyre clearing a rock, but when it rolls over it, the pipe getting damaged.
    Any thoughts on that?
  • nate001nate001 Member Posts: 102
    edited February 2016
    desmolicious said:

    That last shot shows a relatively low hanging tail pipe. I can see the tyre clearing a rock, but when it rolls over it, the pipe getting damaged.
    Any thoughts on that?

    Some owners cut the exhaust off after it goes over the axle, I can't tell but it look like on this truck there is a sensor and some wires hanging down right before the exhaust tip so that may not be possible.
  • ebeaudoinebeaudoin Member Posts: 509
    I'm glad to see that Toyota kept off-road-worthiness a priority when designing the new Tacoma. For my needs, though, if I'm spending $40k on a truck it would be a 4x2 pavement queen. I would then buy a Jeep or something similar for an off-roader. I'm not gonna take a $40k truck off-road. But that's just me.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    The exhaust will only drag once...after that, it's the length you need for clearance.
  • allthingshondaallthingshonda Member Posts: 878
    I mentioned this in another posts but it bears repeating here. The frame of the Tacoma was intentionally designed to be flexible; the opposite of the stiffer is better designs of everybody else. That flexibility was for situations like the test in this post. If you look close at the pictures you'll notice the bed of the truck is not aligned with the cab due to the frame twisting. This little bit of flexing of the frame gives an extra inch or two for the tire to remain in contact with the ground even after the suspension has run out of travel.
  • daryleasondaryleason Member Posts: 501
    I know when Ford switched to the "jellybean" bodystyle back in '97, there were a lot of off-roaders complaining about damaging the beds of their trucks from the bodyflex. With the way the bed sort of extended forward to "wrap" the back of the cab, when they'd get one wheel up on something, it'd flex the frame, causing one of the front corners to come in contact with the cab, causing the fiberglass to crack. After a couple of years, you stopped hearing about it. I don't know if it's because the off-roaders learned not to go so extreme, the just accepted it would happen, or if Ford reinforced their frames to limit flex.
  • csubowtiecsubowtie Member Posts: 143
    That last shot shows a relatively low hanging tail pipe. I can see the tyre clearing a rock, but when it rolls over it, the pipe getting damaged.
    Any thoughts on that?

    That particular photo is of that tire at full stuff, i.e. with that suspension compressed about as far as it will go. If you were to be driving that tire over a rock and stuffing it that far (which happens) as soon as you get over the rock, that tire will rebound, keeping the exhaust up. You also have to consider, that while in that picture it looks like excessive clearance, that exhaust also has to clear the leaf spring when it is at full droop and still maintain room for the exhaust to move around without hitting said spring, which might happen if you were say revving/rocking the truck to get over a difficult obstacle. Move the exhaust much farther back it starts getting in the way of the departure angle.
  • actualsizeactualsize Member Posts: 451
    edited February 2016
    The wire is an illusion. It's hanging down from a piece of photographic lighting equipment that's parked about 20 feet behind the truck.

    And while the side exhaust could be vulnerable in a few rare instances, a more zoomed-out view would show that the exhaust tip is tucked up into a somewhat protected corner up above an imaginary line drawn between the tire and the lower edge of the rear bumper. And it is on rubber hangars that permit some movement. Possibly as good as it gets for a factory vehicle that has to comply with certain requirements.

    This photo also shows that the factory 31-inch tires could be swapped out for 32-inch tires or possibly even 33-inch tires without rubbing. Possibly.

    Twitter: @Edmunds_Test

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