One Way To Haul 8-foot Items - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

One Way To Haul 8-foot Items - 2016 Toyota Tacoma Long-Term Road Test

Our 2016 Toyota Tacoma is a crew cab truck with the shorter 5-foot bed, but it's still possible to deal with 8-foot building materials in small quantities.

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jeffksf1

I've done this in my Sporttrac multiple times.

g35buf

I've done this with my previous Ridgeline and current short box RAM 1500. Still best to avoid it if possible. IF you must, light materials only and secured properly. Even then, if materials make contact with the windshield in a quick stop, you'd better have glass coverage.

A little overhang out the side is still preferable (motorcyclists weaving between cars do so at their own risk - and it is more a West Coast thing - you rarely see bikers doing it where I live - then tend to follow the rule of the road because they want to live).

longtimelurker

I do understand why Edmunds gets any one of its LT pickups with the shortest bed available...I don't understand why Edmunds gets EVERY one of its LT pickups with the shortest bed available. You guys postulate that the longer truck would not work in your daily environment, but you don't seem willing to test and prove that hypothesis.

markinnaples_

Lane splitting by motorcycles is not illegal in California when done in a safe and prudent manner.

stever

I suppose a pickup will work when you don't have access to a decent rig for hauling long sticks and sheet goods. Like most any minivan.

I don't believe in staking trees either.

daryleason

ANNNND now another viewpoint. I'd have laid something soft (like a wadded up plastic bag) under the stakes, laid them across the exterior of the cab edge, used a ratchet strap to hold them in place, and NOT run it through the rear window. You've just created a blindspot on your right hand side. If you had been in an accident, you never know what those stakes would have ended up doing inside the cab with you. Granted, my method could have ended up being a modern version of a javelin throw...but who knows.

daryleason

With most car enthusiasts, the running joke is that the answer to all questions is "Miata." With @stever though, it's "minivan." The only thing that equals his love of a minivan is my loathing of a Chrysler/FCA product.

stever

lol, too bad the pickup didn't have a sunroof to stick the sticks through. Or maybe Dan should have stuck the sticks in the stakebed openings. (Guess they no longer have those?).

(and yeah, I have a "minivans are better" macro set up just for these posts, made especially to bug @daryleason. )

5vzfe

Toyota dealers offer roof rails and crossbars as options for the taco. Maybe edmunds should look into that for longer items.

actualsize

longtimelurker said:

I do understand why Edmunds gets any one of its LT pickups with the shortest bed available...I don't understand why Edmunds gets EVERY one of its LT pickups with the shortest bed available. You guys postulate that the longer truck would not work in your daily environment, but you don't seem willing to test and prove that hypothesis.

We had a long-term Tacoma Sport 10 years ago with the crew cab and the long bed that was here for the first few months I was here. I don't think vehicles from that era made it into the archive though, because the blog format wasn't fully baked in those pre-InsideLine days. But we learned then that we couldn't deal with the extra length, wheelbase and turning radius in our parking garage and the surrounding west-side environs. But point taken. Maybe we should try again or at least bring in a short-termer for a side-by-side.

longtimelurker

Thanks for the reply...pretty sure your recently-departed F150 has a greater length overall, longer wheelbase and larger turning circle than a crew-and-longbed Tacoma from 10 years ago. And wider, too, which is a compounding factor to all of those parameters.

daryleason

@Stever: LOL...the only way your mini-van fetish would bug me is if you limited it to a Dodge Caravan/Chrysler Town & Country, the most ubiquitous minivan on the market. I'll be honest, I've actually considered buying a used minivan. I've got a large extended family. My 2013 F-150 and my 1989 Suburban will both seat six (okay...8, but we don't have seat belts for all of them), so I've considered getting a used minivan off of one of those online auction sites where the government sends their GSA vehicles to get rid of them. I've ridden in plenty of Caravans while in the Army to know that they're actually pretty convenient for long trips with a lot of people and a small amount of gear/luggage. I'd never buy one new, but a two year old or older minivan is pretty much able to be bought for bargain basement prices. Plus, if you buy a GSA or similar one, you don't have multiple years of kiddie debris built up in the carpets.

stever

The '89 Voyager we had for 10 years was a SWB and a great size. Head gasket problems though (all under warranty). Got 15 years out of the '99 Quest, which was a bit bigger but not too bad. The main reason we got the '09 Grand Caravan is because the Quest was no longer reliable and we wanted the biggest minivan we could get to move in, without going to a full size Econoline kind of rig. MPG on the Quest was 21.6 combined and the Dodge seems about the same, with 24+ on the highway. Didn't want to pay Honda/Sienna money for what would essentially turn into a beater, and there's so many Caravans out there, parts and service is a breeze.

So here we have a new pickemup truck with its best tank to date being 20.6. I suppose that's a 50% improvement over the last generation of trucks but it doesn't seem like much progress.

Even with all my rants, I'm really interested in seeing the new Ridgeline - looks good from the photos. Maybe with its EPA listing of 19/26 mpg, it'll actually get 1976 Chevy Luv mpg (21 combined).

longtimelurker

@daryleason: You know, what everyone likes about Toyota is that they KISS...but now what KISS looks like in this truck is 18-19 mpg and not a whole lot of power. Can you imagine this truck with the 2.7 EB?

daryleason

@longtimelurker: It seems like Toyota is still trying to figure out what direction it's headed. It knows it has new competitors with the re-introduced Canyon/Colorados, Nissan has redesigned the Frontier, Ford is sort of hinting/not denying that they may release the mid-size Ford Ranger in the North American Market, VW was considering bringing in their small pickup up until all manners of trouble came to them over emissions, and Honda has the Ridgeline. I'm not a big EcoBoost believer, but it's got potential.

gslippy

That's embarrassing. My Sedona minivan could eat that, and nothing gets wet in the rain. Heck, even my former Scion xB1 could take that with the hatch closed.

longtimelurker

gslippy said:

That's embarrassing. My Sedona minivan could eat that, and nothing gets wet in the rain. Heck, even my former Scion xB1 could take that with the hatch closed.

My GTI had taken a half-dozen 2x4x8s with the hatch closed. Plus there is the whole, "this truck has a low payload and tow limit, but that's because it's the DEDICATED OFFROAD MODEL!" thing. Yeah...it's not a bug, it's a feature, right? Because with a lot of weight in the bed or on the hitch, this powertrain couldn't pull the skin off a bowl of pudding, so...it's all good.

metalmania

I've seen guys on motorcycles lane splitting while pulling wheelies on a couple of occasions, and of course weaving in between cars at about 100 mph. Sorry to say it but that stuff makes me wish one of them clipped a pole hanging out of a truck bed. Not every motorcyclist of course, but I have no respect for the muscle shirted dingbats out there on their super-bikes riding like total idiots (with their helmet strapped to the seat instead of on their heads most of the time too).

Minivans aren't much fun, but I can't argue the practicality for a family vehicle. I'd consider a mid size truck if I had some moderate towing to do, or if I would be carrying messy stuff in the bed that I didn't want inside.