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Snorkel tales, or that time we drove a TRD-Pro Tacoma

December 5, 2019 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

There are some vehicles in which you expect to receive an abnormal level of attention while driving. Some of them, like sports cars, are fairly predictable. The Bullitt edition Mustang I drove a few months ago comes to mind. Others, like the Kia Stinger GT I drove earlier in the year are less predictable, and yet generate crazy reactions from the public simply because it is so gorgeous and most people have no idea what it is.

The 2019 Toyota Tacoma TRD-Pro that we drove last week falls somewhere in between and while the whole package, bathed in a bright blue hue known as Voodoo Blue, is pretty damned sexy, there was one feature in particular which drew an unbelievable level of attention: the snorkel.

The most frequent commentary came in the form of a question which surprised me greatly: “What is that black thing sticking out of the hood of your truck?” It came from guys and girls, some of them were people I thought would know.

I guess I have been around the truck world for too long, because I sort of assumed that everyone knew what a snorkel was.

The next comment was of the “sweet truck, love the snorkel” variety. There were lots of those.

A few asked why the exhaust came out of the hood.

Then there was the snarky, smart-ass off roaders who threw jabs like “nice fake snorkel dude”.

And here lies the connundrum with the Taco’s most recognizable feature. The snorkel is not fake, but it also isn’t what an Ontario 4X4 enthusiast needs.

First off, for those who may not know, allow me to explain what a snorkel is. Starting at the beginning, I will remind you that along with a fuel source such as diesel or gasoline, an internal combustion engine requires a specific quantity of air, fresh, clean, atmospheric air, to run. That air has to come from outside the vehicle, which in most vehicles is accomplished through an air intake box somewhere down near the front bumper, behind the grille.

That is not the optimum position in many off road situations, such as when crossing a body of water, when the liquid may reach far enough up the vehicle to be sucked into the air intake. At best, this condition can potentially cause an engine to stop running. At worst, it can cause a catastrophic failure of the engine. The solution then is to add a tube which brings the air intake up above any reasonable water level that one might expect to successfully drive through.

How then, is the TRD snorkel a fake? It isn’t. It is just a different kind of snorkel.

Toyota has a long, illustrious history at the legendary Baja 1000 race, at the hands of Ivan “Ironman” Stewart, dating back to 1983. The current crop of TRD-Pro equipped trucks, including the 4Runner, Tundra and of course Tacoma, have been fitted with equipment suitable for driving at speed in the desert.

In the case of the Tacoma, that means under body skid plates, FOX Racing shocks with remote reservoirs and TRD springs in the front and back. It also include the addition of a free-flowing stainless steel TRD spec exhaust and a TRD “high mount desert air intake”, among a host of subtle branding cues.

Remembering that the internal combustion engine requires clean air to operate, the high mount air intake is an important thing for those running in the desert, where dust from previous vehicles can hang in the air, being sucked into conventional air intakes, clogging up air filters and robbing power.

While the Taco’s snorkel is in no way fake, desert style dust isn’t a concern for most Ontario buyers, but to be brutally honest, who cares? How many of those who buy and build off road trucks are actually making deep water crossings? For those who are, I am sure the aftermarket has a simple solution. For the rest of us, this snorkel simply looks badass!

Hell, I even saw some dude taking a selfie with it!

It has been over a year since I first drove this truck, in the wilds of Northern Ontario and truth be told, that was more like a play date than a road test. I didn’t really get to experience the truck on the road for more than a few kilometers.

Knowing that the Tacoma loves to play in the dirt, this time around, we put the truck to work to see how it fared out in the real world.

The biggest challenge that most potential Tacoma buyers will face is the seating position. Toyota’s mid-sized truck has a unique seating position which some have called “sitting on the floor”. It is kind of a love-it or hate-it situation, which Toyota truck fans have loved since the dawn of trucking. Those who don’t dig it had best look elsewhere.

Beyond that, the Tacoma is an unapologetically old school truck and there are no surprises when driving it. The truck simply feels like it is ready to take on anything you might throw at it.

There are however, a couple of TRD-Pro specific observations that some buyers might want to think about before choosing that package.

Bear in mind that at 52 years old, I still have a teenage obsession with noisy vehicles. The internal combustion engine, especially a normally aspirated V-6, is a glorious thing and deserves to be heard and the TRD exhaust sounds fantastic, if maybe even a bit too quiet for my liking around town. The challenge is that when towing even a light trailer on an undulating highway, the Tacoma’s transmission often shifts down to fourth gear, spinning the engine at just the right speed to create a constant droning noise. It isn’t terrible, but is just enough to be an annoyance.

The other observation has more to do with the desert racer spec than it does about the Tacoma. The soft rear springs required for jumping berms in the desert are not the best choice for towing, causing the back end to sag, the moment a trailer is loaded up. I have experienced the exact same condition with the even more racy Ford Raptor. For light towing, it is fine, but when images are posted on social media, inevitably some troll comments that the truck is weak or that you have overloaded it.


If you are smitten with this truck, there is a problem. The TRD-Pro version of the 2019 Tacoma had super limited availablity and the Voodoo Blue version was even more rare. Most of them were likely snapped up before they even hit dealer showrooms. For 2020, the hot colour is called Army Green with white, black and grey being the only other options. If last year’s sales are any indication, anyone wanting to buy the current model had best hurry and don’t plan on trying to haggle the $57,000 price.

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Road tripping with the 2017 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro

August 4, 2017 by Gary Grant Leave a Comment

 

Following the muddy launch of the TRD Pro models of Toyota’s Tundra and Tacoma, we headed to the Northern reaches of the Ottawa Valley for a week of work with a sweet Cement Grey Taco, with the DCS Appliances event trailer in tow.  That combined rig stirred up attention everywhere we went, so when a similar trip came onto the horizon recently, it only made sense to see how the big brother Tundra would fare.

Last Fall, we put the Tundra TRD-Pro through its paces in the dirt in Ontario ski country.

The event would see us head from Whitby to Mont Tremblant, a ski town in rural Quebec which also is the home of Le Circuit Mont Tremblant, where we would spend a the better part of the week feeding our friends from Driveteq, who would be spending a couple of days lapping the historic race track.

Once again, we would be grilling on the trailer mounted DCS grill, but we would also be roasting a pig in our La Caja China roaster, which meant we needed a capable hauler with lots of space. We knew the Tundra is big and that the TRD Pro version is tough off road, but would it do the tasks we were presenting it with? We also knew that the Tundra can be a tad on the thirsty side so we were curious to know how it performed when fully loaded.

The traditional domestics have worked hard to surpass the traditional import truck makers when it comes to interior feel and some of them (specifically Ram’s attention to detail) have risen above the rest, including the Tundra. While the interior of the Tundra is both sporty and tough looking, our thoughts were more to the comfort side of things for a long week of driving. How would the seats fare under the weight of my 3XL sized frame and how would my back feel at the end?

Off road packages offered by some manufacturers tend to be of the mild, stickers and fluff variety while others go to the extreme in offering full desert racing spec for those wannabe Baja racers. The TRD-Pro version of the built-in-Texas Tundra falls somewhere to the right of that pendulum arc, offering subtle design cues along with carefully chosen performance upgrades. Beyond the visual branding cues, the most immediately noticeable is the addition of a high flowing performance exhaust, which gives the 381 horsepower 5.7L V8 some serious bark to go with its bite.

When knowledgeable off road enthusiasts start a new build, one of the first changes they often make is to install Bilstein dampers on all four corners, as much for their ability to smooth out a vehicle’s on road presence as for their excellence in the rough stuff. It is heartening that Toyota’s engineering team chose to go the same route when outfitting the TRD-Pro Tundra, as the highway ride is firm yet delightfully smooth for such a big truck.

Naturally, our trip began with the obligatory McMuffin stop!

 

Week long road trip to feed people must start with breakfast @sandy_grant @driveteq.ca @toyotacanada @dcsappliances #roadtrip #eventlife #bbqlife #barbeque #

A post shared by Gary Grant (@thegarageguy) on May 29, 2017 at 7:50am PDT

 

Our route would take us from Durham region, east of Toronto, through cottage country and skirting the nation’s capital before crossing over into Quebec and heading to ski country. For years, when heading to Ottawa, we would travel the route along Highway 401 like most drivers, until we learned that the trip following the two lane Highway 7 is just as quick. The driving is much more laid back, with great views and lots of little towns to explore and grab a coffee along the way.

 

Ceement grey #trdpro Tundra and a caboose! @toyotacanada @dcsappliances @driveteq.ca #havelock #roadtrip #roadlesstraveled #ontario #discoveron @sandy_grant #bbqlife #eventlife

A post shared by Gary Grant (@thegarageguy) on May 29, 2017 at 8:50am PDT

We know the route well now, so our exploration began after our usual visit to Costco in Gatineau to pick up beer for the week. For Ontario residents visiting the Ottawa area, it is worth mentioning that beer in Quebec is seriously cheap. At Costco, which is less than 10 minutes from Parliament Hill, a 24 bottle case of Stella Artois is $46.95 plus deposit at The Beer Store. The same package at Costco is just $27.95 plus deposit.

Having allowed ourselves an extra day before we had to feed the masses, we decided to take a fairly direct route to Mont Tremblant, so we could make the most of our time away. Our drive took us north east on the scenic Highway 50 headed towards the Laurentians, before turning north on the more interesting 323 at Montebello.

As the countryside switched from riverlands to mountains, we began to encounter long, steep climbs. These ascents were of little concern to the heavily loaded rig, but there was one really cool side effect: the six speed transmission dropped to fourth for long stretches, the big V8 spun up to 3,500 rpm at 100 km/h, with a bellow worthy of a Trans-Am car bouncing through the neighbouring forest.

It is worth noting that during our first two days with the TRD-Pro, just booting around town with an empty truck, we averaged about 16.8 L/100 km. As I said before, we knew that the Tundra was a bit thirsty. We were pleasantly surprised to find that even with a very full load, the Tundra’s fuel economy improved to an impressive 16.2 L/100 km at highway speeds.

If you talk to any car racers from the golden age of the late Sixties about Le Circuit Mont Tremblant, inevitably the call it St. Jovite. This is largely because the largest neighbouring town, the one which actually has stores etc. is called St. Jovite. The actual town of Mont Tremblant is a tiny hamlet in between the racing circuit and the gigantic pedestrian village at the base of the historic mountain.

We spent our first night in a wonderful, independent resort called Château Beauvallon, just a few minutes from the pedestrian village. This was the last week in May and we learned that while visiting ski country in the off season can mean that some features, like restaurants, are not available, there are also some perks. We were one of only three rooms occupied in the 70 room hotel and staff had nicely located us directly next to the outdoor hot tub, while the other guests were on the opposite side of the hotel. Even though the on site restaurant was closed, dinner was no problem, as the hotel offered a free shuttle to and from the village.

The draft beer rail at Le Diable micro brewery in Mont Tremblant.

Several of the restaurants in the village were also closed given the time off year, so we settled on dinner at the chain restaurant Casey’s. To say we were unimpressed would be charitable.

I was determined to have a bit of fun so I decided that a visit to Le Diable, a micro brewery right in the pedestrian village, was in order. I have been to the joint on a bunch of press trips, and every single time had a great time. Named after the river which winds its way though the region, Le Diable is night time hub where locals and visitors congregate to consume adult beverages in a setting that is part ski chalet, part sugar shack. On this trip, we spent our evening chatting with a lady who works for the company which owns the resort, watching the shenanigans of a gaggle of off shift employees who were treating the bar like their own playground. It really was quite entertaining!

 

Our next few days were spent trackside at the iconic racing track, which hosted the Canadian Grand Prix in 1968 and 1970. We were providing catering for the guests of Driveteq, a company which provides multiple levels of service to driving enthusiasts, from track days and instruction to race car rentals. They have recently included travel in their repertoire, shepherding participants to “bucket list” tracks such as Mosport, Tremblant and The Glen. That meant that we spent our week surrounded by all sorts of sporting machinery, from Alfa Romeo and Porsche to McLaren and Ferrari.


For our final day in town, we took the opportunity to drive some of the spectacular roads around the area. Most are well groomed pavement, with literally hundreds of challenging curves and elevation changes. Mindful of the reality that ski country is usually also cycling country, we learned that the off road focused suspension tuning is remarkably adept at handling twisty roads. The Bilstein shocks do a great job of keeping the wheels planted on hard acceleration over uneven pavement.

The countryside is dotted with cool little hamlets, vintage resorts from days gone by and spectacular views, making a drive through the area almost as much fun as taking in a track day. Watch out for wildlife though, as deer are plentiful and closer in to the ski resort they are not shy.



 

For the drive home, we took a similar route home through the Laurentians on our way back to Gatineau, but didn’t think about stopping thanks to the torrential rain. Until of course we came across the home town of Canadian hockey legend Guy Lafleur. Ville de Thurso has a large sculpture of the famed Canadien, so we had to stop by for a quick pic.

The @dcsappliances @toyotacanada #bbq rig with Canadian hockey legend Guy Lafleur. #toyota #trdpro #bbqlife #eventlife #quebec #bbq

A post shared by Gary Grant (@thegarageguy) on Jun 3, 2017 at 8:44am PDT

 

The drive home through Ontario cottage country was uneventful as the sun finally broke through and the roads dried out.

 

It should actually be pointed out that Quebec is Toyota truck country as there seem to be more of them than any other brand on the roads. Local truck fans knew instantly what our truck was and parking lot compliments were made frequently. One guy event took a picture to send to a buddy.

Overall, the Tundra proved to be a more than willing work partner during the entire trip. We actually spent two full weeks with the truck and it averaged out to 16.3 L/100 KM which is more than acceptable given the tasks it was given. From a comfort level, both driver and passenger were in great shape at both ends of the trip, never feeling anything but comfort.

The Tundra TRD-Pro is one of those test vehicles that I was sad to see go. Very sad.

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A full week of work with the 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro

December 6, 2016 by Gary Grant 1 Comment

gg_taco-2-of-7

 

As some readers know, BBQ has become a big part of my business over the past couple of years, with most of the events I host being somehow connected to the automotive world. We’ve had a few adventures along the way and when Canadian rally ace turned driver training advocate, Leo “Crazy Leo” Urlichich was looking for someone to conduct a week long food experiment in the woods of Northern Ontario, I jumped at the chance to challenge myself.

The challenge was to head to the wilds of the Ottawa Valley and feed the crew and participants of the first week long edition of Urlichich’s Race Lab advanced driving school, but there was a bit of a twist. Not only did the task involve feeding lunch to seven students for a week, but also offering up all day snacking options and dinner for the Race Lab crew. Each day would begin and end with a half hour drive into the middle of nowhere and I would have to bring my kitchen with me, as the locations would change during the course of the week.

gg_taco-4-of-7

The kitchen side of things was a natural decision, as I have spent the past few months towing around this incredible event trailer created by the folks at DCS Appliances. It was built to showcase some of the company’s outdoor kitchen products, specifically a keg fridge, under counter dishwasher and a 48″ built in grill. The marketing materials for this grill say that it was “designed with flexibility in mind” and we planned on putting the unit to the test.

To tow the event trailer, I would need something equally flexible. The folks at Toyota Canada offered up a Cement Grey 2017 Tacoma TRD Pro, complete with Bridgestone Blizzak Winter tires.

The newly introduced TRD Pro variety of the Tacoma is Toyota’s hardest core sporting version of the popular mid-sized pickup, this one being an off road machine. A full complement of off road goodies include skid plates, tuned stainless steel TRD exhaust, taller springs and Fox Racing external reservoir shocks. This truck was up for anything we might throw at it.

Around town, the event trailer typically attracts a lot of attention, I mean how can any guy ignore a trailer made out of diamond plate that is hauling a beer fridge and a 48″ grill? When hooked to the TRD Pro Taco, the attention is ramped up a few notches. Between the tough styling cues and the serious looking grey paint, the descendant of the the original mini truck looks wicked with or without the rolling BBQ. One might assume that the locals knew what this truck was, as I think the Pembroke area must be the Toyota truck capital of Canada. Tacomas and Tundras are everywhere! 

When the new Tacoma platform was introduced a couple of years ago in Detroit (or was it New York? They are all a bit of a blur these days) I heard some rumblings around the hall from those who don’t like the model’s traditional seating position. Unlike other trucks, Tacoma passengers sit more like car owners, seemingly on the floor, with legs stretched out. During my time with this truck, I spent close to 20 hours on the road and I gotta tell you that my time behind the wheel was the happiest and most comfortable part of my week.

Fuel economy is never a fun topic with pickup trucks, but I honestly can’t report any quality findings. Just about every day found the Taco idling for 8-10 hours, with doors open and XM radio blasting. I will say that at idle for an entire day, the fuel gauge does not move, despite the “fuel economy for this trip” meter reading 48 L/100. The continual switch from 1st Wave to Lithium was only part of the reason however, as there was a far more practical use of fuel.

gg_taco-6-of-7

The impact resistant bed liner offers a few storage cubbies and a collection of movable tie down bollards, but the highlight for my use was the 400 watt, 110 volt electrical socket. Given that an on-board power inverter was just a pipe-dream even a decade ago, finding a properly weather sealed outlet in the bed of the Taco was the answer to dreams I didn’t know I had. From a heating blanket to keep the propane regulator from freezing, to crock pots and warming trays, the consistent power source saved my bacon more times than I can count.

At the Canadian press launch last month, I sampled the 6-speed manual version on wet, windy gravel roads and found it to be an absolute hoot to drive in a, ummm, sporting manner. This test unit was fitted with the optional 6-speed automatic transmission and still managed to be fun without the trailer attached. If there were any complaints I had with this layout, it is that the sweet sounding stainless steel TRD exhaust becomes a bit oppressive as the tranny drops to 4th gear and the engine spins at 4,000 rpm to haul the rig up  a long, steep climb like the hills I encountered on highway 41.

The driving portion of my week saw the Tacoma drag the wee trailer across surfaces that ranged from smooth pavement and equally smooth hard pack snow and ice to mucky gravel roads pocked with VW Beetle sized potholes. On one steep, icy section, I needed to engage the shift on the fly 4wd system, if only to curb a bit of wheel spin from the rear axle.  Through all of it, the Tacoma pressed on unfazed.

gg_taco-1-of-7

As far as the food end of my week went, the cast and crew of Race Lab were surprised by fare that ranged from grilled chicken burritos and bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers to pizzas and grilled doughnuts. Naturally, there were burgers and steaks on the menu too.

Upon returning home, I discovered the source of a noise that I had heard while exploring the rather twisty Highway 29, aka Flinton Road. I heard a sproinging noise and assumed that I had run over a piece of something on the road. Further inspection showed that a tie down strap on the trailer had rubbed through and snapped. It just goes to show that when towing a trailer on gravel roads, extra care has to be taken to prevent failures brought on by the extra friction that gravel dust causes.

In a world full of beige Camrys and Corollas, it can be a challenge to remember that at its core, Toyota is a company that really wants to have a bit of fun. While the Toyota 86 and Lexus F-models are perhaps the most obvious nods to the fun, the TRD Pro edition of the Tacoma is the spiritual successor to the machines that Ivan “Iron Man” Stewart made famous in desert races like the Baja 1000. The 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro is undeniably worthy of that heritage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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