- For decades, Toyota has made
some of the top off-road trucks in the world,
and we've had a lot of really good seat time
in a number of them over the years.
But one that we really hadn't had much experience in yet
was the redesigned version of the Toyota Tundra
full sized pickup, or more specifically
its off-road versions.
Well, that has changed.
This is the new 2022 Tundra TRD Pro.
It's their top off-road model
of the new Tundra pickup truck.
It's got the i-FORCE MAX twin turbo V6 hybrid powertrain.
It's got all the off-road bits
that you'd expect with a TRD Pro model.
Well, we've come out here to Holly Oaks off-road park
just north of suburban Detroit
here in beautiful summery Michigan to drive the new TRD Pro.
Here's what we think about it.
(upbeat rock music)
Toyota has been building
some of the best off-road vehicles for decades.
I mean, all you need to do is look around the world
and see how they're being used in all corners of the planet
usually in places where there's more dirt than pavement,
and it's not hard to see why.
It's just so immensely capable.
Now this being the TRD Pro,
this is the top off-road version of the Tundra,
and it's got all the bells and whistles
and all the systems you need to go off-road.
And it does it really well.
The ride is actually pretty decent as well,
and thankfully to these big off-road knobby tires
are absorbing a lot of the punishment.
The TRD Pro only comes with one power train.
That is the i-FORCE MAX hybrid twin turbo V6,
and you are certainly not going to lack
for power or responsiveness.
Even in this regular four wheel drive high
without selecting anything weird or unusual
in the multi terrain selector, it's perfectly workable
and does really well off-road.
For smaller hills, you really don't need
to engage four low.
Four high is perfectly fine,
and you've got plenty of traction
from these all terrain tires.
No sweat, no problem, and a lot of fun.
And you can get some decent speed
going on some of this rougher terrain,
but this is not a Ford Raptor or a RAM TRX.
This is a more slow speed kind of off-road truck,
and that is also perfectly fine.
You see, because according to Toyota,
fully one third of you people out there
are doing some hardcore off-roading in your Tundras,
which is a pretty high percentage.
More of you actually go off-road.
It's something on the order of like 50 to 60%
use these vehicles as off-road vehicles,
but for the hardcore folks, 35%, according to Toyota.
And that's the boulder crawlers, the rock crawlers,
people who are doing some serious kind
of off-road work with them.
And I have to admit, they've created something
right out of the factory
that should satisfy a lot of people's needs.
The i-FORCE MAX powertrain is really nice.
It's easy to modulate.
You're never waiting for the power to kick in.
Being a turbocharged engine,
sometimes that can be a problem, but not with this.
Now you can credit the hybrid portion
of the powertrain for that
because the hybrid system in this powertrain
is actually sandwiched in between
the engine and the transmission.
So it allows for direct drive electrically
of the rest of the drive line,
and on the road in certain conditions
that's great for boosting your fuel economy,
but it can also be a performance enhancer as well.
But it's just seamless, it's effortless,
and it sounds good too.
Although I have suspect some of that noise
might be piped in 'cause it sounds
a little too good to be true.
When you can't hear a lot of wind or road noise
but you can hear very specific engine notes,
that's a good sign that you're listening to a soundtrack
and not necessarily the actual pipes
from the vehicle itself.
Now yes, this is a very wide vehicle.
It's a full sized pickup truck.
It's easily as big as anything from a domestic brand,
maybe even a bit bigger,
but it still has no problem being nimble down these trails.
You've got really good wheel articulation,
you've got really good damping over some rougher terrain.
It does beep at me a lot, I've noticed.
For downhill sections like this,
well, we are going to put her in four low.
And everything's gonna yell at me,
and beep, and blurp, and good to go.
And with a downhill grade like this,
as long as you're in low gear, not a problem.
Now there are some electronic modes that you can also use,
but frankly, I like doing it manually.
And it's not that I don't trust the electronics,
but I think it's just a lot more fun
to use your foot and your butt
to figure out what the truck is doing,
instead of just pushing the button,
letting it do it all by itself.
That's cruise control.
That's almost autonomous driving.
I don't wanna do that, not when I'm playing in the dirt.
When I'm driving 200 miles cross country across the state,
yeah, that'd be great.
But self-driving on trail,
nah, I'm good doing this the old fashioned way.
Toyota's multi terrain monitor
really is helpful for situations like this
where you're going up something super steep
and you're basically staring at the sky,
but you still need to know where you're going.
Well, that's where the camera helps.
The two little yellow lines
are where your wheels are pointing,
and they change when you're changing
the steering wheel direction.
So it helps you see all kinds of obstacles over the hood
that you can't see over the hood yourself.
And when you're going downhill as well,
it helps you see obstacles to either side of the vehicle
like that big pink rock over there that I don't wanna hit.
And I won't because I can see where it is
on the camera monitor.
That is actually really useful.
Now this being the TRD Pro,
it does come with a standard rear locking differential.
There's a button on the dash you push
in order to lock that rear,
and it's great for going up loose terrain
that also happens to be steep terrain just like this.
So come to a stop, push the locker button,
wait for the light to go solid,
and then just some constant pressure and speed up the hill.
Everything yelling at you, beeping for some reason,
but no loss of traction, no loss of momentum.
Just loss of lunch. (chuckles)
Nice.
If you do want to let the truck do some of the driving
or at least to make some of the decisions for you
in terms of how the truck is being set up,
there is the multi terrain select system.
It's a little knob down here on the center console,
and it allows you to change between a number
of different settings.
Right now I've got it in dirt because I'm driving over dirt.
But if we had some deep mud, if we had some rocks,
it wouldn't be a big deal.
The TRD Pro package has a number of really useful bits on it
to help you survive going off-road.
The underbody protection is particularly interesting.
It's not made of metal,
it's made of nylon reinforced fiberglass.
So you can hit it, it's not gonna dent
and it doesn't rust either.
So unlike normal under body protection
that's made of steel when you hit it,
it'll dent, it'll rust, eventually it won't provide
as much protection as it did previously.
But that's not an issue in this vehicle,
and all of the under body protection
is made out of this stuff.
So overall, this new TRD Pro
really is a lot of fun and very impressive.
It kinda makes me wonder what Toyota could create
if they did decide to make a Raptor fighter.
They certainly have a strong enough base for it.
If you'd like to learn more
about the new 2023 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro
or any of Toyota's off-road trucks,
you can learn everything you need to know at cars.com.