Archive for July, 2007
Toyota Tundra Truck Bed Liner Options
If you’re like most new Tundra owners, you’re seriously considering bed protection. Fortunately you have options — lots of them. Here are the highlights:
1) No Bed Liner. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it could work out just fine. But while you may not ever intend to haul anything that would damage your truck’s bed, you never know when a situation will arise and you will be forced to put something back their that damages the paint job. If you’ve got scratches in your bed, your options for adding a bed liner later get more expensive. That’s because before you add any sort of removable liner you’ll need to re-protect the bed (i.e. re-paint) so that any moisture that gets caught between your bed and your liner won’t cause your bed to rust. If you’re leasing your truck, this might be your only option.
2) Rubber Bed Mat. It’s old-school but it certainly deserves consideration. There’s no disputing that
a heavy piece of rubber will protect the bottom of your truck bed from gouges and scratcheswhile at the same time providing a surface that has more friction than the factory bed. If you’re considering adding a rubber mat, make sure you purchase one that is fairly thick. Thin rubber mats (anything less than 1/4″) tend to “roll-up” when you’re loading the bed, making them sort of hazardous. You should also make sure that the mat you buy has a knobby bottom surface so that moisture doesn’t get trapped under the mat and lead to premature bed rust. Finally, we like mats that are pre-cut to fit your truck. Those mats you have to trim yourself never fit right and they tend to be cheap anyways. The best feature of a nice rubber mat is that it will only cost you $75-$100.
3) Plastic Bed Liner. Plastic bed liners (or “drop-ins”) fit OK, install quickly and easily, and do a nice job of protecting the bed from most kinds of damage. Plastic bed liners are especially nice if you need to slide items in and out of your truck. Plastic also won’t scratch anything you put in your bed (like furniture), and it washes out quickly and easily. The biggest disadvantage to plastic drop-in liners is that whatever you have resting in your bed can slide around at any time. Plastic is slippery, especially when wet, and we’ve seen big loads shift (even when they were properly tied down). Also, it seems like a lot of moisture and gunk accumulates under the plastic liner, requiring you to remove it and clean the bed periodically. Plastic drop-in bed liners can cost as little as $250 or as much as $400.
4) Plastic Coatings. We’ve all seen the ads — send in $49.99 and they’ll send you a gallon of special “truck bed paint” just like the pros use. Get out your roller and paint brush and you can install your own “spray-in” like bed surface on a Saturday afternoon. Bulls#&t. Unless you have experience applying this stuff, you’re probably going to screw something up. Worse, it doesn’t always bond properly to the bed, meaning big hunks will flake off at the least helpful times. While we don’t want to condemn all of these products, we haven’t ever seen it work. Proceed at your own risk.
5) Spray-In. This is by far the most popular option, and for good reason. It’s the best looking and most durable bed liner there is. The bed is sprayed with a special polyurethane “paint” that protects the bed from scratches and chemicals. The coating is permanent, the texture is rough (which keeps things from sliding), and the material is nearly indestructible. In fact, unlike every other option listed here, a spray-in liner will last forever.
Lots of companies offer spray-in bed liners, but the top two are Line-X and Rhino. While you may hear lots of differing opinions about the two products, it’s fair to say that they’re basically the same stuff. However, the installers are not the same. In fact, any stories you hear about a bad Rhino or Line-X liner have more to do with the person that installed the liner than the product itself. The best way you can make sure you get a good spray-in liner is to find out how long the installer has been in business. If you have any doubts about them, get references and check them out. Your local Toyota dealer is also an excellent place to get a recommendation for a good installer. You should be able to get a quality spray-in liner with a lifetime warranty installed for $300-$400 (under rail). Over the rail should add about $50. There are other names out their in spray-ins, and we’re sure that some of them are just fine, but they’re not usually any cheaper than Line-X or Rhino so we don’t recommend them.
6) Carpet Liner. The carpet liner is usually a strong outdoor carpet with a thick rubber or vinyl backing. They’re surprisingly strong and they have the benefit of being soft. They’re especially popular with people that are going to add a camper shell to their truck. The biggest advantage to them, in addition to being plush, is that they’re removable. If you like the idea of being able to see your factory finish whenever you want to, this might be a good option for you. Cost is about the same as a good plastic bed-liner, about $350. The only thing we don’t like about these is that they don’t seem to stay attached, but that probably has to do with the way they’re installed.
You can also add plywood to your truck bed, and there are some cool commercial roll-up systems that literally unload your truck for you (like Load Handler).
Have an opinion about Tundra bed liner options? Share it!
More Proof the Tundra Hybrid is Coming
Recently, we wrote about the fact that Toyota will be releasing a hybrid version of the Tundra and the Sequoia in 2009 as a 2010 model. Amazingly, in spite of all of our evidence, many people still don’t believe.
Check out these comments by Jim Press, president of Toyota USA “everything will be a hybrid…you don’t buy a car for image any longer that’s a big gas guzzler.” (Source Chicago Tribune) Clearly, these comments are directed at the belief that many people purchase large trucks and SUVs for the image they connote, as well as their utility. Perhaps because image is a concern for the buyers that Toyota is referencing, does that mean that a Lexus hybrid SUV will be available too?
Of course it does. Toyota is racing to bring these hybrids to market because it will give them a competitive advantage for years to come. When the Prius debuted, it was slow, kind of ugly, and a little pricey. Amazingly, it was estimated that Toyota was losing anywhere from $2k – $5k on each Prius sold because the costs of the technology were higher than the cost of the vehicle. At the time, many executives at other automakers (GM comes to mind) were talking about how they weren’t going to bring a new technology to market until it was profitable (consider the EV-1, GM’s electric car that died a miserable death).
Yet look at today — because Toyota made the leap to develop and sell a hybrid FIRST, they own the market. Why not do the same thing with trucks and SUV’s? Toyota is going to sell a hybrid Tundra soon — count on it.
Tundra Monitoring Station
During one of our internet scouting missions, we encountered a page on the University Of Colorado’s website that we thought was kind of interesting.
It turns out that the geeks at CU have installed a Tundra Camera atop Niwot Ridge (about 20 miles outside of Boulder, Colorado). The camera sits at about 11,600′ (about 3,500m for all you metroids), and is part of a “Biosphere Preserve” of alpine Tundra.
While we hesitate to call it fun, you can visit the site right now and control the camera from your home computer. It’s pretty dry up there right now — during the winter time it’s nothing but white-out.
Here’s a picture of a Hawk checking out the camera:
Anyone know what kind of Hawk that is?
The 3 Easiest Ways To Ruin Your Truck’s Transmission
If you’ve ever worked at an auto-repair shop, you know that the guy that fixes transmissions is always busy. He’s got more work than just about anyone in the shop, with maybe the lube tech (the guy that changes oil) being the only exception. To us, this is a mystery. If you use common sense, follow your manufacturer’s suggested maintenance, and avoid scenarios that cause damage, your transmission should last as long as any part on your truck. But, like we said, the transmission guy is always busy…here’s why:
Annoying Tundra Seat Belt Buzzer – Can It Be Stopped?
There’s a growing number of people that are dis-satisfied with the annoying seat belt buzzer — you know, the one that reminds you every 6 seconds that you, or one of your passengers, isn’t currently wearing their seat belt.
We know, we know, if we were following the rules, we’d have the belt on and this wouldn’t be a problem.
For the record, SEAT BELTS ARE VERY IMPORTANT. In fact, THEY CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE. Not wearing one is stupid, and anyone who is looking for a way to deceive the system so that they can drive around without their seat belt on is a moron. While there are a LOT of excuses to explain why we don’t want to wear our belts (some of them good), that’s not what we’re trying to talk about here.
It’s not about excuses, right or wrong, saving lives, etc. It’s about finding out if something can be done. We’re going to put this info out their and then let you decide what to do with it.
Here are the options for disabling the Tundra’s annoying driver seat belt buzzer (aside from, you know, wearing your belt). Incidentally, there is a process for disabling the passenger seat’s buzzer — see your dealer. They plug your truck into the computer and re-program it. Some dealers won’t do it for you, and if they will do it, they’re going to charge you.
1. Get a seat belt extender from your dealer. Then, run the belt around the back of the seat and plug it in.
The extender is free, but some dealers won’t give you one unless you “look like you need it” (i.e. big-boned). Your dealer may not even know that this is something they should offer — have them refer to this TSB if they give you a blank stare when you ask for your free seat belt extender.
2. Find or make a spare seat belt buckle and plug it in.
The system determines your seat belt is fastened when your belt is plugged in. If you find or make a seat belt buckle and shove it in their, then the system will be fooled. Cost is just a junk-yard part or some quality time spent with some scrap metal.
3. Short out the seat belt sensor (or, put it on a toggle switch) so that the switch is always closed.
This is a bad idea that we don’t suggest, but it is an option. The reason we think it’s such a bad option — the new Tundra uses data from sensors inside the driver’s seat to determine if the airbag should be fired. If you start cutting wires and installing switches in their, you could damage or short out the sensors. That would cause your airbag to fail and not deploy when you need it. Worse, it could also cause your airbag to fire unexpectedly (sounds hilarious, but could result in serious injury). We suggest you throw option 3 out the window.
4. Remove or disable the buzzer in the dash that makes the noise.
With this option, you also lose the noise that reminds you to shut-off your headlights, to take your keys out of the ignition, or to check doors to make sure they’re closed. We think this is a bad option for all those reasons, plus, we like to avoid taking panels out of the dash if at all possible.
5. Fasten the belt, then sit in the seat.
Simple, but not very comfy.
Where does that leave us? In our minds, no where. We’re going to have to learn to deal with the noise or we’re going to have to put the belt on every time we’re in the car, regardless of circumstance. Unlike Ford, Dodge, and Chevy, Toyota didn’t give us an easy option to disable the reminder.
Seems like Toyota doesn’t trust us…
