Toyota Tundra Owners: 7 Gift Ideas

In honor of “black Friday”, we decided to come up with a list of a few items that every Tundra owner might want to have. For best results, print out this list or leave it up on your computer when your significant other walks by. Then, in a loud and clear voice, state “Wow. Sure would be nice to get one of these things as a gift.”

Repeat as necessary.

You might also try — “Wow. FREE SHIPPING?! What a deal!!” then make sure they see this ad.

Good. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s our list:

1) Weathertech Extreme-Duty Floor Liner: Winter often makes for a dirty truck, but having a nice set of floor mats that actually collect dirt and moisture will keep the dirt to a minimum. Made thick with a specially ridged underside, WeatherTech Floor Mats provide an impenetrable barrier that’s designed to stay put. WeatherTech’s soft rubber treads offer excellent traction for driving, and the tall outside edge of mats keeps dirt from sliding/sloshing out onto your carpet. They’re easy to clean – just hose ’em off – and they come in 3 universal colors. $114.95 for the front, $81.95 for the back, and free shipping.

2) Bolt-over Billet Grill: Easy to install (they literally bolt over the factory grill), Carriage Works billet grill covers look great and don’t cost very much. We found a brushed billet grill (pictured) on AutoAnything.com for only $132. You can buy the whole set and have billet for the main grill, top grill (the little sliver above the main grill), and the bumper grills too. If you don’t like the idea of bolting over the factory grill, you can buy a replacement grill for about the same price.

3) K&N Drop-In Air Filter: It’s the least expensive item on the list, but it’s still a great item to have. K&N filters improve gas mileage, performance, and come with a lifetime warranty. Prices range from $38 – $47, depending on engine size.

4) ShurTrax Traction Weight System: For a lot of truck owners, winter means putting sand bags in your truck’s bed. When winter’s over, you’ve got to store them for next year, assuming they haven’t worn out. ShurTrax came up with a new solution – put a big heavy bag of water in the bed. It will add as much as 400lbs of weight to your truck’s bed, boosting traction. When winter’s over, dump the water out and roll up the bag. It’s a slick idea, and it costs $140 for a full-size truck. Also at AutoAnything.com.

5) TRD Exhaust Tip: From the Toyota Accessory Guide “Enhance the look of your vehicle with this double-walled exhaust tip by Valor Manufacturing. Made from polished 304 stainless steel, which will not rust or corrode.” That pretty much sums it up. The part is listed at $60, but you should be able to get a little bit of a break (try asking for $50). Install is quick and easy. Toyota part # PTS18-34070 for the 5.7L.

6) TundraHeadquarters Gear: OK OK — it’s shameless self-promotion — however, if you enjoy this site, why not buy a coffee mug, hat, or t-shirt? Visit the TundraHeadquarters.com store.

7) Volant Cold Air Intake: If you read our Toyota Tundra Volant air intake review, you know we liked this kit. It makes the Tundra sound mean, look mean (at least under the hood), and it might even improve your gas mileage (if you keep your foot out of it). $369.

Improve Gas Mileage by Changing Your Parking Habits

There are many easy and simple things you can do to increase your fuel mileage. One of those simple things is to change the way you park.

Is this what you do when enter a parking lot? You enter the lot and the first thing you do is head for the parking area nearest to the entrance to the mall or the store where you are going. There are not any spaces available at the entrance because everyone, like you, tries to find the closest spaces.

Now you do either one of two things or both. You drive up and down the closest rows to see if you can find a spot that is still close to the entrance or you sit and wait for a while to see if any cars will be pulling out of spaces near the entrance.

Both of these behaviors will cost you gas mileage and will cost you money. When you sit and wait to see if anyone will vacate a space you are running your engine but not moving. You are getting zero miles per gallon when you are sitting and idling like that.

If you slowly cruise the parking rows close to the store entrance you are burning fuel. You are get very poor gas mileage when your car is moving slowly. If you stop behind another car that is waiting or as you stop at spaces that might open up, you are idling and getting zero miles per gallon.

Think how much fuel you will burn in a year if you only spend 1 minute a day waiting for a parking space. Assuming 30 days for an average month, to make a simple calculation, and assume you are burning fuel for an extra 60 seconds or one minute each day, then you would be burning fuel for 30 minutes or a half hour each month.

One half hour of burning fuel a month is the equivalent of burning fuel an extra 6 hours per year. Would you ever leave your car sitting and idling for six hours doing nothing but burning fuel? Absolutely not. But in essence you are letting your car sit and idle for 6 hours if your parking habits involve always looking for the closest parking space.

What is the solution to all of this wasted gas? How can you improve gas mileage by changing parking habits? Very simple, park far away from the store or mall entrance. The farther from the entrance you go the more empty parking spaces there are. Chances are that if you, immediately upon entering the parking lot, go to the rows far from the entrance, you will find a place to park right away.

You save all the fuel you would have burned waiting and looking for a close parking spot by parking far away. There is an additional benefit to parking far from the entrance. Not only will you increase fuel mileage and save money but you will get extra exercise by walking the additional distance to the entrance. It’s good for your pocket book and good for your body.

The New 2008 Sequoia Is A Tundra In SUV’s Clothing

Today, Toyota unveiled the new 2008 Sequoia. As expected, this new SUV is based on the Toyota Tundra. It bears a similar front end, the same powertrains, and a very similar option list. However, there are some key differences:

The Sequoia will ride nicer: Unlike the Tundra, the Sequoia boasts a fully independent suspension both front and rear. Also, unlike the Tundra, the Sequoia has an “Active Variable Suspension System” option that allows for electronic tuning of the ride using an air suspension system. Additionally, the new Sequoia is supposed to have a slightly different frame. Most likely, it’s a minor difference but we won’t know for sure until we can look underneath one.

The new Sequoia will be quieter: From additional sound dampening materials to a special emphasis on reducing intake and exhaust sounds, the new Sequoia will make less operating noise than the Tundra…as if we care. First thing we’d do is add a dual exhaust.

The new Sequoia has a few more interior niceties: Second row heated seats, air conditioned front seats (warm or cool air is blown thru perforated holes in the seat surface), and a new “Red Rock” interior color scheme that’s similar to Ford’s “King Ranch” package are all available on the new Sequoia. Like most SUV’s, the new Sequoia also offers rear zone climate controls and a rear seat roof-mounted DVD player. The instrument panel and dash layout in the new Sequoia seems to be pretty similar to the Tundra, but we’ll have to sit in one to know for sure.

As far as features they have in common, the new Sequoia has the same engine and transmission, brake system, integrated tow hitch, and the interior dimensions in the first two rows seem remarkably similar. Additionally, the new 2008 Sequoia is rated to pull 10,000lbs. That’s quite a bit for a full-size SUV – about 1,000 lbs more than the nearest competitor.

We’ll keep you updated on this new sibling of the Toyota Tundra, but you can expect to see them in stores as early as one month from now.

Tundra Tailgate Problems: Toyota Internal Memo

We’re not sure if this is will be old news to some of you, but Toyota released a memo to their dealers regarding problems with Toyota Tundra tailgates in the last week or so. We finally got our hands on it, and you can read the memo for yourself by clicking on the image below.

Click image to see full-size memo. Make sure to hover over full-size image when it opens – your browser may shrink it.

The memo speaks for itself, but we thought the phrase “there is no industry standard or consensus regarding tailgate load capacity” was especially interesting. The way we read that sentence, it sounds like Toyota is saying “we can make this truck any way we want to.” Hardly seems like an appropriate response, especially considering the truck is advertised as being the toughest thing on the road.

Here’s an idea: Make the tailgate strong enough so that the welds don’t split when someone loads an atv in the back.

As for the Tundra’s tailgate popping off it’s hinge if you drive with it “down” position, Toyota’s official response is that the manual states you shouldn’t drive with the tailgate down unless it’s secured in that position by the load or a bed extender. Too bad that Toyota’s stance ignores the fact they’ve advertised using the truck with the tailgate down:

Click on the picture to see the full-size image. Look at the sentence towards the bottom to see where Toyota advocates driving with the tailgate down. Thanks again to Glenn for bringing this issue to light.

As far as recalling or replacing tailgates, Toyota says they’ll investigate. Translation — if you make a big enough stink about it, you might get some consideration. If you want to know the best way to create a stink, checkout our Toyota Customer Service Tips post.

Top 10 Reasons To Join TundraNetwork

If you haven’t checked out our TundraHeadquarters social network, TundraNetwork, you’re missing out. We’ve got a bunch of cool pictures uploaded in just the past couple of days, and there are people from all over the country signing up.

Here’s a list of reasons to join:

10) Where else can you put up unlimited pictures, videos, and have your own blog in less than half an hour?

9) When a fellow Tundra owner asks if you have a MySpace or Facebook page, you can smugly say “No – I’m on TundraNetwork”.

8 ) When your kids/grandkids ask you if you know what a social network is, you can say “Do I know what a social network is?? Of course I do. I helped found a social network!”

7) If you join soon, you can probably register under any name you want – like Tundra Man. That would be totally cool.

6) You never know who you might make friends with — can anyone say Fujio Cho, president of Toyota Motor Company?? (We made that up – no members named Fujio yet, but it’s still early.)

That’s a picture of Fujio over their in the center. He’s a handsome devil, that’s for sure…

5) Everyone else is doing it. Really.

4) Start on TundraNetwork, and you can work your way up to Match.com!

3) Where else are you going to see this pic!?

2) Did we already say that you’ll be just a little bit cooler??

1) If you join, we’ll stop talking about it on the blog. We promise.

Thanks to everyone that’s joined the community so far!