UPDATE: Toyota Tundra Shuttle Tow Plan Adjusted
Tim Esterdahl | Oct 09, 2012 | Comments 14
The Toyota Tundra will still tow the space shuttle Endeavour, but it will be a different part of the trip. The new plan is to tow it over the 405 freeway on the Manchester Boulevard Bridge in West Los Angeles.
The Toyota Tundra Endeavour towing plan has been slightly altered.
Toyota released a statement saying “the tow will assist the California Science Center Foundation in the movement of the historic icon over the Manchester Boulevard Bridge, an area that requires a different tow mechanism than other portions of the route for weight distribution purposes.”
The tow will now take place on October 12, 2012 in the evening. The exact time hasn’t been established yet.
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Filed Under: Auto News
While the towing capacity of the Tundra is impressive based on this article, its payload capacity is minimal. You cannot fit the lightest truck camper (about 1800 lbs) on this truck (payload 1600 lbs). I do not understand why Toyota has such a difficult time to produce a heavy duty Tundra. It seems to me that if the Tundra’s engine is so powerful and the frame is so strong, it is just a matter of installing heavy duty suspension to come up with a HD. Can anyone shed some light on this heavy duty Tundra issue?
Joe,
I think that is about to change. Historically, Toyota Japan didn’t think much of the Tundra, chalking it up as a truly American idea. Now that U.S. designers and engineers are in charge of it, I think a lot of the gripes people have had with it will be fixed.
-Tim
I believe Toyota let the USA engineers have at with the current generation of Tundra, so the “historical” comment pre-dated 2007. Basically, Japan engineers just didn’t understand full-size trucks, but, they do understand quality!
I don’t think there are many gripes. From my research with ignorant “domestic” truck owners, they spew nothing but lies, which can be falsely interpreted as short comings.
Is the Tundra perfect? It’s close. My wish list is short: standard mechanical LSD, towing mirrors and integrated trailer brake controller standard with the towing package, 2500 lb hauling capacity for dbl cab, and, hmmm, I have to think hard to find more 🙂
As it stands, I can purchase after market parts to address my wish list.
LJC,
Right. I should have distinguished Japan’s involvement as pre-2007. I believe the post-2007 enhancements will be a continuing trend.
-Tim
Oh yeah! 🙂
Joe, that’s a good question.
This is my educated guess: an HD truck falls under different emission schedule, due to its gros vehicle weight, and thus would have more of a negative impact on CAFE standards than a 1/2 ton.
On a lighter note, perhaps the engineers were concerned that a person hauling a camper would whack the go-go pedal and their camper would end up in the road due to the muscle-car like acceleration the Tundra has 😀
One final note: a regular cab tundra with an 8 ft bed can haul about 1 ton.
Perhaps a good article/discussion would be “What would you like to see in the next generation of the Tundra”?
Does this effect trees that were cut down?
Mickey,
I don’t know, but thanks to you I was looking for the story to say that. 🙂
-Tim
Mikey, yes it does effect those trees they cut down. That is the only way they could get the shuttle there. I’m sure NASA will replace them.
Yes, the trees will be replaced. I heard that a few weeks ago, when the story broke.
Dang tree huggers, but I see their point on cutting down perfectly good trees just to move the darn space shuttle is not right. If it were up to me, I would NEVER have wasted billions, yes billions and billions, on the space program at all, NOT one penny. Just think of all that moola wasted that could do some real good for this country to help boost the economy although 1,000’s of employed NASA engineers, etc. would be out of a job I guess? Would’ve also been interesting if Obama didn’t bail out GM and Chrysler which I feel wasn’t right as well. That is another topic all together, sorry off topic.
Mk,
About the bail out real quick, did you see this article (link below) that says Ford would have also failed if GM and Chrysler weren’t bailed out? Can’t imagine the catastrophe that would have done to our economy. Also, I think NASA has done a lot for our economy as well. I mean, how many microwaves and other products were sold over the years with sales tax going back to the Gov’t. In a way, you could argue, NASA paid for itself with inventions that companies and consumers paid property, investment and sales taxes on.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/p.....ttner-says
-Tim
mk my only worry was if they cut trees down and change of course now it was a waste to cut those trees down. Not much on saving the trees but the work involved cost some money.
Mickey,
I don’t think they are changing the course only the section the Tundra will tow the shuttle.
-Tim