Thoughts on the Truckhouse Tacoma expedition camper...

nickw

nickw

Adventurer
rruff said:
A Tacoma is 10" shorter in height than a F350 for starters, and the sleeping berth kinda defines your height over the cab. The rig is just under 10' tall anyway, and it's not pushing as much air out of the way as if it was on a 1 ton. The blower probably doesn't help mpg, but the regear certainly won't hurt.

He mentioned 8500 lbs in that video at 7:57.

I built a camper tall enough to stand in on a '84 1/2 ton Toyota, many years ago. The truck weighed 2500 lbs and had a 1600 lb payload as I recall, and I was well over that (had a roomate and all her stuff). Ya wanna talk about crappy acceleration, hillclimbing, stopping, and handling... but I got 18-20 mpg. If little engines don't get better mpg than big ones, then I bet some engine tuning would fix it.
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That is absurd at 3k + GVWR. Go put a 4000+ lb trailer behind a Tacoma and report back on performance, even better if it doesn't have trailer brakes to replicate this. I had a 2019 Ranger with a 20' Airstream WITH trailer brakes, a more powerful engine than a Tacoma and it was workable, barely. Even with trailer brakes coming down a gravel road in Idaho I smoked my brakes on the truck - that was the deciding factor to go 3/4+. On paved / improved flat roads it was manageable....just like those old Toyota Sunrader's were designed for, but going offroad, even on gravel mountain roads you could take a Winnebago on, showed it flaws quickly.

I doubt your figures are correct, quick search:

toyotamotorhome.org

What kind of MPG can I expect?

Hi Guys, I just bought a 1986 20.5' Mini-Cruiser with automatic transmission and 4 cylinders. How much mpg should I expect. I've been driving it around town for a few days now. I've gone 46 miles and I've lost a quarter of a tank. I'm getting a little worried. I've read that the needle will go do...
toyotamotorhome.org toyotamotorhome.org

Guys are averaging 9 to 17 most are 11-14 (the better figures are 55 mph or below)....same as my Ranger got towing my Airstream and the same as my Ram 2500 did pulling same trailer, no way this thing gets better than either one of those, particularly out west.
 
nickw

nickw

Adventurer
trackhead said:
They work with Durrance Design, who seem to have quite of bit of expertise in design and engineering.
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I just looked at Durrance Design - they do nice stuff....but they use F350 - F550's and Unimogs it looks like, if that tells you anything...
 
nickw

nickw

Adventurer
rruff said:
He mentioned 8500 lbs in that video at 7:57.
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I watched the video, he said truck was 8500....don't know if that's wet or dry. Take best case scenario, which is wet (doubtful) add in 2 people + 400, personal gear +150 you are at 9000 lbs minimum, I'd guess most would be well into the 9-9500 range.

Tacoma's GVWR is 5600 with curb weight ~4400, they are more than doubling the vehicle weight and 3500lbs + over GVWR. They say they have a "1-T" rear axle, but doesn't change frame, tcase, transmission, front diff and as much as you can upgrade brakes you are still limited vs what you'd find on a full size / HD rig.

For reference LC70's are 3500 kg GVWR (7700 lbs) with HD Transmissions, HD Tcases, HD FF rear axles and much more well built all around.

Dodge Ram 2500 is GVWR of 10000 lbs.

I think that kind of weight would make me nervous on a 3/4T platform, particularly offroad.
 
T

trackhead

Adventurer
Yeah, I mean, like you, I have a Dodge 2500 with a very light DIY camper on it and my GVW on the scales is 7200lbs and I love it. WAY under GVWR for this truck. Previously was at, or near GVWR with my Kodiak truck camper, and I hated driving the truck for the most part. So I agree, the Toyota is stretching the boundaries in a big way. I just wonder if the mods they've done, if the envelope isn't too stretched?
 
nickw

nickw

Adventurer
trackhead said:
Yeah, I mean, like you, I have a Dodge 2500 with a very light DIY camper on it and my GVW on the scales is 7200lbs and I love it. WAY under GVWR for this truck. Previously was at, or near GVWR with my Kodiak truck camper, and I hated driving the truck for the most part. So I agree, the Toyota is stretching the boundaries in a big way. I just wonder if the mods they've done, if the envelope isn't too stretched?
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I'd say the limits are not only stretched but completely broken. I'd buy into it a bit if it was say, 500-1000 overweight, they've made some tasteful mods to improve load carrying.

The guy in the video said it was a completely new "chassis" - which is total baloney, it's an Toyota engineered system, you upgrade a handful of things, like the rear axle / brakes / springs you haven't changed all the things upstream / downstream like bracketry, brake boosters, trans/tcase mounts, input / output shafts, wheel lugs count, etc.

Then you can simply ask yourself, if they are carrying what a 3/4T rig does, why do 3/4T manuf do the things they do? Why do they have 8 lug wheels, huge diff axles, FF axles, large N/A low stressed engines, Tcases that are 2x as big, output shafts that have many more splines / larger in diameter, front axles commensurate with rear axles size, thick / boxed frames, HD spring / perches, large / thick brake rotors, large brake calipers, HD suspension bracketry, large drive shafts....it's for a reason :)
 
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rruff

rruff

Explorer
nickw said:
That is absurd at 3k + GVWR.
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It does seem a bit excessive, but the absurdity part depends on how well they did their mods. The mods to the base truck suspension, drivetrain, and frame are pretty extreme... which would also contribute to that weight.

I doubt your figures are correct, quick search. Guys are averaging 9 to 17 most are 11-14 (the better figures are 55 mph or below).
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My camper wasn't nearly the pig that one is. It was a 5spd manual and I bought it new. I averaged 30mpg before the camper. The weight I was carrying didn't include any of the common amenities, just the camper and lots of stuff. It was definitely heavy though, and obviously had a lot more aero resistance than the bare truck. As I recall I went ~55 in the slow lane most of the time and wasn't shy about winding out the engine when needed on hills.

The brakes on the '84 truck sucked (even without a load), but I've never burned brakes on any descent. Gear down and go slow.

I'll include a picture. There were a few extreme spots I had to negotiate to get to this site (about a 1.5hr trip on washboard and through washes each way). You can see the lack of ground clearance and it was only 2wd open diff. Had to use momentum and slip the clutch... and bash the undercarraige on the rocks. The chassis looked like hell, covered with dents (oil pan and gas tank also), and gouges, but I drove the route twice a week all winter... for years... and never had a failure. 13 years of that sort of abuse actually, year round. No, I don't think that was wise at this point in my life... heck I could have made it so much better with just a regear, locker, suspension upgrade, and bigger/better tires. But I was poor and it was what I had, and it worked well enough.

Yuma01_jan02-.jpg

Anyway, I don't think the TH is inherently absurd... just very risky due to the all the extensive mods and how much R&D is needed to sort that out properly. I mean... my opinion has improved immensely vs the beginning when I though it was a scam, but still... $50k down and lots of blind faith?

When somebody on the forum finally buys one, maybe we can set up a nice race course in the desert, and everyone can bring their overland camping rigs... and we can see who is the fastest and which one breaks first... and get some high $$$ sponsorships to make a video and pay for the carnage. ? :eek: :unsure:
 
nickw

nickw

Adventurer
rruff said:
It does seem a bit excessive, but the absurdity part depends on how well they did their mods. The mods to the base truck suspension, drivetrain, and frame are pretty extreme... which would also contribute to that weight.



My camper wasn't nearly the pig that one is. It was a 5spd manual and I bought it new. I averaged 30mpg before the camper. The weight I was carrying didn't include any of the common amenities, just the camper and lots of stuff. It was definitely heavy though, and obviously had a lot more aero resistance than the bare truck. As I recall I went ~55 in the slow lane most of the time and wasn't shy about winding out the engine when needed on hills.

The brakes on the '84 truck sucked (even without a load), but I've never burned brakes on any descent. Gear down and go slow.

I'll include a picture. There were a few extreme spots I had to negotiate to get to this site (about a 1.5hr trip on washboard and through washes each way). You can see the lack of ground clearance and it was only 2wd open diff. Had to use momentum and slip the clutch... and bash the undercarraige on the rocks. The chassis looked like hell, covered with dents (oil pan and gas tank also), and gouges, but I drove the route twice a week all winter... for years... and never had a failure. 13 years of that sort of abuse actually, year round. No, I don't think that was wise at this point in my life... heck I could have made it so much better with just a regear, locker, suspension upgrade, and bigger/better tires. But I was poor and it was what I had, and it worked well enough.

View attachment 777701

Anyway, I don't think the TH is inherently absurd... just very risky due to the all the extensive mods and how much R&D is needed to sort that out properly. I mean... my opinion has improved immensely vs the beginning when I though it was a scam, but still... $50k down and lots of blind faith?

When somebody on the forum finally buys one, maybe we can set up a nice race course in the desert, and everyone can bring their overland camping rigs... and we can see who is the fastest and which one breaks first... and get some high $$$ sponsorships to make a video and pay for the carnage. ? :eek: :unsure:
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The only drivetrain upgrade that is practical is the "1 Ton" axle (whatever that means) and maybe driveshafts, unless they dropped in an Atlas....but that is a slippery slope since you move failure points upstream to Tcase and / or Trans and mounts. To argue in favor of this is to argue Toyota built the Tacoma to a 3/4T + std. for the rest of the drivetrain....which we know is not the case, it's not even built to a 1/2T standard relative to a F150.

Those little mini-trucks like you had (love them) survive because they have 130 hp and can't hurt themselves and are rolling on what, 26" tires? That was also back when those suckers were built to a std. that does not exist today.

The factory Camper / Sunraders had dually rear full float rear axle and weighed about as much as the GVWR of a stock Tacoma, ~5500, sim size diff depending on model, Toyota thought it was prudent for a FF dually on something that weighed 3500 lbs less.

I'd pay to see that :)!
 
S

Steve_382

Active member
Truckhouse posted on Instagram that this is the last BCT unit and to stay tuned for what the next unit is.


 

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gregmchugh

gregmchugh

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