I know your dilemma! I ordered my Ovrlnd from Jay in March 2019. I spent until the end of November 2020 dithering about whether to put it on my 2009 Tacoma or buy Full size (Tundra, F250/F150). it was an extremely hard decision, largely because my Tacoma (5’ ft bed) was very well and perfectly built for my needs. I did and still want to do more technical trails at times. I went with the Tundra for the reliability as well as the fit for me. I’m 6’3” and I have some back issues and I really need more comfort in both seating as well as to stretch out in the back. Except for those two issues, I probably would’ve kept the Tacoma since my wife and I are pretty used to minimalist tent camping up to this point. I nearly cried when I got rid of a Tacoma, because I loved that truck and it was in perfect shape with only 72,000 miles on it, but I’m extremely happy with the Tundra and the camper.
Some of the issues that swayed me in the end:
1 – The Tacoma payload Is terrible, and with the further build out I didn’t have much weight to play with. Fully loaded for tent camping I felt that it was marginally too heavy, though we were still about 300 pounds below our GVWR. The Tacoma‘s gear train is also famously weak in the rear. There’s a well-known situation where someone bought a Tacoma that was very well built with a fully built out used Ovrlnd on it and had the rear axle blow up on the way home. that’s an extreme example because the whole rig as I recall weighed 6300 pounds, and it was a a high mileage truck, but still the weight takes its toll. I felt I would have to do significant further strengthening for the payload increase, and I would still have a vehicle that was too small.
2 – As mentioned I really need the room. One thing that sold me was a photograph that another Ovrlnd owner posted for me here on Expedition Portal. Look at Pshin’s build on his 5 foot bed Chevy Colorado. With the bed pulled out there’s very little room to stand in the back of the cabin. If it’s just you maybe not such a problem but for two of us in the mornings didn’t make sense. A 5.5 foot bed won’t be much better. With our 6.5 foot bed there’s good room with the bed fully pulled out, but it’s still not a whole lot more than 30 some inches.
3 – As you will learn if you build out your Ovrlnd much it’s a lot of work. I didn’t want to put it on an older less strong truck truck or one that I wasn’t sure it was going to give me enough room for my needs. I’m of the the “buy once, cry once, and build once mentality”
4 – I spent the eight months from order up to Jay starting the build in December obsessively researching trucks. At one point I was pretty interested in the new F250s, but it took too long, and I was convinced they were too unwieldy off-road. I also became convinced from numerous sources that the Tundras were pretty capable off road. I knew I was going to build out the suspension, and put lockers in and that I would be able to go nearly everywhere I want to go and have gone with my Tacoma. It helps I am in the Southwest (Phoenix) I don’t have a lot of tight treesy type trails.
5 – The Tundra is an extremely reliable platform. People gripe about the age of the platform and the architecture, but nearly every bug has been worked out. It’s also much heavier duty than the Tacoma. My opinion is any stock truck needs a modification for Offroad, but its a great platform. The beauty of the Tundra is it has a nearly three-quarter ton rear axle (an adaptation -not full float- from Toyotas true three-quarter ton Hino commercial trucks). I looked and looked for a late model used double cab so I could have a 6 1/2 foot bed, but to no avail. That was partly because I insisted on having a 38 gallon fuel tank and the upgraded SR5 seats. In the end I bought a new 21 with all of that using Costco‘s buying program. I got it cheap enough I can afford to do all the suspension upgrades and add lockers and 4.88s. Based on your use case, you won’t need to do all that stuff, but if you do you’ll have an extremely capable truck. They can easily carry all the weight of the camper (mine weighs 360lbs) and provide plenty a room for your crew.
So we love the tundra and the combination with Jay’s camper. We’ve put about 300 off-road miles on it and 5000 total miles so far. There has not been one single problem with either the truck or the camper. My build inside the camper is still fairly minimalist, partly because I want to keep the floor length open to some degree to stretch my back out. 6 1/2 foot bed is perfect. Given the size of your crew I can’t imagine you would be happy with a 5 1/2 foot bed. There’s a significant amount of room behind the rear seat with the jumpseat up. And if you take the seats out you have a huge amount of room. The Tundra has limitations design wise in terms of the floor flatness in the rear seat and little things that you will miss from the Tacoma, but it’s well worth it for the comfort an the room. Personally I would not buy the first year of any completely redesigned vehicle. I didn’t think Toyotas track record with the Tacoma’s was very good in their first couple of years of each generation. But you may choose differently and I think you’d love the 22s for mileage for sure. I will say that things like the adaptive cruise are very well thought out now and work perfectly.
If you need any more details, PM me and Id be happy to set up a phone conversation, if you‘d like.
