Toyota Will Seek Fleet, Commercial Sales With Long-Bed Version Of Full-Size Tundra
Toyota Motor Sales USA is hoping to entice commercial and fleet buyers with a longer-bed version of its already enlarged second-generation Tundra pickup.
Although most of the upcoming Tundra full-size pickups will have beds in the 6.5-foot range, targeting consumers, those with the 8-foot, 1-inch bed will be more useful to tradesmen and for construction and service work.
The company underscored the importance of that market by showing the product during the National Truck Equipment Association's annual Product Show in Dearborn, Mich., earlier this fall.
"Working with NTEA will allow their members time to develop a wide variety of Tundra-compatible work equipment and have those products to market by the time the new Tundra launches in February," said Brian Smith, Toyota's manager for truck operations. NTEA supports manufacturers and installers of lift gates, ladder racks, tool boxes, caps and specialty inserts, and disseminates data on dimensions and capacities to them.
Like other truck builders, Toyota exhibited vehicles at the show, including Regular- and Double Cab versions of the new Tundra, both with 97-inch beds. With that bed length, the four-door Double Cab, which will replace the current Access Cab, sits on a 165-inch wheelbase. It will have room for a crew of five or six people, or, with the rear seats folded up, space to lock up bulky tool boxes and other valuables. The two-door Regular Cab has a cargo tray behind the seat with considerable stowage room; it sits on a 146-inch wheelbase.
The bed's tailgate can be locked or removed, and it drops and raises with the help of gas cylinders inside the fenders. The bed comes with six standard stake pockets, four floor-mounted tie-down rings and an optional deck rail system for sliding hooks and other securement devices.
Inside the cab, the center console on bucket-seat models will hold a laptop PC and hanging file folders. With a bench seat, a fold-down armrest becomes a flat "desk" with a large storage compartment.
The new Tundra is as big as or bigger than competitors' full-size half-ton pickups. Compared to the current 7/8-size Tundra, the new truck has a stronger frame, bolder styling, more extensive safety equipment, and more comfort and convenience features. It will come with V-6 and V-8 engines, including a new 5.7-liter V-8. With that engine and an optional towing package, a Regular-Cab Tundra will pull a trailer weighing more than 10,000 pounds, the company said.
Like the current Tundra, the new truck will be assembled only in the U.S. from components and parts made here.
–Tom Berg,
Senior Equipment Editor
