Toyota Tundra "quality"

gtrietsc

gtrietsc

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Location
Allen, TX USA
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'07 Ford F-150 FX4, '06 BMW M5
Seems that Toyota doesnt think you should be putting heavy things on your tailgate, like people have been doing since forever with their "crap" American trucks...

This poor guy loaded a golf cart into his truck:

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http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forums/tundra/114436-tundra-tailgate-failures-i-am-club/
 
For comparison, how much weight can the tailgate of an F-150 or Silverado take?
 
A lot more than that. Toyota is saying that if you need to load something heavy (more than 200 lbs) you should remove the tailgate. LOL.
 
Only 200lbs? That is absurd.... but trying to load a golf cart doesn't seem like a great idea either.
 
Engineered down to a price - are Toyota going the way of MB, loosing their core product values? If they are it will take a very long time to get them back, they will pay.
 
gtrietsc said:
A lot more than that. Toyota is saying that if you need to load something heavy (more than 200 lbs) you should remove the tailgate. LOL.
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Most men who need to load heavy stuff into their truck weigh more than that. No, not because they're fat, because they're just big dudes.
 
It's hilarious: there are 4 different businesses in the same street I work on that all have Tundras as their company vehicle (2 catering bakeries, a rug store, and a sports memorabilia store) and they all have busted taillight lenses. The first time I saw how far our the side those lenses stuck out, my very first thought was "Wow...those are going to get busted right away...

As far as the tailgate things go, I've never once had to remove the tailgate because I was putting something heavy in the truck. Heck, I've put wheel ramps right on the tailgate in a 1988 Ford F-150, and driven 4-wheelers and snowmobiles right up it into the box. No problems at all.

There was already another thread on this truck in which someone posted video's of various trucks going over a very bumpy dirt road...the shaking the Tundra did was hilarious.

edit: I just remembered a time with the F-150 where I saw 4 people standing on the open tailgate, jumping up and down in unison, trying to see if they could get the front wheels of the truck to move. Of course, they were all idiots who all thought they were brilliant...however, my point stands...probably 6-700lbs bouncing on the tailgate, and it closed fine.
 
A golf cart is pretty unusual, but if you try to load an ATV into it and this happens...
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Reminds me of my friend's dad's T100 (remember those?!) that's lasted him a while, but only because he won't get rid of it. It's survived countless Boy Scout camping trips loaded up to the brim with crap, but it's starting to show its age with a power steering pump replacement and some other complicated procedures. At least its tailgate holds up nicely! Well, until it fell off. :lol:
 
The Tundra particularly has been having some serious issues with quality. Even reliability, the 4WD versions are not doing too well. This was supposed their be their most new important vehicle for North America so far I haven't seen much to say it is. As for Toyota as a whole going down like Mercedes I don't think so, not yet. The one car to look at is the LS460 if that car slips up only then do I see serious trouble.
 
I don't know why it makes me happy to see Toyota fail when they have so much stake in Subaru, but it does.
 
I wonder if it's a case of cost cutting, or the people who weld it all together and make it fit. It seems to me that a lot of the cars made in America now, using American materials are suffering from build quality and assembly issues.

Perhaps it's mostly down to Toyota executives in America becoming increasingly greedy, in their relentless pursuit to make more money than GM.
 
There's only one place to go when you're on top...
 
Prost264 said:
Most men who need to load heavy stuff into their truck weigh more than that. No, not because they're fat, because they're just big dudes.
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The person doesn't even need to weigh over 200 lbs to exceed that. Have a 150lb person helping lift a heavy object and you can easily top 200 lbs on the tailgate. 200 does seem absurdly low. On Ford and GM trucks, there have been several times that we've had two people standing on the tailgate pulling something into the bed with a total weight of people and object in the 5-600 lbs range. Never had a problem with it, or even thought twice about it until now. Even the little S-10 easily handled me (220 at the time) and a 150 lb tractor wheel/tire on the tailgate with no ill effect.
 
Well, to be fair...remember guys, they are not saying "It will fail at 200lbs." They are just saying, you might want remove it. I'd be curious if anyone here has a current-gen Ram, Silverado, or F-150 and could look-up in their manual what it says about tailgate weight guidlines
 
NecroJoe said:
Well, to be fair...remember guys, they are not saying "It will fail at 200lbs." They are just saying, you might want remove it. I'd be curious if anyone here has a current-gen Ram, Silverado, or F-150 and could look-up in their manual what it says about tailgate weight guidlines
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I just looked in my '03 F-250 manual. The only thing it said about the tailgate was how to lock it and how to remove it, nothing about how much weight could be put on it. That being said, I have loaded several golf carts (1000-1200 pounds) in and out of my truck and several barrels of methanol (I'm guessing 500 pounds) without a single problem.

My dad's '03 Silverado hasn't had a problem with barrels, except that the cables snapped one day while unloading a barrel of methanol with me and him on the gate (probably 1000 pounds total). Luckily we where transferring the barrel to a trailer and only dropped down about an inch or two. A month or two after that happened he got a letter from GM saying that they knew there is a problem with the tailgate cables, but didn't have a fix for them yet. Two year later and he still has the cables that he bought from a local auto parts store... :lol:
 
gtrietsc said:
It aint easy being a top tier automaker, is it?
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I'd still take a Toyota over just about any American "equivalent".

I have over 100,000 miles on my '04 Sienna and the only maintenance has been oil changes.
 
efoolution said:
Must resist making jokes about fat americans sitting on their tailgates ... must resist, must be strong ...
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same thing crossed my mind when i saw the pic as well :mrgreen:

i have a ford bantam , and its a light weight pickup truck, we call it a one-tonner in SA, and the tailgate can exert roughly about 200kg of weight. The oke must be a heavy weight ameican then, thats what you get for too much maccyds :rolleyes:
 
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