3rd gen Tundra for overland

just got the new 2023 tundra for about a month now. This was going to be a do everything truck, daily drive, towing a car trailer, overland adventures with the family.
It does the first two pretty well.

But i'm starting to have doubts about building it for the trails.
Mainly the turning radius is so large (crewmax shortbed).
So before i sink major mods $$ into this thing, for guys who've built it up for overland and trails, what's your honest review?

would it be better to go with a tried and true tacoma or 4runner instead? (if staying in the toyota lineup)

 

Are you looking for an overland rig or a trail rig? Expedition Overland on youtube uses a Tundra in their fleet very successfully. They don't really crawl trails though.

 

Overlanding is what we used to call car camping. The tundra is suited just fine for it. If you need a trail vehicle, get a 4Runner.

 

or a land cruiser if you can afford the price on used ones now.

 

As others are pointing out, we can't dial in our recommendations until we understand what 'overlanding' means to you. There's a significant number of 2nd gen builds on here that include sleep areas, kitchen gear, hot water... even a rig with beer on nitro.

I haven't paid a lot of attention to any differences in turn radius between 2nd and 3rd gens, but both are better than 1st gen, and I rock crawl my 1st gen, and camp off-grid in both my 1st and 2.5 gen. So... these trucks are very capable. Depends a lot on your skills as a driver, and what you're comfortable doing. And whether you're ok with trail "pinstriped" paint on a brand new truck.

 

It really does feel far larger than the 2nd gens. I can't imagine what turning the CM6.5 is like, lol. I don't rock crawl necessarily, but I do go dispersed camping in places that are very tight, and I very much value my truck's still best-in-class maneuverability.

If you're concerned with staying under GVWR at all times, you might consider not bolting everything imaginable to your truck (armor, skids, bumpers, rack, Decked drawers, tent, fridge, 2nd battery, etc).

Lastly, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "overlanding"...are you simply camping out of the truck? Day trips for trail rides? Extended boondocking/dispersed camping? My personal opinion is, the more complicated and less time-tested a vehicle is, the less I want to be away from civilization in remote places with it.

 

ive notice the turn radius is bigger in the 3rd gen trying to park or move around parking lots compared to our 2018.

some usual spots are now taking 3 point turns instead of 2

big one is the u-turn out of the grocery store. before i could stay pretty close to the 2nd lane and now i am forced out to the 3rd lane to the very edge

 

You’ll be fine

 

I think it means something a little different to everyone, but the crux of the definition is that it's vehicle based camping and exploration. The vehicle can be a motorcycle, a Unimog with a camper conversion or anything in between.

I don't look at it quite like car camping as the overlanding part suggests spending only a night or two in one place, generally off grid in remote areas, before moving on down the road or over the land. Car camping to me is a family rolling into an established campground, paying $20+ per night, full hook ups and being surrounded by other "campers".

In my mind, an overlanding rig can easily be used to effectively car camp but a car can't be as easily used to effectively overland.

Dunno if that makes sense, but yeah. LOL

 

You tagged me, so I'll respond to this. I can do a U-turn in a full sized utility bucket truck, without channeling my inner Austin Powers. This is what engineers designing intersections allowing U-turns intend. I'm not sure why recent generations of drivers do this weird immediate crank to the left as soon as they pass the raised lane delineator. As the posted sign shows, go all the way out into the interaction, staying in your lane as though to make a left turn, then reverse back just before that turn. Tires turning while moving are more effective than tires cranked while not/barely moving. No need to cheat over into the lane to the right of the turn lane either.

 

i think 3rd gen tundra has the largest turning radius of any truck out there...
3rd gen tundra - 24'
1st gen tundra - 22'
tacoma - 21'

 

Tundra turn radii:
3rd gen is 24.3’
2nd gen is 22.0’
1st gen is 23.3’ (double cab) 23.1’ (access cab)

…according to Car Specs

It sure feels like the differences are larger than that behind the wheel.

 

My truck is way more than that lol. 99.9% of typical overlanding you won’t even notice the larger turning radius. You’ll do a couple more 3 pt turns without even thinking about it. It’s on switchbacks where you’ll mostly struggle.



Something like this 320° turn with a 100ft cliff on the other side. I tried to cut inside because my turning radius is so bad and I would’ve had to make a 40 pt turn. And I had a broken CV so I was in 2wd and it was very steep. Ofcourse I got stuck and had to get yanked out. Then went back to plan A and did a 40 pt turn. Lol

 

I think it can be a very different story in the Eastern US and even in SW CO, where you're looking for a camping spot in a forested area with no roads. I had to navigate some pretty tight spots to find a place to sleep for the night in the San Juans:


And this road was also very tight, similar to trails out here in TN. But it was fun!


But yeah, if you're mostly on maintained roads, it's probably not going to be a problem.

 

It's fine.

Want to see the difference? Get 51 feet of string, tie a piece of chalk to one end and have a friend hold the other end down in the same spot. Find an open parking lot and draw two radii - one of 48.6 feet, and one of 50 feet. That's the difference between the CM 5.5 vs 6.5. 19 inches.

 

Is the turn radius something toyota can improve in this generation or will it take a complete redesign for it to change?

 

It'd take a full platform redesign. So his is set for this generation. Individual owners *can* make it worse though, by tire and suspension mods.

 

which most of us do by adding aftermarket wheels.