Just fifteen miles of driving our 2007 Toyota Tundra Double Cab pickup truck on a simple 4x4 trail in Joshua Tree National Park left both sides of the truck with a serious case of Desert Stripe. The driver's side (above) looked a little better than the passenger side, as the natural tendency is to clear the things on your side, which puts the passenger side up against it.
"It" was a constant parade of Yucca, Mesquite, Creosote Bush and a host of other plants I can't name due to my lack of botany skills. But any desert off-roader can tell you that the only pruning given to the desert plants alongside trails like this is provided by passing vehicles, like our Tundra.
And due to its considerable width (the Tundra is the widest full-size truck sold, tied with the Dodge Ram and Chevy Silverado at 79.9 inches) the Tundra is the most effective trail pruning 4x4 out there. Toyota doesn't publish a mirror-to-mirror width, but I have a tape measure. Care to guess?
96.5 inches--over 8 feet wide. No wonder the monstrous mirrors looked like this. Scott and I drove with the windows down so we could snap off offending twigs to ease the trip back out the way we came, but there were just too many; the occaisional thin branch would sproing off the mirror and into our faces. Nice.
Despite our best efforts, i still couldn't avoid the horrible "Ssccrrrreee" chalkboard noise as a twig slowly dragged its way along the length of the cab and bed. Clearly, some of this Desert Stripe wasn't going to come out without a buffer.
In the end, the lighter stuff, mere dust brushed onto the paint by passing leaves, did rinse off. But parts of the truck had made friends with stouter twigs (the ones that went "Ssccrrrreee"), and looked like this after coming out of our favorite carwash.
All of which makes me wonder: why by a full-size 4x4 truck to go off-roading, or even light, low-speed desert trail running, for that matter? You'd have to be willing to sacrfice your paint if you lived where I do and drove the trails I drive. If I were Toyota 4x4 shopping, I think I'd buy a Tacoma or FJ Cruiser. They're both almost 6 inches narrower, and the mirrors aren't nearly as protruberant, especially on the FJ. The Jeep Wrangler, Nissan Xterra and Frontier, Ford Ranger and Chevy Colorado are narrower-still.
Some people pay $150 for pinstriping at the dealer (or used to, when it was cool.) I had to pay $150 to the man with the buffer at our local detail shop to remove the Desert Stripe package from the Tundra. Now she looks and shines like new. But I'll never take a full-size truck out desert exploring again.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ 16,964 miles
thetruck454 says:
09:29 PM, 04/28/08
I knew this was comming
billt9 says:
09:42 PM, 04/28/08
So sacrifice your paint. What does it matter as long as the primer is still intact? Wear and tear should be an acceptable part of life.
aspade says:
11:36 PM, 04/28/08
These things happen off pavement. And buying a 4WD truck to stay on pavement is stupid.
uncanny_man says:
11:41 PM, 04/28/08
Finally you can see why the old Jeeps had plastic cladding. The all painted look doesn't look quite so clean anymore now does it?
dougtheeng says:
05:52 AM, 04/29/08
So the scratches on the plastic mirror cover are permenant?
skierx420 says:
06:54 AM, 04/29/08
How about that a 4x4 got dirty! Who cares about a few scratches go do it agian!
stingray454 says:
07:18 AM, 04/29/08
Maybe this would be a good opportunity for Edmunds to test some of the scratch remover products on the market to see if they really work as advertised. Some of them have some very big claims to work miracles.
Also, I think 4x4 trucks like this would be perfect applications for the Nippon's self healing paint like the Infiniti EX35 has. A full size 4x4 would have more use for this paint than a small crossover which will probably never see the offroad.
estreka says:
08:56 AM, 04/29/08
This is why people buy old trucks to go offroading. I think this is the first time I've ever seen a new truck offroad (beyond mudding I should say).
ahightower says:
10:13 AM, 04/29/08
1) Why not fold the mirrors off road?
2) At least it came out with the buffer. Good to know.
3) Tacoma and FJ only 6 inches narrower? Just about as bad on gas too. Might as well get the big truck.
thebigal says:
01:11 PM, 04/29/08
oops... there goes your resale value.
desmolicious says:
02:19 PM, 04/29/08
Having taken an FJ Cruiser off road, my 02 Wrangler feels like a micro car compared to it. If yer gonna go off-road, you want yer truck to be as small as possible and cheap!
billt9 says:
03:50 PM, 04/29/08
Jack that Mini up and take it off road!
desmolicious says:
05:30 PM, 04/29/08
I was thinkin' the Smart car with BF Goodrich mud radials...
villahidalgo says:
07:50 PM, 04/29/08
Dan, you should've taken the minivan winner of the "best car ever" comparison. Seriously, scratch the paint off-roading and then blame the Tundra for being too wide? Come on.
actualsize says:
10:03 PM, 04/29/08
If this were MY truck, I'd care a lot less about Desert Stripe. But it isn't mine, and after its year is up it needs to be in presentable enough shape to go to someone else. Needless to say, I won't be taking this one out again.
All of the 4x4s I've owned in the past were narrower than this beast--none was a full-size 4x4. I admit I was caught off-guard. After this experience, I don't think I'd ever buy a full-size 4x4.
And metallic blue paint isn't the best choice to hide scratches. My '93 Land Cruiser was white and it hid a 5-year accumulation of The Stripe a lot better than this single-day dose.
cruiserhead1 says:
04:44 AM, 04/30/08
it's a truck for goodness sake! scratches and dings are part of the game. It's a tool for a job, not a Gucci bag.
thebigal says:
01:03 PM, 04/30/08
I can see Dan's point however... It is a truck and meant to be used as a truck, but it is also going to be sold in a few months and how well would a few dozen scratches on a year old vehicle fly when trying to sell it?
If it were my truck, I would care less about the scratches. But, if it were to be sold, I would want it in the best shape possible.
billt9 says:
03:31 PM, 04/30/08
...and hence this would not be a real truck owner's dilemma.
Only a one-year test's dilemma.
DISCLAIMER: This issue not applicable to actual truck ownership.
actualsize says:
08:51 PM, 05/ 2/08
Yeah, I hear all of you, but since I do have the off-road habit and trails like this are nothing new to me, my personal 4x4 truck would still have to be a compact. I prefer the maneuverability afforded be the more svelte rigs--less scraping through the shrubbery is merely a bonus. My point about the Tundra being a wide load for my kind of usage still stands.