Smoking While on a Incline

It seems like in order for this to happen you have to:

1. Be going up a very steep incline, north of 35 degrees
2. Fail at it for a while so that the truck remains at a steep angle for an extended period
3. Run the engine hard to push a lot of oil out of the system
4. When the smoke happens, ignore it and keep pushing
5. When the light comes on to tell you the engine is starved for oil (in case you didn't see the smoke), ignore it
6. Keep pushing the truck hard to get up the incline
7. RIP motor

Agreed that Toyota should publish something official here, and agreed that there are certainly cases on a steep incline where backing down is highly unsafe.

That said, pushing the motor after the smoke and the oil light... yeah, of course that isn't good for the engine. Turn it off. Winch out of the situation or treat it like a recovery and get help or jack up the back a little to try and level her out and let the oil drain back into the pan or back down carefully or... idk the situation you were in, but "ignore the warning light, ignore the smoke, slam the throttle" seems like a thing you do when your life is in imminent danger and the life of the motor doesn't matter, but not with a bunch of people around at an SVRA.

 

8.

 

9. Make a website?

 

36?

 

https://youtu.be/T1uVeZIRv3w

Video is kind of annoying but it is a pretty steep hill, over the 30 degrees that the truck can measure anyways.

 

You're making a lot of assumptions here and your answer makes it clear you don't do hill-climb recoveries often. You don't jack up a truck on holister hill unless you've exhausted every other possible option.

I was very aware of the state of the truck during the recovery. The entire recovery probably took 30 minutes and was done to maximize safety and minimize risk of rollover. Unfortunately, to get safely out, even with a tow strap, winch or other recovery equipment, there are times when you need engine RPMs.

The fact that the Tacoma puts you in a situation where you have to choose between your safety and the truck, is not okay. They should at least be upfront about those limitations. I think it's fair to ask for that.

Red18Taco707 - thanks for that little image. It was a very sweet one. It really adds to the quality of the conversation. You should be proud.

 

Here’s a better one

 

But according to his website your truck should be broken?

 

Might not want to let Toyota see that...just in case. Lol

 

I'd be a lot more sympathetic to your cause if you took any ownership at all for your problem. You got yourself into a bad situation with a vehicle you didn't know the capabilities of, knowingly pushed it past the point of safety for the motor, and then continued with your plan to put the vehicle under heavy load for a long duration shortly thereafter without being satisfied as to the root cause of the problem. It sucks that your trip was ruined, it is BS (but incredibly unsurprising) that Tacoma tried to duck the warranty work, but come on man.

• "Toyota should be upfront about the incline/duration limitations of the vehicle and possible damage."
• "It was bullshit that Toyota tried to avoid the warranty work by claiming the motor was hydrolocked."
• "There was no way I could possibly have avoided this problem."
• "Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Tacomas can't ford water or climb hills without the motor exploding."
• "http://neverbuyatacomaoffroad.com/"

 

If you read the website, you would see what I actually said: "There are a lot of things I could've done differently - I get that." I go on to actually list things I could've done differently.

So this is clearly not true. Not only are you not understanding my argument, but you are also making up quotes to paint me as the "bad guy" and then pretending I said them to then claim I don't deserve your sympathy. I never asked for any sympathy in the first place, making the whole conversation useless and a distraction from the point. Ultimate #toyotafanboy move right there.

This is exactly my point. I'm not saying the Tacoma isn't a great truck that can't do these things. I'm saying:

• Because Toyota doesn't publish max inclination for climbs, or max fording depth for wading, anyone who does is SOL if something happens. Because Toyota claims that it's own truck can't do those things, and you therefore abused it.
• Not only that, but the lack of information can put those who actually do off-road in danger if they assume the Tacoma with the "off-road" package is more capable than it actually is.

So, all of you who actually do off-road a modern toyota and believe your truck can ford more than a few inches of water or climb 35 deg hills - you might be right, but know that Toyota disagrees with you.

And that says a lot about the truck.

Nobody here knows what a safe inclination angle is in a 3rd gen Tacoma. Is it 32 degrees? 40 degrees? Y'all can hate on me, mock me, throw stones at me. I can take it. Maybe you'll feel differently after you offroad that truck and that 32 degree hill climb turns into a 37 degree hill climb 200 feet up. Good luck.

Okay - I'm going to let this thread die - I've got better things to do than to continue repeating myself in a room of yota fanboys (y'all know who you are).

 

Toyota did not put YOU in a situation where you had to choose safety vs truck. Period. End. Of. Thread.

YOU put YOURSELF in that situation. Toyota makes no claim to what angle of inclination the Tacoma is rated to climb. Warranties almost always are for on road vehicle usage only. You choose to climb that hill. You are responsible for your own safety.

I'm sorry that your engine let go. I'm sorry that the truck did not work out for you. However blaming Toyota in this case is not proper.

 

It sucks that Toyota tried to skip out on warranty work. But honestly in today's world that's just the nature of the beast. More Than likely they auto deny major claims at a percentage. Home insurance companies do the same thing. Say 20% of claims are auto denied in hopes they give up. Corporations are shit bags because someone want to maximize profits. You told them you "off roaded and went through water" and they marked that down. When some corporate shit bag saw that it was auto denied. Then you caused a fuss and they rethought their course in fear you might file a suit, which would cost them more money than fixing your engine, even if they won the suit. It's all financial decisions.
If I was in that situation, I wouldnt have told them shit. Would have been short and sweet. "I was towing a load and the engine went". Nothing more.
Sorry you went through the BS, but all in all that's just how it is. Like someone said, off roading isn't covered by warrantys, and understandably so.

 

Well stated!

I also thought/read the engine blew while towing his airstream trailer yet his signature line states "after blowing the engine on "truck hill" in Hollister SRVA:

End of quote




Misleading???

 

From his website:

"Earlier generations too. Turns out all it takes to hydrolock a Tacoma ... is a puddle."

Don't know what his definition of a "puddle" is but that is absolute BS. Pure 100% BS.

 

TLDR

My advice: You should really stop smoking, incline or not. It's bad for you.

Tacomas kick ass!!

 

Yeah, he's just pissed throwing words around at this point. He's trying to blame the smoke on the hill but no one knows what happened really. He States a couple times it happened about 100 miles after the hill climb.

 

His website states his Tacoma was towed after his engine blew on I80 yet it appears in his website he drove his Tacoma with airstream in tow to the dealership in Davis, dropped the trailer jack and popped the hood.

His tires appear to be the factory Goodyears, hwy tread. That in itself would greatly diminish the hill climbing abilities of any 4WD when attempting to climb "Truck Hill".

 

If you are burning oil that will make it ping

 

Send it!!