OK, But Is the Toyota Tundra TRD Pro Good at Truck Stuff?
Last Minute home projects put our yearlong review Tundra to work.
I have a theory about why everyone is driving a truck these days: Folks grew tired of asking their bros to borrow theirs for a weekend run to Ikea, the hardware store, or the dump. Sooner or later, everyone needs a truck. My personal need for a truck skyrocketed when my wife and I bought our first home. Weekends, once reserved for rest and relaxation, were now reprioritized for home improvement and landscaping projects.
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With that in mind, when the possibility of shepherding our yearlong review 2023 Tundra TRD Pro came along, it wasn’t just its off-road chops that I was excited about—it was having access to a truck for a year. Just think of all the projects we could cross off our never-ending to-do list.
With our Tundra’s yearlong stay in our garage near its end, I made sure its last few weeks with us were truck’n busy.
The Payload
With time in the Tundra quickly dwindling, my wife and I decided to tackle the most hauling-heavy project on our docket: redoing our front yard. We’d been slowly chipping away at the project for months, leveling the ground and clearing away mounds of weeds, wood chips, and non-native plants, but we’d finally reached the point where we needed gravel for the pathways and mulch for our newly planted garden beds.
I am unapologetically cheap. If given the choice between spending $200 on delivery or making six separate trips over four days to haul 4,500 pounds of gravel and a ton and a half of mulch, I'll always make the wrong decision and do it myself. What better way to put our Tundra TRD Pro’s 1,449-pound payload to use?
With that capacity in mind, I decided break down the load into separate 1,500-pound trips, unloading between each trip. Efficient? Not exactly, but it would though give me the opportunity to drive our Tundra for an extended period while slightly overloaded (as many customers often do).
How It Went
No matter how much I plan, home projects never seem to be straightforward. In this case, five of the six trips to my local landscape supply place—a quick 20-minute drive—went smoothly. Unfortunately, after unloading the final load of gravel, I realized we’d underestimated how much we needed to finish our project. To make matters worse, I had purchased the last of my local shop’s supply. That meant for the final load, I’d have to drive almost 250 miles round trip to the regional supply yard for the remaining load [Insanity—Ed.].
Once again, the Tundra’s 3.4-liter twin-turbo V-6 hybrid drivetrain was the star of the show. I mentioned this in my previous update regarding the Tundra’s towing ability, but the Tundra’s 583 lb-ft of electrically enhanced torque is enough to make it feel unincumbered with a full load. Accelerating up to and maintaining highway speeds was easy, and the Toyota never felt overstressed, despite looking a little funny with its off-road-oriented suspension in a Carolina Squat under the weight of the gravel.
Amusingly, the compressed suspension did make it easier to access the bed to unload it. Once enough weight had been removed and the ride-height had returned to normal, the optional $399 (now a $424 option for 2024) bed step came in handy.
What Did We Learn?
My biggest piece of advice for truck owners is this: Don’t be like me. Saving $200 on delivery was great and all, but the added time and stress of making so many smaller loads made our project even more daunting.
More useful (for you, I hope), is that the Toyota Tundra TRD Pro with its torquey drivetrain can comfortably pull double duty as a work truck when your weekend plans change from rock crawling to rock hauling.
For More on Our Long-Term 2023 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro:
Like many of my coworkers, my love for cars was cemented at a young age, thanks in part to Hot Wheels, car magazines, and every car poster I could afford when the book fair set up shop in my elementary school library. While most kids went straight for Where’s Waldo? and Goosebumps, I was torn between the poster of the Lamborghini Countach and the ’32 Ford hot rod with airbrushed flames on the cowling. In high school, I worked at Bergstrom's Antique Autos, a historic garage in Port Townsend, Washington. Surrounded by nearly a century of automotive history, I immersed myself in cleaning, sorting, and selling car parts and memorabilia. I also spent countless hours flipping through vintage car magazines and can comfortably say that I've looked through every Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Hot Rod, and Sports Car Graphic up until the early 1980s. Around the same time, I picked up photography—naturally, with cars as my main subject. Despite my high school photography teacher's advice to branch out, I stuck to my passion and attended every car show I could find. This led me to the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, where I earned a bachelor’s degree with a focus on automotive photography. I began my career at Motor Trend as a photography intern. After freelancing for a few years, I joined the Motor Trend team full-time in late 2010. My passion for cars and photography continues to fuel my work, and I hope it shines through in every shot.
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