The 2024 Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter is official – Here’s what we know so far!
If you’re looking for a factory-built adventure rig, this upcoming batch of midsize trucks will offer you more choice than ever. Consider this yet another option, as Toyota will indeed expand its rugged “Trailhunter” lineup from the full-size Tundra to its smaller Tacoma sibling. “Developed from the ground up for sustained adventures,” Toyota said in its statement Tuesday, “Tacoma Trailhunter will build upon Toyota’s legendary off-road and overlanding credibility with purpose-built engineering and robust components.”
To that end, we’re getting a small teaser of what to expect. On the “robust components” front, we’re getting an ARB bumper and recovery point on the rear of the 2024 Toyota Tacoma. ARB is a huge name in the overlanding space, so it’s the sort of thing we would expect to see, especially after getting an idea where the automaker’s thinking with the Tundra Trailhunter concept at last year’s SEMA show.
Officially, the ARB kit and two Trailhunter badges are all Toyota is willing to share at the moment. The revamped midsize truck’s launch is painfully close, however, and this does at least give a couple more clues as to what you can expect.
What can we expect with the 2024 Toyota Tacoma? Patent images and a few silhouette photos more or less already confirmed the new truck’s styling. Toyota did share a rear shot of the new TRD Pro as well, sporting its “i-Force MAX” badging as another nod to rumors of its hybrid powertrain swirling around for a long while. Based on everything we know so far, the new truck should launch sporting a 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, in both gas-only and hybrid configurations. Exact figures are anyone’s guess, though they will likely trend in the same ballpark as other Toyota vehicles, like the gas Highlander’s 265 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque. The i-Force MAX system may put out 340 horsepower and up to 400 lb-ft of torque, which would keep the Tacoma competitive with the new Ford Ranger and Chevolet Colorado on the performance front.
Where will the Tacoma Trailhunter fit in?
There’s another question to tackle with today’s announcement: Where will the Trailhunter sit among the Tacoma’s existing off-road variants? We have the TRD Pro, after all, not to mention the less expensive TRD Off-Road.
While we don’t know where Toyota will position the Tacoma Trailhunter on pricing yet, odds are it will land between both the existing off-road trims. With its overlanding theme, it’s likely this truck will serve as the Taco’s “Trail Boss” or “Tremor” equivalent — focusing on creating a capable adventure rig over out-and-out performance. The Tundra, for its part, has better performance credentials for the TRD Pro this time around by way of its hybrid powertrain, creating a more capable F-150 Raptor rival. Folks wanting a bit more gusto, then, can go for the Tacoma TRD Pro rather than a Trailhunter.
In essence, each of the new, overhauled trucks arriving in the midsize pickup segment this year have three levels of off-road trims:
- Chevy Colorado: Z71 -> Trail Boss (priced less than Z71, but comes with a lift) -> ZR2
- Ford Ranger (as far as we can guess): FX4 -> Tremor -> Raptor
- GMC Canyon: Elevation -> AT4 -> AT4X
- Toyota Tacoma: TRD Off-Road -> Trailhunter -> TRD Pro (Again, our best educated guess)
As for the Nissan Frontier, perhaps the Trailhunter will provide a more apples-to-apples Pro-4X competitor than the new TRD Pro will.
Of course, we’ll know far more in the coming weeks and months as Toyota finally reveals more official information about the 2024 Tacoma. TFLtruck will be there every step of the way, so stay tuned for more updates coming soon!
