Overall a good truck, but a big Fail and a bit of a miss

[Orlyg1521]

Just picked up my Everest TRD Offroad and love it. What a difference from my 2011 4runner Trail modified by Metal Tech. Night and day driving experience. The new rig has a much tighter suspension and way more comfortable with its Bilstein shocks. The 4 banger is plenty powerful especially in Sport mode. The new tech is taking some getting used to but mostly good. Plans for the truck include:
Westcott roof rack, Dissent hidden winch bumper, Caltrend faux leather seat covers, Lasfit floor mats, Auxlight 3" light pods x 4 on the Dissent bumper. And eventually (when new tires are needed) larger tires and possibly a 2" lift. Overall much less aftermarket mods needed compared to the 5th gen. Which leads me to the
first miss: phone wireless charging is weak. Using Android auto, Pandora for music and Google maps with GPS on and the phone drains and the charging can not keep up. Might have to plug in which defeats the purpose of the wireless. I have seen aftermarket chargers that fit that space with more charging power for the Apple wireless. Hopefully and android version comes out soon
Second and most mind boggling is the rear seat fold up mechanism. Absolute garbage and archaic solution to a problem that shouldn't be. Having the 5th gen: the seat folding was decent and only lost about 6" of horizontal space and allowed use of the rear door access to load things. This new version looses 17" of horizontal space!!!! and on top of that is the flimsy small door (which I can see breaking soon) to access the nylon strap you have to pull out to wrap around the grab handle to keep it from falling back!!! I can't believe the engineers sitting at Toyota coming up or accepting this as a solution. Last I know the engineering exists (Chrysler Pacifica) to make seats disappear flat, or at least keep the 5th gen version.

Otherwise I am liking the truck

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[BlinkerFluid]

Wireless charging is weak in most vehicles. Plug your phone into the USB-C charging ports and you’ll see they’re lighting fast compared to older vehicles. After a full workday I can charge my phone almost completely on the ride home from work. That’s pretty dang good.

The rear seat thing seems like a weird nit pick of an issue. I love my TRD Pro.

 

[Dead Horse]

The wireless charger keeps up with my phone while using Android Auto, Google maps, and YT Music. It won't net much positive charge, but it keeps up most of the time. It should have a fan that blows on it though.

And while the Pacifica and other vehicles in this category don't have a bigass frame there (making disappearing seats easier to engineer), I agree that the tumbling second row is a pretty crappy solution. I'd give it a pass if it made the load floor flat, but it makes it worse...So yeah. Irritating.

 

[oregonalex]

Second and most mind boggling is the rear seat fold up mechanism. Absolute garbage and archaic solution to a problem that shouldn't be. Having the 5th gen: the seat folding was decent and only lost about 6" of horizontal space and allowed use of the rear door access to load things. This new version looses 17" of horizontal space!!!! and on top of that is the flimsy small door (which I can see breaking soon) to access the nylon strap you have to pull out to wrap around the grab handle to keep it from falling back!!! I can't believe the engineers sitting at Toyota coming up or accepting this as a solution. Last I know the engineering exists (Chrysler Pacifica) to make seats disappear flat, or at least keep the 5th gen version.

No kidding. The rear seats were the first thing I removed. Second actually, after the idiotic door 'protectors' the dealer put on.

The seats were easy to remove. First I disabled the rear seatbelt warnings using Carista, then just popped the covers, unplugged the connectors and unscrewed the 8 bolts. The bigger seat almost gave me a hernia. Super heavy and uwieldy. The bolts could not be screwed back all the way in afterwards, so I stored them with the seats and bought a bag of 10mm silicone plugs to cover the holes neatly. I have also ordered a sheet of 1" closed cell foam to cover the entire area. The wife had an idea to sew a nylon cover for the foam and put Velcro hook strips on the bottom to stick to the carpet and keep the foam in place. I'll post pics when done. But it is already wonderful without the seats.

Now I just need to get rid of the cow catcher in the front.

Enjoy your rig. It looks great in Everest!

 

[Chcg12]

Love the Everest color. The rear seats not folding flat is a huge miss! No idea what they were thinking. I so want to like this new generation but feel the interior is cheap plastic. Trying to convince myself to just get the 4 x 4 SR5, which seems like a decent value. Have a mint condition, 21 Pro and would never even think of spending 70 K on a new one. Disappointed.

 

[John2112]

Just picked up my Everest TRD Offroad and love it. What a difference from my 2011 4runner Trail modified by Metal Tech. Night and day driving experience. The new rig has a much tighter suspension and way more comfortable with its Bilstein shocks. The 4 banger is plenty powerful especially in Sport mode. The new tech is taking some getting used to but mostly good. Plans for the truck include:
Westcott roof rack, Dissent hidden winch bumper, Caltrend faux leather seat covers, Lasfit floor mats, Auxlight 3" light pods x 4 on the Dissent bumper. And eventually (when new tires are needed) larger tires and possibly a 2" lift. Overall much less aftermarket mods needed compared to the 5th gen. Which leads me to the
first miss: phone wireless charging is weak. Using Android auto, Pandora for music and Google maps with GPS on and the phone drains and the charging can not keep up. Might have to plug in which defeats the purpose of the wireless. I have seen aftermarket chargers that fit that space with more charging power for the Apple wireless. Hopefully and android version comes out soon
Second and most mind boggling is the rear seat fold up mechanism. Absolute garbage and archaic solution to a problem that shouldn't be. Having the 5th gen: the seat folding was decent and only lost about 6" of horizontal space and allowed use of the rear door access to load things. This new version looses 17" of horizontal space!!!! and on top of that is the flimsy small door (which I can see breaking soon) to access the nylon strap you have to pull out to wrap around the grab handle to keep it from falling back!!! I can't believe the engineers sitting at Toyota coming up or accepting this as a solution. Last I know the engineering exists (Chrysler Pacifica) to make seats disappear flat, or at least keep the 5th gen version.

Otherwise I am liking the truck

Plug your phone directly into the side usb port on the side of the screen display. It charges faster and Android auto also works better along with that Apple equivalent. There are also advantages to plugging it in that way, you can also use external Wi-Fi devices like starlink or the built-in AT&t Wi-Fi when using it this way. I've never been a fan of wireless connections since they aren't always stable.

 

[NWRes]

If you have a case on your phone the charger is not going to work. Minus a case the charger works great for me and I'm using Android Auto, Bluetooth and Google Maps. Will completely charge my sometimes nearly dead phone and keep it charged while using the apps.

I have had four adults with luggage for a 10 day trip in the back of ours. For normal daily use the back has plenty of room. If it's your camping rig maybe not so much.

 

[quadna71]

If you have a case on your phone the charger is not going to work. Minus a case the charger works great for me and I'm using Android Auto, Bluetooth and Google Maps. Will completely charge my sometimes nearly dead phone and keep it charged while using the apps.

I have had four adults with luggage for a 10 day trip in the back of ours. For normal daily use the back has plenty of room. If it's your camping rig maybe not so much.

I have a Speck case on my phone and it charges through the case pretty well. I've never looked close enough to notice if it was charging quickly, but it will still increase the charge even while using the phone for maps as well as podcast streaming. I guess it depends upon which case you use.

 

[John2112]

If you have a case on your phone the charger is not going to work. Minus a case the charger works great for me and I'm using Android Auto, Bluetooth and Google Maps. Will completely charge my sometimes nearly dead phone and keep it charged while using the apps.

I have had four adults with luggage for a 10 day trip in the back of ours. For normal daily use the back has plenty of room. If it's your camping rig maybe not so much.

There are plenty of cases that work very well with wireless charging. I use peak designs case and it definitely keeps up with the charge on my pixel 9 Pro, Even while using onyx off-road.

 

[glocke12]

Wireless charging is weak in most vehicles. Plug your phone into the USB-C charging ports and you’ll see they’re lighting fast compared to older vehicles. After a full workday I can charge my phone almost completely on the ride home from work. That’s pretty dang good.

The rear seat thing seems like a weird nit pick of an issue. I love my TRD Pro.

the rear seat thing is not nit picking.. you lose a significant amount of cargo space which makes things like camping/sleeping in the back a problem for some folks, and carrying longer items back there is an issue also.

its a retarded thing...literally.

Theres one guy on here who thinks its the best thing ever but frankly I don't believe him.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Just picked up my Everest TRD Offroad and love it. What a difference from my 2011 4runner Trail modified by Metal Tech. Night and day driving experience. The new rig has a much tighter suspension and way more comfortable with its Bilstein shocks. The 4 banger is plenty powerful especially in Sport mode. The new tech is taking some getting used to but mostly good. Plans for the truck include:
Westcott roof rack, Dissent hidden winch bumper, Caltrend faux leather seat covers, Lasfit floor mats, Auxlight 3" light pods x 4 on the Dissent bumper. And eventually (when new tires are needed) larger tires and possibly a 2" lift. Overall much less aftermarket mods needed compared to the 5th gen. Which leads me to the
first miss: phone wireless charging is weak. Using Android auto, Pandora for music and Google maps with GPS on and the phone drains and the charging can not keep up. Might have to plug in which defeats the purpose of the wireless. I have seen aftermarket chargers that fit that space with more charging power for the Apple wireless. Hopefully and android version comes out soon
Second and most mind boggling is the rear seat fold up mechanism. Absolute garbage and archaic solution to a problem that shouldn't be. Having the 5th gen: the seat folding was decent and only lost about 6" of horizontal space and allowed use of the rear door access to load things. This new version looses 17" of horizontal space!!!! and on top of that is the flimsy small door (which I can see breaking soon) to access the nylon strap you have to pull out to wrap around the grab handle to keep it from falling back!!! I can't believe the engineers sitting at Toyota coming up or accepting this as a solution. Last I know the engineering exists (Chrysler Pacifica) to make seats disappear flat, or at least keep the 5th gen version.

Otherwise I am liking the truck

I totally agree that rear seat is crap in design and that stupid little strap is more ridiculous!
I do realize they would have had to change the entire floor pan to make them disappear, the rear seat design was probably an afterthought of the overall chassis design .

they should have at least kept the design to fall into the 5th generation modeling at least.

I complain about this a lot because I am an avid cyclist and I like to just throw my bike in the back and not have to fiddle around with bike racks.
Which I found out that on one of my bikes I had to actually turn the front wheel up sideways to make it fit.

So I can live with that.

On my 5th gen I could easily stretch out on an angle with my bedding and have a pretty decent sleep. On this one, it will probably be stiff neck morning call.

 

[Lamuncha]

I had the misfortune of the third row. Wasn't much around when I bought mine in transit.
I figured whatever I will never use it and I need something so I will just eat the $1500 +/- and move on.
I now have a vehicle that will comfortably transport two people.

What I didn't check is loss of rear leg room in the 2nd row. It is maybe 6 inches could be five. They sacrificed 5 or 6 inches to shoe horn in the dumbest design ever- 3rd row.

It's on me for not checking. But who would have thought.....

In my opinion, in an accident no one is getting out of that mess.
The back of the rear seat is maybe 6 inches from the rear hatch. Someone posted a pic of a rear end collision in his 4runner - yikes.

I was hoping the frame and floor had everything in place to handle either 2 or 3 rows. I would dumpsterize the third row and move the second row back to existing tiedowns.
Maybe someone knows if this is feasible.
I did a quick check yesterday, it appears to be a major PITA

 

[Joe Dirt]

I had the misfortune of the third row. Wasn't much around when I bought mine in transit.
I figured whatever I will never use it and I need something so I will just eat the $1500 +/- and move on.
I now have a vehicle that will comfortably transport two people.

What I didn't check is loss of rear leg room in the 2nd row. It is maybe 6 inches could be five. They sacrificed 5 or 6 inches to shoe horn in the dumbest design ever- 3rd row.

It's on me for not checking. But who would have thought.....

In my opinion, in an accident no one is getting out of that mess.
The back of the rear seat is maybe 6 inches from the rear hatch. Someone posted a pic of a rear end collision in his 4runner - yikes.

I was hoping the frame and floor had everything in place to handle either 2 or 3 rows. I would dumpsterize the third row and move the second row back to existing tiedowns.
Maybe someone knows if this is feasible.
I did a quick check yesterday, it appears to be a major PITA

Yes you would probably be fine with just removing the third row. That would be interesting to see if you can move that second row back. I was unaware that they actually moved that up closer to the front seats by design.
I had a 24 RAV4 and I was able to lay both of my bikes not at the same time completely flat.
Yes cargo space for me comes at a premium!

 

[glocke12]

No kidding. The rear seats were the first thing I removed. Second actually, after the idiotic door 'protectors' the dealer put on.

The seats were easy to remove. First I disabled the rear seatbelt warnings using Carista, then just popped the covers, unplugged the connectors and unscrewed the 8 bolts. The bigger seat almost gave me a hernia. Super heavy and uwieldy. The bolts could not be screwed back all the way in afterwards, so I stored them with the seats and bought a bag of 10mm silicone plugs to cover the holes neatly. I have also ordered a sheet of 1" closed cell foam to cover the entire area. The wife had an idea to sew a nylon cover for the foam and put Velcro hook strips on the bottom to stick to the carpet and keep the foam in place. I'll post pics when done. But it is already wonderful without the seats.

Now I just need to get rid of the cow catcher in the front.

Enjoy your rig. It looks great in Everest!

So what did you do with your rear seats after removal ? I am tempted to do the same as it's doubtful they will ever get used but storage would be an issue.

 

[oregonalex]

So what did you do with your rear seats after removal ? I am tempted to do the same as it's doubtful they will ever get used but storage would be an issue.

For now they rest in the corner of a spare room/home gym. Bit of a nuisance.

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