My i-Force Max has an.... Alternator???

[Gfenza89]

Uhhh... They forgot? lol

Who knows lol

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[gasgasman]

My truck has a volt meter. It shows when the 12v battery is being charged.

 

[HarryDaHamster]

I assumed they have an alternator for one or a combination of three reasons. 1) The Tacoma hybrid system was built for a small power boost in acceleration, not for fuel economy therefore the hybrid battery is much smaller, 2) redundancy and reliability for truck use, and 3) it’s cheaper to have one ICE with alternator rather than two ICE options and a DC/DC converter

 

[SnowmanJPS]

Who knows lol

The MY25’s added a 4th auxiliary switch from the MY24 maybe something to do with that

 

[StreeTaco]

It would seem that they realized that if all four switches were powered on, possibly with all four drawing max amps, that the 12v battery was actually being discharged faster than it was being charged.. hence the need for an alternate charging source.

 

[wire4money]

I assumed they have an alternator for one or a combination of three reasons. 1) The Tacoma hybrid system was built for a small power boost in acceleration, not for fuel economy therefore the hybrid battery is much smaller, 2) redundancy and reliability for truck use, and 3) it’s cheaper to have one ICE with alternator rather than two ICE options and a DC/DC converter

The question isn’t why does it have one, but rather why do some have it and others don’t.

 

[BoboForShort]

It would seem that they realized that if all four switches were powered on, possibly with all four drawing max amps, that the 12v battery was actually being discharged faster than it was being charged.. hence the need for an alternate charging source.

This is starting to seem like the most likely answer.

If the M/G isn't charging the 12v system constantly then I guess I could see a situation where you could park the truck at a low point in the charge cycle and have issues.

But if they're only added to 25s with the AUX switches I'm leaning more towards power draw concerns.

 

[mattski2112]

U.S.-spec, 2024 TRD Off-Road, premium package, iForceMax. Definitely have the factory aux switch package, definitely *do not* have an alternator.

 

[StreeTaco]

Yes, but you don’t have that fourth aux switch

 

[mattski2112]

Ah, didn’t catch that the 25s are coming with the 4th switch. Turns out reading IS fundamental…. ;P

 

[Billy K]

USA TRD Pro build Jan 25 with alternator. Has 4 AUX switches and Lightbar switch. My guess is that they added the alternator to keep up with all the extra lights that can be added.

 

[TacoTime]

The car care nut talks about the alternator inclusion on hybrid 4Runners with aux switches in his deep dive . Mostly to provide power for aux but also allows normal operation if hybrid battery fails. Personally I’ve never had a Toyota hybrid battery fail in my Prius 3rd gen.

 

[TacoFreak]

Interesting. So do the Tacos with alternators also have a seperate starter motor? That would mean that the 2025 Tacoma hybrids are significantly different than the 2024s.

 

[SnowmanJPS]

Interesting. So do the Tacos with alternators also have a seperate starter motor? That would mean that the 2025 Tacoma hybrids are significantly different than the 2024s.

They have two starters. the 2024's should as well.

 

[TacoFreak]

They have two starters. the 2024's should as well.

I have not looked to see if my truck has a starter motor or not. The early descriptions of the Taco hybrid system said that the ICE is started by the M/G, but that does not mean there isn't separate starter motor also. I guess it is time to crawl under there and take a look.

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