To chin or not to chin

[lauren01]

Be chinless or be winless.

Sponsored

 

[Randyg]

I had the “Airdamn” (intentionally spelled) for the first year or so.
After changing the oil myself that damn has to go. I don’t jack my trucks to change oil and that damn dam made it difficult to do oil changes.

Main reason I took mine off.

 

[Steve.]

Today I got over my laziness and removed the chin

 

[Zigity]

I removed the air dam and installed the APC skid plate. TRD Sport long bed. When I removed the air damn, I had that whistle/drone sound from the 4 holes in each control arm. Plugged those with Toyota part # 90950-A1021 (x8 qty). No more sounds. The APC skid plate is light duty, but better than the “soft felt” factory skid. I also like that it has an oil filter hatch, although I am only approaching 500 miles and haven’t changed the oil yet.

Rationale for removing the air dam came down to two things: I don’t think it looks good, and I am worried about it getting ripped off in the winter. If I was ever to drive cross country I would put it back on, only 9 screws. But day to day around town, I’ll take the minor hit on MPG.

 

[WKTJR1]

People seem to forget the previous generation also had the spoiler. There's nothing new about it.

 

[DENNISD]

People seem to forget the previous generation also had the spoiler. There's nothing new about it.

They started to put them on cars back in '68 so they are nothing new.

While some are on cars/trucks that look "natural", the 4th. Generation Tacoma looks extremely out of place. It looks more as a cheap after thought IMHO. After you take them off it just looks so much better.

With that being said, the drag is very minimal so for those that take them off it will go almost unnoticed in regard to fuel mileage.

Like I stated before, to each their own but it is like keeping the plastic covers on car seats back in the 60's. Yes, they helped but at the cost of looking out of place.

 

[Wolf359]

People seem to forget the previous generation also had the spoiler. There's nothing new about it.

I had two 3rd gens and the dam came off both of them because they were fugly. I haven’t measured them but based on eyeball, the 3rd gen dams looked to me to be about half the “height” of these on the 4th gen trucks.
Maybe the 5th gen truck will have them race car style an inch off the ground.

 

[Droid]

The Toyota Tacoma is fundamentally designed for offroad capability at great expense to general safety, stability, handling, and fuel economy.

I'll never understand the point of buying one and then having a piece of plastic on the front that negates all offroad capability for a possible trivial improvement to fuel economy.

Imagine how much better of a vehicle you could design if a 12 degree approach angle and 6 inches of ground clearance was acceptable!

I also don't understand why manufacturers don't use power-retractable front air dams. Perhaps they could put a normal tailgate on my truck and use those actuators for this purpose? Just deploy it over 40mph and give me a switch to turn it off entirely.

 

[DENNISD]

The Toyota Tacoma is fundamentally designed for offroad capability at great expense to general safety, stability, handling, and fuel economy.

I'll never understand the point of buying one and then having a piece of plastic on the front that negates all offroad capability for a possible trivial improvement to fuel economy.

Imagine how much better of a vehicle you could design if a 12 degree approach angle and 6 inches of ground clearance was acceptable!

I also don't understand why manufacturers don't use power-retractable front air dams. Perhaps they could put a normal tailgate on my truck and use those actuators for this purpose? Just deploy it over 40mph and give me a switch to turn it off entirely.

I would guess it would be a cost issue. The money you save via gas mileage would be traded for the extra cost of the moving parts.

Once again, the minimal cost savings wouldn't make it prudent. Now if you were to drive this on the open highway for extended lengths of time (like Semi Trucks), it would make sense but as you suggested the dam doesn't really work well for the what the Tacoma was really designed for.

 

[maxx075]

I still stand by my opinion that the chin is stupid, looks stupid, and is pointless. And if I had one, I would remove it immediately.

HOWEVER, I will say that Toyota is going to charge you $650-$1000 to replace it (76854-AK020).

 

[DENNISD]

I still stand by my opinion that the chin is stupid, looks stupid, and is pointless. And if I had one, I would remove it immediately.

HOWEVER, I will say that Toyota is going to charge you $650-$1000 to replace it (76854-AK020).

I totally agree.

The crazy thing is that if you paid to replace it, you would in effect be placing something back on your truck that would cost MORE money in the long run!!

Once again, I am with you. This was the first thing I did when I purchased my Truck. I spent maybe 5 minutes to take it off and 15 seconds to toss it in the trash..............

Sponsored