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Trailhunter auxiliary gas tank

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Cordoc

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Curious why you think Trailhunter trim is different enough to prevent suitability?
I own one and have been under it looking for space for a tank; the only option is under the space for the spare; one will then have to find a solution for it.
If you have not read the threads about the gas consumption of this truck, it is dismal: 13 to 15 mpg on the road (I assume, but have not yet tested it); off-road, in 4WD, it will be 11 to 12 at best.
Also, from 22 gal in a 3rd gen Tacoma to 18.2 here it sucks
Hence the need for the tank.
 

TFOUTS

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The gas mileage is something I have tested. My recent trip from FL to CO, UT, & ID off-road and 4WD , I was fully loaded with 95L Dometic frig, 2 weeks of food, etc, both rotopax full. My active display was 15.9 mpg out and back. Currently around town with both Roam boxes roof mounted with recovery gear and tools, RTT on Kuat bedrock, rotopax empty no frig, mpg is 17.3. I am good with 17.3. When I bought the truck with nothing on it except the ARB sport bar and Toyota roof rack with 2886 miles, I got 24.5. If I wanted great gas mileage, I would have bought a hybrid Prius. Oh, wait. I did buy a Prius, except it has a turbo, a truck bed, it's 4WD, has an offroad suspension, and an 18 gallon tank instead of the 10 gallons the Prius has, although the back seats are about the same size as far as space goes. Who knew?
2024 Tacoma Trailhunter auxiliary gas tank IMG_4914
 
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Cordoc

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The gas mileage is something I have tested. My recent trip from FL to CO, UT, & ID off-road and 4WD , I was fully loaded with 95L Dometic frig, 2 weeks of food, etc, both rotopax full. My active display was 15.9 mpg out and back. Currently around town with both Roam boxes roof mounted with recovery gear and tools, RTT on Kuat bedrock, rotopax empty no frig, mpg is 17.3. I am good with 17.3. When I bought the truck with nothing on it except the ARB sport bar and Toyota roof rack with 2886 miles, I got 24.5. If I wanted great gas mileage, I would have bought a hybrid Prius. Oh, wait. I did buy a Prius, except it has a turbo, a truck bed, it's 4WD, has an offroad suspension, and an 18 gallon tank instead of the 10 gallons the Prius has, although the back seats are about the same size as far as space goes. Who knew?
IMG_4914.webp
This is a good story and I do not question its veracity but you must have been drivin at 35mph!
In the many other threads where the Trailhunter mileage is discussed, the guys who reported above 17mpg were, by their own admission, driving barely over the speed limit.
I drive 65 to 85 according to conditions and knowledge of possible police presence.
I have been able to get, on mountain highways, putting it in neutral on the descent and trying to keep it at 2500 rpm on the ascent to 19 to 21 mpg.
This is making a great effort.
I will be willing to trade trucks and I will give you a few thousand on top, mine has 13000 miles, no accidents.
 
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Cordoc

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This is a good story and I do not question its veracity but you must have been drivin at 35mph!
In the many other threads where the Trailhunter mileage is discussed, the guys who reported above 17mpg were, by their own admission, driving barely over the speed limit.
I drive 65 to 85 according to conditions and knowledge of possible police presence.
I have been able to get, on mountain highways, putting it in neutral on the descent and trying to keep it at 2500 rpm on the ascent to 19 to 21 mpg.
This is making a great effort.
I will be willing to trade trucks and I will give you a few thousand on top, mine has 13000 miles, no accidents.
Forgot, there is no 2023 Trilhunter.
 

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The gas mileage is something I have tested. My recent trip from FL to CO, UT, & ID off-road and 4WD , I was fully loaded with 95L Dometic frig, 2 weeks of food, etc, both rotopax full. My active display was 15.9 mpg out and back. Currently around town with both Roam boxes roof mounted with recovery gear and tools, RTT on Kuat bedrock, rotopax empty no frig, mpg is 17.3. I am good with 17.3. When I bought the truck with nothing on it except the ARB sport bar and Toyota roof rack with 2886 miles, I got 24.5. If I wanted great gas mileage, I would have bought a hybrid Prius. Oh, wait. I did buy a Prius, except it has a turbo, a truck bed, it's 4WD, has an offroad suspension, and an 18 gallon tank instead of the 10 gallons the Prius has, although the back seats are about the same size as far as space goes. Who knew?
IMG_4914.webp
The gas mileage is something I have tested. My recent trip from FL to CO, UT, & ID off-road and 4WD , I was fully loaded with 95L Dometic frig, 2 weeks of food, etc, both rotopax full. My active display was 15.9 mpg out and back. Currently around town with both Roam boxes roof mounted with recovery gear and tools, RTT on Kuat bedrock, rotopax empty no frig, mpg is 17.3. I am good with 17.3. When I bought the truck with nothing on it except the ARB sport bar and Toyota roof rack with 2886 miles, I got 24.5. If I wanted great gas mileage, I would have bought a hybrid Prius. Oh, wait. I did buy a Prius, except it has a turbo, a truck bed, it's 4WD, has an offroad suspension, and an 18 gallon tank instead of the 10 gallons the Prius has, although the back seats are about the same size as far as space goes. Who knew?
IMG_4914.webp
Yeah. Almost 30k on my 24 TH. Bigger tires, AluCab canopy, CBI front bumper ( Covert) with Warn 10k winch. Usually two 4 gallon Rotopax. If speed under 60, I get 17.5-19.5. Over 65/70 then drops to 15.5-16.5. Pulling TetonX Trailer (3500#) then 10-12 ( have about half the mileage on truck pulling trailer). Disappointed yes. Not sure I would get any better mileage from anything comparable. BUT would love to have better range from larger gas tank. Not willing to loose spare but willing to pay to swap OEM. disappointed with all the computer crap on vehicle. Other than NAV function or CarPlay, really don’t need the other stuff.
Oh, we do have a 2026 Prius Prime and the gas tank is tiny but who cares when you get 50-100 mpg. And the back seat is bigger than the Tacoma. Go figure.
 

trailhunger

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Yea if you drive 80mph across the desert in a TH in a headwind you’re getting 12.8. But if you take the scenic route and make some stops, you’re getting sticker. Tail wind on the way back you’re getting 25.6. Unless of course you’re rocking dump truck treads. Then 11.7. Good luck fitting that aux tank, further cut your MPGs by 1.5mpgs with the extra fuel
 

TrailAdventurer

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If you have not read the threads about the gas consumption of this truck, it is dismal: 13 to 15 mpg on the road (I assume, but have not yet tested it); off-road, in 4WD, it will be 11 to 12 at best.
Also, from 22 gal in a 3rd gen Tacoma to 18.2 here it sucks
Hence the need for the tank.

Quite familiar, thanks. I was just curious about the specific question.

Our ’15 Wrangler, Stitch, had a 20-gallon tank and averaged 13.5 mpg over 182 fill-ups. Fully loaded, as shown in the image, it would drop to around 12.5 mpg if I really pushed it or had a bad headwind. That gave us a theoretical range of about 270 miles, but on a long trip out West I’d usually start looking for fuel around 180–200 miles and get anxious by 220. I never had to use the RotopaX, though.

2024 Tacoma Trailhunter auxiliary gas tank Stitch-2


Riddick, our TH, has averaged 15.5 mpg over 17,000 miles. With the 18.2-gallon tank, that gives it a theoretical range of about 279 miles. So the range is effectively the same, and we’ve taken plenty of trips into the middle of nowhere without any real issues or serious concern.

Still, for some reason I feel more range anxiety with the TH. I think it comes down to expectations: it’s a much larger vehicle, so I simply hoped it would have a much larger tank.
 
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Cordoc

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Quite familiar, thanks. I was just curious about the specific question.

Our ’15 Wrangler, Stitch, had a 20-gallon tank and averaged 13.5 mpg over 182 fill-ups. Fully loaded, as shown in the image, it would drop to around 12.5 mpg if I really pushed it or had a bad headwind. That gave us a theoretical range of about 270 miles, but on a long trip out West I’d usually start looking for fuel around 180–200 miles and get anxious by 220. I never had to use the RotopaX, though.

Stitch-2.webp


Riddick, our TH, has averaged 15.5 mpg over 17,000 miles. With the 18.2-gallon tank, that gives it a theoretical range of about 279 miles. So the range is effectively the same, and we’ve taken plenty of trips into the middle of nowhere without any real issues or serious concern.

Still, for some reason I feel more range anxiety with the TH. I think it comes down to expectations: it’s a much larger vehicle, so I simply hoped it would have a much larger tank.
You should be more anxious with the TH
I was going to fill up on this little place in NM, but upon arrival the 2 gas stations were closed. A repair place sold me 1.5 gal for 15 bucks and, when I arrived to the outquirts of Taos I put in 18.34 gal so, the last 100 yards were on fumes. The tank then is that size
Good and safe travels but I bought
The under the tire 18 gal auxiliary tank, not yet installed.
Safe travels
 

Kodachrome

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Hi Everyone,

New here but not new to Toyota trucks, have owned 4 since 1988. My current rig is a highly modified 2005 TRD off road with an S/C, headers, exhaust, ARP head studs, bigger fuel pump, URD UCON EMS, etc. It also has beefed up breaks, King 2.5" Resi in front, Icon Resi in back and a stiffer leaf pack, bought new in late 2004.

The reason for this build is that I work out of this truck year round in the Colorado high country via an All-Terrain Bobcat pop-up camper, very similar to a Four Wheel pop-up. This thing is heavy, but it handles anything you throw at it and at around 400hp / 380tq is a blast to drive. I get around 13-17MPG with a full load if taking it easy and that drops to 12-15MPG if I am in the boost a lot. With the camper off, I have seen 21-23MPG, at 230,000K miles now.

Sounds about perfect, right? Here are the two reasons why I currently have dibs on an incoming 2026 Trailhunter:

1. The dreaded frame rust. I was moving and then busy fixing up our new home the year they sent all those wonderful frame replacements out and I missed the boat on that. I recall seeing the notifications a few times but thought them to be junk mail which is not uncommon when one sees incessant efforts to sell you an extended warranty on a truck, sucks to be me. I have welded plates on, used rust inhibitor but with a truck this heavy, it's days are well numbered and quite frankly, I no longer feel it is safe to use with such a heavy load.

2. In the past 2 years I have seen ECU and chronic misfire issues on cylinder #6 which is by far the worst to deal with under the blower, a royal pita to swap coils or plugs. Engine shows no sign of a blown head gasket or fried rings, plugs always look good so with the code consistently being P0365, it is electrical and likely ECU related. This can be fixed, the rust bucket frame can not.

So by what I am seeing posted here, I not only will *not* improve my fuel economy over my current setup, it will likely get worse, but with a smaller gas tank to boot. I could just move to a full sized truck but then I am selling my current camper and starting over again, a solid $100K+ price tag which gets me into used Sprinter territory and the overall increased size would be very noticeable on tighter trails.

I'm looking at the setups in these posts and several are simply nowhere near as heavy as mine and yet people are getting just outright poor fuel economy with the added penalty of fuel tank lite. Damn.

Everything else about the Trailhunter looks great, like if Audi made a truck, this would be it, other car is a 2024 eTron Sportback. I'm glad I found this site and this thread, but I am not glad that I am now second guessing my next truck.

I have put my name on the notification list for the LRA tank, but I might be pulling the plug on the new Taco well before that bears any fruit. I have some decisions to make...and I still really want the Trailhunter.

2024 Tacoma Trailhunter auxiliary gas tank Silver B
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