Inside the 2022 Toyota Tundra
Toyota Trucks Executive Chief Engineer Mike Sweers enters The Fox Garage to talk about the all-new 2022 Tundra pickup with Fox News Autos Editor Gary Gastelu.
Now, about that tiny house trend …
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Toyota has taken the wraps off of a custom off-road camper it built for its display at the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Show in Las Vegas.
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The Tacozilla is based on a Tacoma TRD Sport pickup and takes its inspiration from the all-in-one campers it collaborated with the Chinook RV company on in the 1970s.
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Toyota is calling it a "micro-house" because it truly comes with all of the comforts of home, including a bed over the cab, couches, a table, a widescreen TV, a full kitchen and a bathroom with toilet and shower.
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"We really didn’t want it to look like a refrigerator on the back of a truck, so you’ll see it’s all rounded edges," project head Marty Schwerter said of its aluminum body.
"Our goal was to build a vehicle that is engineered correctly but also made to look really cool," Schwerter said. "Being around race cars my whole life, race cars are cool looking. I want campers to be cool looking, too."
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It's not just a slide-in unit, either. To make it the cabin tall enough for 6-foot-2-inch passengers to stand up in, the floor dips down between the frame rails, below where the bed floor used to be.
The team also added a 2-inch suspension lift, snorkel air intake and a winch integrated into the front bumper.
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Toyota isn't planning to put it into production, but with the increasing popularity of overland off-road driving and the #vanlife movement, it seems like the right vehicle at the right time.