TORONTO: With a plethora of adventure-ready, go-anywhere, been-anywhere vehicles cementing its foundation, the all-new 2022 Toyota Tundra is born from a lineage of trucks and SUVs rooted in quality, durability, and reliability.
Its predecessors hit the million-mile mark on more than one occasion thanks to a team of engineers who built the truck above and beyond the status quo.
What does Tundra do? It looks long and hard in the mirror and then gets to work. It resists the urge to repeat and rethinks its approach while carrying the knowledge of everything learned along the way. As the third generation of its namesake, Tundra looks to improve upon everything – performance, capability, multimedia, creature comforts and more. It’s the all-new 2022 Toyota Tundra.
The Toughest Tundra It should come as no surprise that the all-new Tundra was redesigned from the ground up. Designed, engineered, and assembled in North America, there’s no question this is the toughest, most capable, most advanced Tundra to date. Improvements and enhancements abound, including its new high-strength boxed, steel-ladder frame, aluminum-reinforced composite bed, and fully redesigned multi-link rear suspension.
The outcome of development efforts gives the stout new Tundra an impressive maximum towing capacity of up to 12,000 pounds (5,440 kg) and a max payload capacity of 1,940 pounds (880 kg). Tundra will offer two different powerplant configurations. A new, highly efficient twin-turbo 3.5-litre V6 engine offers impressive output by itself, producing up to 389 horsepower and 479 lb-ft. of torque.
When paired with a brilliantly engineered be llhousing motor system called the i-FORCE MAX, the result is a combined performance output of 437 horsepower and a whopping 583 lb.-ft. of torque.
A new interior offers creature comforts for driver and passenger alike, including an available panoramic roof, heated and ventilated front seats, rear sunshade, heated steering wheel and more. A host of new tech features are found throughout Tundra as well, such as towing aids, off-road enhancements, and an all-new multimedia system featuring wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and over-the-air updates. The all-new Tundra will go on sale later this year.
For Truck People, By Truck People The Tundra is a North American story through and through. From the first pencil sketches to the finished exterior design, the look was developed by Toyota Motor Corporation’s North American design studio, Calty Design Research, in Newport Beach, California, and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
While engineers focused on key performance ingredients for the new Tundra, Calty designers worked to create the visual exemplification of toughness and capability.
“Technical muscle” was a design mantra for the team, as it capitalized on the modern features of the allnew truck while retaining a nod to the outdoor lifestyle at the core of Tundra owners. The interior was meant to retain that “Technical Muscle” motif.
Calty chose a horizontal layout theme as a departure from the vertical layout on most other trucks in the market. This complemented the design goal to integrate the instrument panel and centre stack to flow with the interior layout. Premium materials were also a must for a truck with a strong pedigree like Tundra’s, especially in high-contact areas, which is why wrapped armrests, pads across the dash, door and other areas are employed on most trims.
Calty’s design teams crafted an exterior and interior balance of angular lines and muscular refinement. Visually the truck needed to represent its capability that lives under the sheet metal. Research and development for this truck was conducted at Toyota Technical Centres in Michigan, Arizona, and California. The key themes for Tundra chassis engineers: improve capability and ride comfort.
The frame structure itself is an example of innovative thinking. The rear frame member is widened to improve stability and towing capability. This foundation also helped ensure excellent ride comfort and polished handling dynamics, particularly on grades Limited and above where the cabin is mounted to the frame with hydraulic cab mounts.
High-strength steel is employed throughout the chassis to increase rigidity considerably over the previous generation, while aluminum is used in key areas to help reduce weight. Frame crossmembers are more than doubled in size to provide additional reinforcement and rigidity.
A new front cross member was constructed for the steering gear box, which adds rigidity via additional cross member support while enhancing steering input for the driver and handling dynamics. The truck bed is lightweight and extremely strong thanks to the new Sheet-Molded Compound (SMC) construction and the use of reinforcing aluminum cross members in the bed. The new SMC bed offers added protection against dents, impact dings and rust compared to traditional steel decks.
Suspension The most noteworthy change to handling and performance is no doubt the new multi-link rear suspension, which ditches leaf springs in favor of coil springs. Ride comfort, straight-line stability and overall handling dynamics are improved with the multi-link rear suspension, along with towing capability.
The overall structure of the new frame and the multi-link rear suspension allowed engineers to adjust the placement of the shock absorbers, which are mounted outside the frame rails for improved efficiency and enhancement to roll damping and towing. A newly developed double wishbone front suspension is fitted on Tundra.
The front suspension benefits from a kingpin offset angle reduction to enhance straight-line stability and highspeed driving. Tundra will feature standard twin-tube shocks at the front and rear of each truck. The shock absorbers feature triple-oil seals and extended dust covers for added protection and durability. Beefy new aluminum forged knuckles are employed to optimize weight.
For maximum off-road performance, TRD Pro grades are fitted with 2.5-inch diameter FOX internal bypass shocks that stand at the ready. The front FOX shocks provide the truck with a 28 mm (1.1-inch) lift. The aluminumbodied front and rear shocks feature piggyback reservoirs to house additional oil for improved off-road performance in the most demanding terrain.
TRD Pro also gains a few additional off-road attributes, including a new TRD Pro front stabilizer bar, red painted suspension parts, TRD aluminum front skid plate along with additional underbody protection, and unique all-terrain Falken tires. Next-level enhancements help make this twin-turbo V6 stand alone at the top of the powertrain mountain.
The showstopper for Tundra is really the i-FORCE MAX powertrain. The numbers alone are jaw-dropping – 437 horsepower at 5,200 rpm, and a staggering 583 lb.-ft. of torque at only 2,400 rpm