2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road: Our Long-Termer Tackles Moab

• I took our long-term Tacoma to Moab, Utah, to see how it fared on proper off-road trails.
• I chose a medium-difficulty trail for this test.
• The Tacoma handled it like a champ, though I wish the truck had a better forward-facing camera.

Let’s get dirty

The Tacoma TRD Off-Road competes against midsize trucks like the Chevrolet Colorado Z71 and Ford Ranger FX4; we even lined these three up for a comparison test. The Taco has the most ground clearance and best off-road geometry of the bunch, but it’s still not suitable for the expert trails in Moab. Heck, even the top-notch Tacoma TRD Pro would struggle on some of the terrain out here. If you want to conquer the most difficult trails, you’ll need at least 35-inch tires and specialized suspension and gearing.

For the Tacoma, I chose a medium-duty trail called Fins and Things. It was challenging enough to have fun and there were plenty of exit points to the main road if things got too dicey. I aired down the Toyota’s BFGoodrich Trail-Terrain tires to 15 psi or so for a bigger contact patch, put the truck in low-range four-wheel drive and hit the rocks.

You can’t get a front locking differential on any Tacoma, but this TRD Off-Road comes with a rear locker, a rock-crawl mode, an optional front sway bar disconnect for more articulation, and the multi-terrain monitor for better forward visibility. Suspension-wise, the TRD Off-Road wears Bilstein shocks with remote reservoirs for better cooling and the truck sits 11 inches off the ground.

These features allowed me to make quick work of the technical section of Fins and Things. The rock-crawl mode controlled the powertrain, braking and stability control for optimum performance. I never felt any electronic intervention here, and power delivery in four-wheel drive was smooth. When climbing steep grades, I merely had to keep steady on the throttle and let the truck do the work. It powered up and over anything I came across.

The lack of a front locker might seem like a deal-breaker, but on the TRD Off-Road, it’s fine. Drivers likely won’t be attacking anything too difficult in this Tacoma trim, what with its smaller wheels and tires. And if they do, Toyota’s excellent A-TRAC traction control system can step in and keep wheelslip at bay in sketchy off-road situations.

A-TRAC was super helpful when climbing loose, rocky surfaces. Where a Colorado or Ranger might spin a front wheel while trying to find grip, the Tacoma’s tech brakes that slipping wheel and sends more torque to the wheel that has traction. It makes the TRD Off-Road a better rock crawler than other pickups in this class.

I was definitely surprised by the Tacoma’s tires. Not because BFGoodrich doesn’t produce good tires, but because these all-terrains are more geared toward on-road use, so I wasn’t expecting mega off-road cred. However, I came to one of the steepest downhill sections of trail I’ve ever encountered in Moab and thought for sure the tires would lose grip even while using Crawl Control, Toyota’s off-road cruise control with hill-descent functionality. I pictured nosediving into the bottom of the hill, squashing the grill and definitely having to make an awkward phone call back to Edmunds HQ.

Instead, the electronics kept the truck moving slow and steady down the steep slope, the tires keeping their grip and not moving one iota unless instructed to by my right foot. Sure, when I hit the bottom, I dug into the soft sand a bit despite the Tacoma’s 32.5-degree approach angle, but no damage was done.

Other pros and cons

There were, however, a few things that frustrated me in my time with the Tacoma in Moab. The forward-facing camera didn’t have good resolution and I found it to be rather useless for anything besides spotting the biggest of rocks. Also, and this might be a small thing, but the Tacoms’s pitch and roll gauges only go to 30 degrees. My downhill excursion pegged it, but that slope could have been way steeper — it sure felt like it. Finally, while the TRD Off-Road’s departure angle of 26.6 degrees is the best in the midsize truck class, the Tacoma’s exhaust pipe hangs fairly low. I ended up scraping the underside of it once or twice.

Of course, a truck like this is not just made for performance in the dirt. I had to drive a good 10 hours on pavement to get to Moab from Los Angeles. And one thing I really appreciated was the adaptive cruise control that takes curves into account. Interstate 15 has a pretty winding section through Arizona, and even though I had my cruise control set at 75 mph, the truck slowed to a safe speed for the twisties without me having to do anything.

Another complaint? Toyota’s Apple CarPlay integration still frustrates me. When reading a text, most systems turn off or significantly lower the volume of the media that’s playing. But Toyota’s version does not. What’s worse, I couldn’t adjust the volume of Apple CarPlay or the media while the two were playing simultaneously. I talked to Toyota about the problem and a representative said it should be possible, but I was never able to figure it out. I resorted to completely pausing any media before I asked Siri to read a text — an extra should-be-unnecessary step.

I still have a soft spot for older Tacomas, but this new generation has a lot to offer, too. Especially in TRD Off-Road spec, the 2024 Tacoma is pretty darn good, delivering what most off-road aficionados want while still giving mainstream buyers what they need.