Cargocatch pickup truck bed cargo organizer by Graham Custom Truck Accessories, LLCGraham Custom Truck Accessories, LLC
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3 Reasons Why I’ll Never Buy Another Toyota Truck

Toyota trucks have a special place in my heart sure, but here are 3 reasons why I’ll never buy one again. Just the other day they towed my recently upgraded and detailed 2003 Toyota Tundra 2WD Access Cab Pickup Truck with a Diamondback Truck Cover and a CargoCatch installed, as well as a Lockstrap in the bed for extra security, as I donated it to the Heritage Fund for the Blind in Brooklyn, New York.

I had just recently done quite a bit of work on the engine which had about 200K miles on the odometer. The tranny was replaced years ago at about 56K just before the warranty on the transmission ran out, then the refurbished transmission lasted another about 140K miles, which isn’t bad I guess, but there were other issues we had over the years that contributed to my decision never to buy a Toyota again, regardless of whether it’s a truck or not, honestly.

In addition to the tranny going out twice within 200K miles, I had repeatedly had to replace the gear shifter on it, which broke into pieces while changing gears in the automatic tranny about 3 or more times while I owned it. In addition, the steering coupler had failed once at I’d say about 125K miles, which was very dangerous as I could have been driving on the freeway at 80 MPH with my family going down a steep grade near a cliff when it failed, but luckily I was near my mechanic in Ocean Beach, Ozzie’s Auto Repair who also specializes in sound systems for vehicles, great guys and very trustworthy.

The main reason I decided to write about this is because the other day my wife and I were spending a relaxing Sunday with our friends from Cabo San Lucas, Jose and Jerra. Jose and I went for a beer run and I told him that I had put my truck up for sale on Craigslist just the day before the tranny went out, and he started laughing, telling me that a friend of his actually had the exact same issue with his Toyota Truck.

I then proceeded to tell him that not only had the tranny failed twice on this truck, but that the gear shifter mechanism was a joke as it had failed about 3 times and he again started laughing telling me that that was the exact other problem that his friend had had along with another issue.  When I asked him what that last issue was that his friend had, he told me it was the steering coupler failure.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was absolutely flabbergasted and guess what, I started laughing.  The male part of the steering coupler that fit into this female part you see below was fine, but this female part shown below?, its metal was not so strong and was totally stripped out  So, his buddy and I had exactly the same problems with the same truck.

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steering coupler failure

I do need to confess that this 2003 Toyota truck was the foundation for producing the CargoCatch Pickup Truck Bed Organizer. It was a perfect truck to build this product around, as it had a fat sweet 2.5 inch rail to work with which also allowed the CargoCatch to be used with many truck covers, and turned out to be the truck that could either accept a medium CargoCatch or a large CargoCatch, as its bed was a tad bigger than the Toyota Tacoma and a bit smaller than the Toyota Tundra Double Cab, so it was a great point to work from from a product development perspective.

We love Toyotas, but they have failed us miserably, after having to spend a ton of money on maintenance, and not much overall living ability after obsessive care, as many American trucks have shown to possess. Not sure what brand of truck we’ll buy next, but it will be one that revolves itself around longevity and modification.

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