Nissan Frontier PRO-4X vs Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro - Mud, Rocks & Water Find the Best Off-Road Truck!

Hey folks, and welcome to the Truck King YouTube channel. It's a gloomy day, but that is not keeping the smile off my face because we have two midsize trucks and we're going off-road. That of course is the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro, recognized as one of, if not the best off-road midsize truck you can buy. So we brought the newest entry in the segment to compare it to. This is the 2022 Nissan Frontier Pro 4X, and today we're only going off-road in this video. So we're going to find the mud, we're going to find the rocks, and we'll tell you which one of these two is better. Let's start with the walk around and we got to talk powertrain. So over here in the Tacoma, that's a three and a half liter V6 that makes 265 pound feet of torque, 278 horsepower. And in our case today, it is sent through a six speed manual transmission. That's going to be a lot of fun. Now over here on the Frontier, we do have the most powerful midsizer in the segment. This 3.8 liter V6 is making 310 horsepower, 281 pound feet of torque. And this is matched to a nine speed automatic. So we do have more gears over here in the Frontier, and it'll be interesting to see how that plays into it. So the other thing I want to talk to you about, of course, are the two off-road packages here, and they are fairly similar. If you get a Pro 4X or if you get a TRD Pro, you're getting a suspension upgrade. With Nissan, it's Bilstein shocks all the way around. At Toyota, it is Fox suspension all the way around. And the Tacoma does get a lift over stock height. The Pro 4X does not. That is an important distinction. Now when it comes to tires over here on our Nissan Hankook DynaPro ATs, whereas over here on the Tacoma, Goodyear Wranglers with Kevlar protection. As all terrains go, just visually, these don't look like the most aggressive tires. But once again, we'll really prove that once we get out there into the thick. Let's look at the numbers now before we start driving. So here on the Tacoma, 35 degree approach angle, and the departure angle and break over are actually the same at 23.9 degrees. Now when it comes to ground clearance, I got to tell you guys, these trucks are actually identical. Both of them list 9.4 inches of ground clearance. Now over here on the Frontier, talking about all of those angles. Well, sadly, they're not quite as good as in the Tacoma. Nissan lists a 32.3 degree approach angle, 23 degree departure angle, and a 19.6 degree break over angle. So on paper, the Toyota is a little bit better. Once again, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out in the real world. For recovery, and hopefully we don't need it today, there are some red tow hooks. Of course, they're red here on the Pro 4X. And these are fairly easy to get to. They're a little under the bumper, but at least I can see them. Over here on the Tacoma, it's definitely a point against the Toyota. There are recovery hooks, but you got to get down here. One of them is right there. One of them is back over here. It's really down deep under that bumper. And if that bumper is buried in mud, that's going to be miserable. So once again, hopefully we don't have to pull it out. And then I think the last thing I have to mention about both of these packages, you are getting a rear locking differential, and that's going to play a role today as well. And that's just about enough of me standing here. I want to get out there and start driving. We're heading up the hydro line right now in the Tacoma. So first things first, we got to set up the review today. I did bring Matt along, so we do have two drivers. I'm going to be Taco Man today. Matt's going to be Frontier Man. And this is my first time driving the Frontier, so I'm pretty excited. Yeah, it's going to be cool. I'll get epically stuck. So quickly, I just do have to say a little bit of setup here. The reason we grabbed this truck, it's a 2021 Tacoma, is because it was the only one available to us. But we wanted the benchmark. We wanted what we know is a really good off-road mid-sizer to see if that Frontier can really stack up. So that's why we grabbed it. Don't say, why don't you have the 2022? I wish we did, but it wasn't available to us. So with that out of the way, let's talk about how these two trucks handle. And so far, the Tacoma is just walking through this. I was going to say, have you even got it in four-wheel drive yet? Yeah, it's, oh no, you're right. Just two-wheel on the intro trail. That was two-wheel the entire way along. Didn't even care. A little momentum, no problem. All right, well, we already said this. We basically walked up to the deep section. And now we're diving in. I do have it in four-high. I think that's all I'm going to need. Four-high, first gear. And let's crawl right through this thing, shall we? Here we go. I like, oh, there's a rock right up front there. Yeah, the water's actually kind of low for this time of year. There we go. Oh, pre-collision system unavailable. Oh, no, while we're in a pond. Oh, no, the radar's underwater. OK, it's spinning a bit. But now we're coming up to the rocks. There's the hill. That was good clearance coming out of there, too. A little bump there, but not bad. Keep the revs up. Keep the RPM up. Don't want to stall her. Nice. Yeah, pretty dang good. Pretty good clearance. A couple knocks, but less than I'm used to, honestly, coming through there. A lot of height, a lot of clearance. So now we're going to head back down the hill and into the pit. And of course, because this is a manual, we don't get the downhill ascent control or descent control. So what I'm going to do now is the old school way. Put it into four-low and use the actual gearing. Also pretty cool here. Yeah, when you go into four-low, the camera comes up right away. So you can see both front tires. Plus, you have these guidelines telling you exactly where your tires are going to go. It gives you a vehicle angle gauge, too, which is nice. And it actually moves the camera angle as the truck pitches. Nice. That's kind of interesting. So you can see how your truck's looking at the terrain. So, Matt, feet are off the gas, off the brakes right now. This is all engine braking. Oh, my goodness. This is four-low first gear. This is nice and low. What are we doing? Zero. It's literally not registering. Zero kilometers an hour. We're about to drop over this rock right here. Let's see if it runs away at all. Oh, man. That's smooth. Wow. And that's the thing, right? Downhill descent controls always existed. A little rock there going down. We did not bump that coming up. Yeah. Well, we're going a little slower now. We probably bounced over. Maybe. And now we need a little bit of speed. Get some mud. Woo-hoo. We're digging out new rocks in there. Oh, my goodness. Oh, Tacoma, nicely done, man. Yeah, that's... Cameraman's a little close. He might get wet. I think he's OK. And out, out. Oh, there's another one. We're out. Nice. All right. Well, four low. The torque feels great. And this is the thing, right? You mentioned earlier worrying about the revs. If you are ever worried, you put it in four low, and you just have so much there at your foot. You know, you don't have to worry about stalling at all. I really like this camera back there in the pit as we were kind of pitched to one side. So it showed you that on your low side, it was actually underwater. Like, it didn't just... You didn't have to assume. It actually showed you where it was as far as your plane of angle, so to speak. Yeah, it's cool, man. That is really interesting. All right, truck switch. Driver switch time. Matt's driving the Frontier. And in the first section here, I was actually just in two-wheel drive in the Tacoma. So we're just feeling two-wheel drive here in the Nissan. So far, so good. Yeah, it's walking right through. A little bit of speed, like we said. All right, so we're through the entrance trail, and we're going to go ahead and put it in four high. This is the same spot we put the Tacoma in four high. Oh, it takes off a lot better right away. Holy cow. All right, now this is where we clip that one new rock. Let's just see. I do... I feel the nose dragging a little more, I think, than in the Tacoma. Because your approach is not quite as good. Yeah. But the ground clearance is the same. There you really felt it. It almost bit that corner and sucked it down. Yeah, definitely you feel, I think that... I think that's the approach. That's all just that the front end is getting a little more caught up. Yeah. Okay, heading into the deep stuff now. Let's do it. Four high, just like the Tacoma. Here we go. Rock and roll. Oh, that was a hit we did not feel in the other truck. You know what? Did you see the splash right there when we hit the water today? That's definitely the front end getting a little bit lower. Yeah, absolutely. It's digging okay, though, and the tires feel solid. Oh, the tires, nothing is slipping. It didn't slip nearly as much as the Tacoma. You're right, actually. Coming through the mud. Your tires were spinning a fair bit. This thing just kind of grabbed and went. Yeah, and again, this is my passenger seat feeling, but this feels just a little more powerful. Like when you are giving it those little inputs, it kind of jumps. The Tacoma is a little more sluggish power-wise, I feel. And that also could be the difference manual to automatic. Fair enough. Yeah, sure. There's a clutch there involved, too, and the gearing is different and everything. You're right. But even on paper, the Tacoma straight up has less power, and you can kind of feel it out here. Okay, so we're back at the hill now, so we're going to switch her over into four low once again, keeping in the same as we did with the Taco. Oh, just like the Tacoma, you switch into four low and the camera come up, but they're not as good here in the Nissan. The Tacoma has more views, and if I hit the button, yeah, no. It just turns it off. The Tacoma has more views, and it has that really cool camera that kind of actually articulates with the truck. That's cool. I've got a downhill descent control down here on my left. Nice. So this is going to combine the two, right? Low gearing and downhill. There it is. Well, usually you take your foot off the brake, and it'll sense the hill and just start to grab you. Okay, well, we're just rolling to the top of the hill now. And again, this is... Right there, you felt it. It sensed the... Yeah, nice. And this is combo, right? Now you have super low gearing, plus the truck is braking for you. Same thing. It's not even registering. My foot's not on the pedal. We are doing zero kilometers an hour. And it's silent. I love that the system is silent. No ABS, none of that. Okay, here's the brake over. Let's see if it holds. A little hit there, but not... Yeah, that was... That was a bigger hit. More rocks in the front end here. All right, now we're gonna get some speed for the pit. Yeah, a little speed as you go, man. All right, nicely done. Nicely done. There's a new rock there that I do not remember. Oh yeah, you got this. Slow down to not soak the camera guy. You got this. Pro 4X for the win. All right, and we're out. Nicely done. Well, a couple, you know, not huge differences. I think we'll both agree right off the top. They do actually feel pretty similar. What I felt was slightly worse clearance in the Nissan, but slightly better tires in the Nissan. Would you agree? Definitely more grip. Now, attributing to tires or just the weights on these trucks, I am unsure. We'll have to check those numbers. Fair. But it definitely didn't slip nearly as much going through the pit as the Tacoma. It just grabbed and it went. I mean, at no point there was I worried. I feel like I probably could have stopped and started again without needing the speed. Well, Matt, my mission today is to make you worried. So it's time to go to the left hook and see how these trucks handle that trail. All right, let's head out. All right, folks, now it's time for the left hook. And we're starting with the Tacoma to see how she handles. We switched out Matt for Dad. He wanted to drive. Dad, you know, we've been in the Frontier now, but he hasn't driven it off road. So he wanted to get a piece of this too, right? Well, tell the truth. It's raining out. And I decided that I'm seeing your partner. So I'm sitting inside. Yeah, that's fair, too. So, you know, we said this a lot. Lots of clearance in the Tacoma, nothing coming through there. But we are about to get to the gnarly section. And it is maybe the hardest it has ever been, Dad. So this is going to be interesting. Yeah. And let's tell them why. Because you brought the new backhoe back here and got it stuck. Well, we were trying to clear out that one tree we've complained about. We wanted the backhoe to dig the stump and the backhoe didn't quite make it. So there's some big ruts. Yeah, 13,000 pounds of backhoe sank like the Titanic. Yeah, there's some big ruts. So we'll see what happens. All right, Dad. So we mentioned it. This could be the hardest left hook yet. So we're going four low and we're going to lock up that rear end. So we are fully locked. We are four low. Honestly, I think I'm going to start in second because I want a little bit of speed here. And at four low, I think you should be okay with that. And then you can hopefully just leave the clutch in. Okay, here we go. Hold on. Oh yeah, lots of power there. Come on, baby. Into the ruts now. Not bad. Oh yeah, she's okay. Stick driver, stick driver. Left, left, left. Now up the rocks. Watch that big one. Yes, Toyota. Nicely done. You know what? In that mud, it actually felt pretty dang good. Fully locked up. I thought you were going to kiss that stump. Yeah, that stump's a little sketchy. That felt really good though. No clearance issues. Yeah, I mean, I didn't even feel like we really had much spin. No, no, it felt good. It just clawed its way through. And it was spinning on the hydro line. So, you know, that's the effect of four low and locked up, right? You set everything up properly and it just works. Yeah, it's a little greasier on the hydro line too. You got a little more grit there. Regardless, we're at the top. Thank you. I didn't have to get out and slog through the mud. All right, time to hook the left in the frontier now. And we'll see if we have any clearance issues in this truck that we didn't have in the Tacoma. Well, and that's what I was feeling when I drove through on the hydro line is, yeah, the approach and departure, you know? Yeah. We definitely were smacking more stuff than in the Toyota. No doubt about it. It's not horrific, but, you know, you notice the difference. Yep, you do. And obviously, if you own the vehicle, you know, every time you get one of those hits, you cringe a little bit, right? So less is better. Just less chance of something ripping off. Well, thank goodness for skid plates. Yep. All right. So I think we're going to lock it up now. Yeah, we're at the deep section. So four low, locker. This is, you know, basically the exact same system as you're going to find over there in the Toyota. And we'll see how she does. Four low, locked up. Let's feel her. Yeah, right into the ruts. There's nothing I can do here. I'm following the freaking ruts. That's okay. It's okay so far. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Hard left, hard left, hard left. Oh! Oh, geez. Sorry about that. It happens. Nicely done, though. We made it, too. Okay. Well, that was a little more eventful than in Tacoma. It was definitely pulling you around a little bit more. It was spinning a heck of a lot more. I wonder if that's the tires. Yeah, I don't know, you know. Before, the tires felt good in the Tacoma. But coming through there, you felt like you were definitely spinning. It did climb. And I think my biggest takeaway is at the limits, the suspension here, it gets stiff. And you, like, you're bouncing, right? The Tacoma's smooth coming through there. So I'll give the suspension the edge. But yeah, it still climbed up real nice. Yeah, we did okay. And I avoided most of the rocks. So we didn't get any huge bangs. Yeah, which is good news. Unlike you. And only one swear word. All right. Cut! Print! Well, the hard off-roading is done. And now we're just heading back to the yard. And, you know, we were just talking about sort of both trucks coming through, what we felt, what we saw. And I'm actually going to tell you that I think the biggest difference here is suspension. You can see it in these two shots. So Dad and I went pretty quick past the camera. In the Nissan, the suspension was maxed out to the point where the front tires came off the ground. That thing was bouncing so much. And Dad's head kept hitting the roof. In the Tacoma, I was hitting the exact same whoops, the exact same bumps. And I felt like I could have been going faster. The suspension just absolutely absorbs it. And the truck stays smooth. And that's what I think happened in the mud pit. If you watch the Frontier coming through the pit, it ends up bouncing around more. And you get those light moments. And when the truck gets light, well, the tires slip. Whereas Tacoma, coming up on over those rocks, the suspension just flexes with the ground and with the rocks and keeps the truck nice and smooth. The biggest difference here, it's not the clearances. The Toyota's better there too, but it's actually the suspension setup. Well, folks, we have arrived at the end of this one. So now we need to pick the king of the hill. This 2022 Frontier did everything the Tacoma did today. Plus, I have to tell you, that new powertrain in there really does make it a better truck. But for the overall conclusion, listen, the Tacoma had better clearance, better suspension, an available manual transmission that makes it so much fun. So the Nissan kept up, but the Toyota did everything with a little bit more ease. So I got to tell you, if you have to pick an off-road mid-sizer, I would still lean towards the Tacoma. Plus, for 2022, they've actually upgraded this truck. New tires, a couple tweaks. So it should be even better now. And now, of course, I want to hear from you. So please go into the comments and let me know what you think. Would you take the Frontier or the Tacoma? And like always, while you're down there, don't forget to hit like, hit subscribe, hit the join button, become a member of the Truck King family today. And like always, come right back here to the channel to see what we're testing next. See ya!