In the back of the minds of many off-road adventurers, including myself, is a project that we would all take on if the opportunity presented itself, a truck-bed trailer. A truck bed trailer makes little practical sense. Relatively speaking, they are heavy, maintenance-intensive, and are often cobbled together by amateur welders resulting in a dangerous and cumbersome projectile barreling down the freeway. How many of those concerns would be relieved if a vehicle manufacturer built a truck-bed camper and outfitted it with everything that one would need for a week on the trail? Enter the Toyota TRD Sport trailer.
Photo by: Toyota USA
The TRD Sport trailer was designed by Toyota as a companion to the two waves of SEMA vehicle builds revealed in 2020. Toyota engineers were inspired by a Toyota truck camper that they saw in the campgrounds of Overland Expo West and decided to build their own version from a new Tacoma bed. You are welcome.
The most obvious feature of the Sport trailer is the tent scissor-lift that raises the Yakima roof tent off the trailer platform to reveal all of the goodies inside. The platform is adorned with fly-rod holders plus side and rear awnings to create a massive shaded area below. Below the tent platform lives a simple drawer system with one drawer housing the slide out sink and stove and the second to store the remainder of your camp supplies.
Photo by: Toyota USA
Hidden inside the tongue box is a toilet with a pop up curtain on the drivers side and a slide out Dometic fridge on the passenger side. In the front of the bed is the hot water heater, a generator and house battery. A 16-gallon fresh water tank and 15-gallon grey water tank are affixed under the bed but the trailer still retains most of the stock Tacoma departure angle.
READ MORE: START YOUR BUILD FROM THE GROUND UP WITH A SUPERLIFT SUSPENSION
Photo by: Toyota USA
Although the Toyota TRD Sport trailer is a concept and will likely never see the production floor, it is fun to see what the designers come up with. Hopefully this concept will give you ideas and inspire you to create your own truck-bed trailer. Build it and bring it to Overland Expo to shape next year’s SEMA concepts.
Header photo by: Toyota USA
Overlanding Industry News by Zach Elseman. Follow Zach @okienomads.
