Having the luxury of owning these two different trim levels, I thought I would give my overall impression regarding each as relates to road trips.
I acquired my 2024 OT last November, and my wife bought her Lux + in April. We have made the same road trip in each, and have both driven each for a significant amount of time on those trips. Here is my / our experience:
(It's a little long, and there's no TL/DR - SORRY NOT SORRY)
Thoughts on the Lux + vs the Overtrail.
Last Thanksgiving, we took a trip to visit family in my OT. The truck was great, the ride was comfy, and mileage was not too too bad – I think we averaged around 19. I had around 2 K miles on it at the time. I used the comfort drive mode the whole time.
This past Independence day holiday, we took another trip to the same family, and this time took my wife’s Luxury Plus. Hers has the TRD performance exhaust, has the low profile roof rails, and is minus the roof rack. We used the same drive mode (comfort).
Performance – Seat of the pants says that the Lux + is punchier. The TRD catback exhaust on the Tundra gives up to 32 more horses. You get the same torque, 479 lb-ft, but it comes 400 rpm earlier. Seat of the pants says that data tracks, but, absent a dyno run, that’s just guessing. Lux + gets the edge.
Economy – As I said, I believe I got around 19 in the OT, the best I’ve gotten is just under 20. The Lux Plus got 21.2 there and 20.3 back. Had we not had so much traffic, some of which was just sitting and idling, we may have seen the same mileage. I’ll attribute the better numbers to the roof rails and lack of roof rack. Maybe the TRD CatBack has some factor in there, too. We took full advantage of the ‘miles to E’ data, and ran it to 2 miles to E, which got us nearly 392 miles out of the tank. I put in 19.2 gallons, and probably overstuffed the tank at that, as it initially stopped at 18 point something. (.4-ish, I think). Lux + again gets the edge.
Storage – The extra 5 cubic feet of cargo is noticeable in the OT vs the Lux +, but not unmanageable for just the two of us. On the trip last fall, I was able to put all of our luggage (including extra luggage for a small third rider (my granddaughter) under the tonneau cover. This trip, we had a few extra items which probably equated to that extra luggage, but I wasn’t able to get it all under the tonneau cover. Storage advantage to the OT.
Comfort – the low profile tires on 22” wheels give a bit more thump to pavement joints and bumps than the AT3’s on the OT. They both have AVS, so they’re equal in that respect. The bigger sidewalls are a definite plus.
I think my biggest surprise is the seats. Don’t get me wrong, they’re very comfortable, especially given the fact that you can get a pretty decent massage while cruising down the road. But. I believe that my initial impression is correct, and that the seats in the Overtrail have more cushion than those in the Lux +. Maybe it’s due to it being an off-road trim level, and maybe it’s due to the Lux + having the massaging mechanicals below the seat covers. I don’t know for sure. My wife drove the whole way there, and I drove the whole way back. On the way there, we used the massage function more than we did on the way back, mainly due to just playing around with it and learning about it. On the way back, I pretty much waited till the last hour of driving to activate it, mainly because there was so much traffic, we pretty much forgot about it. But then, having sat in enough traffic to add a couple of hours to the drive, my butt was starting to get pretty rumpsprung. The massage definitely alleviated the issue, so that’s a plus, but I was a bit ‘let down’ by the idea that I needed to do so. We’ll be taking a longer trip in the OT later this year, so we’ll see how my butt fares on that ride. For now, the OT gets the edge on this one.
All-in-all, however, both are great cruising vehicles with plenty of cargo space for us. I like the extra creature comforts in the Lux + - the driver memory seat; ten way adjustable driver seat; massaging front seats; we have not yet used the ML stereo. I like the storage of the OT – even the door pockets are slightly different and appear to be slightly larger, both front and back.
I acquired my 2024 OT last November, and my wife bought her Lux + in April. We have made the same road trip in each, and have both driven each for a significant amount of time on those trips. Here is my / our experience:
(It's a little long, and there's no TL/DR - SORRY NOT SORRY)
Thoughts on the Lux + vs the Overtrail.
Last Thanksgiving, we took a trip to visit family in my OT. The truck was great, the ride was comfy, and mileage was not too too bad – I think we averaged around 19. I had around 2 K miles on it at the time. I used the comfort drive mode the whole time.
This past Independence day holiday, we took another trip to the same family, and this time took my wife’s Luxury Plus. Hers has the TRD performance exhaust, has the low profile roof rails, and is minus the roof rack. We used the same drive mode (comfort).
Performance – Seat of the pants says that the Lux + is punchier. The TRD catback exhaust on the Tundra gives up to 32 more horses. You get the same torque, 479 lb-ft, but it comes 400 rpm earlier. Seat of the pants says that data tracks, but, absent a dyno run, that’s just guessing. Lux + gets the edge.
Economy – As I said, I believe I got around 19 in the OT, the best I’ve gotten is just under 20. The Lux Plus got 21.2 there and 20.3 back. Had we not had so much traffic, some of which was just sitting and idling, we may have seen the same mileage. I’ll attribute the better numbers to the roof rails and lack of roof rack. Maybe the TRD CatBack has some factor in there, too. We took full advantage of the ‘miles to E’ data, and ran it to 2 miles to E, which got us nearly 392 miles out of the tank. I put in 19.2 gallons, and probably overstuffed the tank at that, as it initially stopped at 18 point something. (.4-ish, I think). Lux + again gets the edge.
Storage – The extra 5 cubic feet of cargo is noticeable in the OT vs the Lux +, but not unmanageable for just the two of us. On the trip last fall, I was able to put all of our luggage (including extra luggage for a small third rider (my granddaughter) under the tonneau cover. This trip, we had a few extra items which probably equated to that extra luggage, but I wasn’t able to get it all under the tonneau cover. Storage advantage to the OT.
Comfort – the low profile tires on 22” wheels give a bit more thump to pavement joints and bumps than the AT3’s on the OT. They both have AVS, so they’re equal in that respect. The bigger sidewalls are a definite plus.
I think my biggest surprise is the seats. Don’t get me wrong, they’re very comfortable, especially given the fact that you can get a pretty decent massage while cruising down the road. But. I believe that my initial impression is correct, and that the seats in the Overtrail have more cushion than those in the Lux +. Maybe it’s due to it being an off-road trim level, and maybe it’s due to the Lux + having the massaging mechanicals below the seat covers. I don’t know for sure. My wife drove the whole way there, and I drove the whole way back. On the way there, we used the massage function more than we did on the way back, mainly due to just playing around with it and learning about it. On the way back, I pretty much waited till the last hour of driving to activate it, mainly because there was so much traffic, we pretty much forgot about it. But then, having sat in enough traffic to add a couple of hours to the drive, my butt was starting to get pretty rumpsprung. The massage definitely alleviated the issue, so that’s a plus, but I was a bit ‘let down’ by the idea that I needed to do so. We’ll be taking a longer trip in the OT later this year, so we’ll see how my butt fares on that ride. For now, the OT gets the edge on this one.
All-in-all, however, both are great cruising vehicles with plenty of cargo space for us. I like the extra creature comforts in the Lux + - the driver memory seat; ten way adjustable driver seat; massaging front seats; we have not yet used the ML stereo. I like the storage of the OT – even the door pockets are slightly different and appear to be slightly larger, both front and back.
