MAD YETI - A Modern Toyota Sequoia Built to Take on the Great Outdoors

A Modern Toyota Sequoia Built to Take on the Great Outdoors

- By Lindsey Fisher

Having an off-road-ready rig can take on many different forms, from dirt bikes and side-by-sides to prerunners and full-fledged rock crawlers. While very different, each of these off-road vehicles is purpose built for the terrain and obstacles they might encounter, with the most prevalent upgrades industry-wide culminating in the suspension systems.

Built to explore the great outdoors by way of backcountry roads and moderate 4x4 trails, Tom Freismuth's 2023 Toyota Sequoia named Mad Yeti is no different. It features top-tier suspension upgrades in addition to a greatly improved factory engine and drivetrain setup, as well as added overlanding accessories to make it ready for anything!

Upgraded from the Factory

The Sequoia has long been loved by Toyota and off-road fans alike since its debut in 2000 as a 2001 model. Based off of the Tundra platform, the Sequoia offers the performance and longevity synonymous with Toyota products while offering more cargo and passenger room than its smaller SUV counterparts, the 4Runner and the RAV4.

For the 2023 model year, the Sequoia saw a drastic change, however, with the beloved standard 5.7L V-8 engine being replaced by a 3.4L twin-turbocharged V-6. While V-8 fans may have scoffed and downplayed the move to a V-6, the new-for-2023 3.4L is a more powerful and more potent engine than anything the Sequoia had been equipped with before. This meant not only a more efficient engine for the model, but also an improvement of over 50 horsepower and over 180 lb-ft of torque compared to the previous model year! Now who's scoffing?!