Meet Meat Ball: The Tundra That Tows the Ball Pit

Race cars create transportation problems.

The farther I got into track days, time trials, and building a small fleet of oddly named cars, the more obvious one thing became: the vehicle that gets everything to the track matters almost as much as the vehicle that goes on track.

Meat Ball is our 2024 Toyota Tundra Limited 4x4 with the i-FORCE MAX hybrid powertrain. It does not set lap times. It has never won a trophy. Most people probably will not notice it once Golf Ball or Cheese Ball rolls off the trailer.

But Meat Ball is the reason those cars arrive with fuel, tires, tools and a driver who is not already exhausted from wondering whether the tow vehicle can handle the trip.

It is the Ball Pit workhorse, occasional hotel, and one of the least glamorous purchases that made the entire operation better.

The 35-inch tires made the Tundra look meaty enough to earn its Ball Pit name.

The SUV Years

Before Meat Ball, I towed with a 2015 V6 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Jeep had a published towing capacity of 6,500 pounds, air suspension, and an aftermarket trailer-brake controller. It worked, and for a while it made sense.

Ball Caddy, our open trailer, weighs about 2,000 pounds. The First Ball weighed roughly 2,300 pounds, and a normal track load added around 500 pounds of tools, tires, and supplies. That put the complete setup near 4,800 pounds—about 73 percent of the Jeep’s rated capacity.

I personally prefer to keep a loaded trailer below roughly 80 percent of a tow vehicle’s rating. That is not a universal rule or a substitute for checking payload, tongue weight, axle ratings, and the exact configuration of the vehicle. It was simply the margin that made me comfortable.

The Jeep could do the job, but its limits influenced the whole system. I chose an 18-foot open, wood-deck trailer partly because it kept weight down. Fuel cans, tires and track supplies shared space with passengers inside the SUV, which meant the interior often smelled like a race weekend long after the weekend was over.

Then the warning signs started adding up.

In June 2025, a thermostat issue caused the Jeep to overheat on the side of the road. A month later, I was rear-ended while driving to Eagles Canyon Raceway. The Jeep remained usable, but it was another reminder that the tow vehicle was carrying a lot of responsibility. Electrical and infotainment problems followed.

Golf Ball made the margin even tighter. It is roughly 600 pounds heavier than The First Ball. The Jeep could still pull it, but the combination felt closer to the edge of what I wanted to ask from an aging SUV.

The final push came in October 2025 while towing Low Ball at night. The Jeep’s headlights failed. Replacing the LED assemblies would have cost several thousand dollars, Low Ball was heavier than the cars I had originally planned around, and the Jeep felt underpowered.

At that point I was no longer asking whether the Jeep could tow. I was asking why I kept making the entire track program work around it.

📷 INLINE MEDIA — The Jeep’s Growing Towing Job

The same Jeep towing The First Ball and Golf Ball shows how the Ball Pit’s towing needs grew with the cars.

Choosing the Truck

By then, the brief was simple: I needed a better vehicle for towing race cars.

I considered the Lexus GX 550 and Toyota Sequoia because I was used to the comfort and enclosed storage of an SUV. The Tundra kept making more sense because it offered more towing capacity for the money, a factory-integrated trailer-brake controller and a real truck bed.

That bed solved one of the least glamorous problems from the Jeep years. Fuel cans, dirty tires, tools and track supplies could finally ride outside the passenger compartment instead of making the drive home smell like the paddock.

I bought Meat Ball used with 44,533 miles. It is a 2024 Tundra Limited 4x4 powered by Toyota’s 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 hybrid i-FORCE MAX system, rated at 437 horsepower and 583 pound-feet of torque, paired with a 10-speed automatic transmission.

Toyota’s tow ratings vary by cab, bed, drivetrain and equipment. The Wiki records up to 11,180 pounds for Meat Ball’s configuration, but the headline maximum was never the entire decision. I wanted more margin for Ball Caddy, whichever car was loaded on it, the tools and everything else a track weekend requires.

A tow rating is the beginning of the calculation, not the end. Payload, tongue weight, axle ratings, tires, brakes, hitch setup and real-world stability still matter. Meat Ball simply gave me a towing platform that fit the job instead of forcing the job to fit the vehicle.

This is why I bought Meat Ball: to tow Golf Ball and the rest of the fleet with more confidence and fewer compromises.

Why “Meat Ball”?

Every vehicle in the fleet needs a Ball name, and this one earned its name after the first major visual change.

In February 2026, I installed 17x8.5 Volk Racing ZE40X wheels in bronze with 35x11.5R17 Falken Wildpeak A/T4W tires. The larger tires made the Tundra look noticeably meatier.

Meaty truck. Ball Pit. Meat Ball.

Not every naming story needs to be complicated.

Installing the wheels and 35-inch tires that transformed the Tundra into Meat Ball.

Building the Support Vehicle

Meat Ball was never supposed to become another endless build. The goal was to make it more capable and useful without turning the support vehicle into a second race-car project.

The larger tires added the stance and all-terrain capability I wanted, but the Tundra did not have factory auto-leveling. To help manage loaded ride height, I added a LoadLifter 5000 air-spring system.

A tonneau cover keeps the bed more useful between events, and a few small interior changes make long towing days easier. In July 2026, Meat Ball received a Cali Raised roof rack with 360-degree lighting. S Collective helped with the installation and the drilling required to mount it correctly.

That lighting is not there because I think a tow truck needs to look like a rally raid vehicle. Race weekends involve loading before sunrise, unloading after dark and finding one missing tool in a trailer at exactly the wrong time. Good work lighting is practical.

The current setup includes:

• 17x8.5 Volk Racing ZE40X wheels, 6x139.7 bolt pattern, +15 mm offset, bronze finish

• 35x11.5R17 Falken Wildpeak A/T4W tires

• LoadLifter 5000 rear air springs

• Tonneau cover

• Cali Raised roof rack

• 360-degree auxiliary lighting

• Factory-integrated trailer-brake controller

The truck averages about 13.8 mpg with the larger tires and generally returns around 10–11 mpg while towing a full track load. It is not inexpensive transportation, but race-car logistics rarely improve by pretending the fuel bill does not exist.

The Best Track Upgrade Does Not Go on Track

The biggest improvement over the Jeep is not horsepower. It is how much calmer the entire trip feels.

The truck bed keeps fuel, tires and dirty equipment out of the passenger compartment. The integrated brake controller makes the trailer feel like part of a planned system instead of an accessory added afterward. The extra margin means I spend less time monitoring every grade, temperature change and passing truck as if something is about to go wrong.

Meat Ball also became a surprisingly good trackside hotel.

I slept in it during the SCCA Time Trials weekend at Motorsport Ranch Cresson on April 3–4, 2026, and during Apex Ranch to Canyon on March 6, 2026. “Hotel” is generous, but the large cabin, giant infotainment screen and ability to stay close to the cars make it one of my favorite parts of the truck.

There is something appropriately Ball Pit about spending money on race cars and then saving money by sleeping in the tow vehicle.

📷 INLINE MEDIA — Camping With My Daughter: IMG_3486.HEIC

Meat Ball’s support role is not limited to racing—it also carries the family through camping weekends.

The Modern-Truck Tradeoff

Meat Ball has been reliable overall, but buying a modern hybrid truck with complicated electronics came with its own concerns.

Not long after purchase, an electronics issue appeared. A safety recall logged on July 25, 2026 ultimately addressed it. Between the hybrid system, twin turbos and the amount of technology built into the truck, I chose to buy an extended warranty.

That decision was less about expecting the Tundra to fail and more about understanding what modern repairs can cost. The Jeep taught me that an otherwise usable vehicle can become an economic problem when expensive electrical parts begin stacking up.

Meat Ball is approaching its first full year with us in November 2026. So far, it has attended every race since purchase and quietly done exactly what I bought it to do.

 

Meat Ball after a weekend off road—dirty, useful and still responsible for getting everything home.

What Meat Ball Taught Me

I waited too long to move from an SUV to a proper truck.

The Jeep proved that a capable SUV can tow a race car. It also taught me that “can tow it” and “is the right long-term tool for the job” are different questions.

Meat Ball gave the fleet more margin and made every event easier. It reduced the compromises around weight and storage, separated fuel and dirty equipment from the cabin, and made long trips feel less stressful.

Most important, it reinforced a lesson that applies throughout Ball Pit Motorsports: the unglamorous systems matter. Preparation, maintenance, towing, loading and the friends who help with all of it are what make the fun laps possible.

Meat Ball may never cross a finish line, but it supports almost every story that does.

Meet the Rest of the Ball Pit

Continue with Meet the Balls to see the race cars, rally experiments, family vehicles and support equipment that make up Ball Pit Motorsports.