Off road with a 2.7L 4 cyl?

Just got a 2014 double cab 4cyl 2.7L silver tacoma. I love it(except the power lol) but I really want to go off roading. Im not talking some crazy hill climb but not just talking flat gravel road. Any advice or tips?

 

Maybe a lift?

 

A set of quality tires are the most important things. I went right through sections of a trail and mud pits my buddy in a tundra got stuck in even though he has the 5.7 v8 because he had street tires. The power doesn't mean anything unless you have traction.

Even more so if you have a 2wd imo.

 

The 4 cylinder or 6 cylinder doesn't make that much impact when wheeling offroad.

I had a 1980 Toyota 4 banger 4X4 and it went everywhere all my friends did with their Ford, Chevy and Dodge V8's. It also went a lot of places they couldn't go due to their monsterous size.

As mentioned above traction is your best friend. Auto LSD could help some also. Just keep in mind that you have a 2WD and somewhat tame, or have a buddy along ( in case ).

 

If I remove the sway bar will it affect the driving much on the streets?

 

Absolutely. It will increase body roll in turns and could cause a roll over if you're ever faced with making an evasive maneuver (such as avoiding a deer at speed). I wouldn't remove the sway bar with the stock suspension. Just asking for trouble in my opinion. Stock suspension is too squishy to compensate for the sway bar being yanked out.

 

Alright yeah then I probably wont. Do people only remove it because of the flex they want off roading?

 

They sure do, but they usually have a decent aftermarket suspension first. Some vehicles have swap bar disconnects so you can still have the sway bar on the road and disconnect it when you off road.

 

4hi in a four banger is kinda only good in snow to my experience at least, if you're off-road just go right to 4low, you're better off that way, other then that the only place power held me back off-road was on steep sandy hills

 

You don't need to do anything to it to take it offroad.

Later down the road, you can decide what to do based upon what would benefit it for where you like to take it.

 

It is a Prerunner 2 Wheel drive.

 

tires>>armor>>quality suspension.


notice quality suspension. not lift. lift ads strain and modifies geometry angles that will effect wear of components. i mean lifts are great for clearance. but 3" is pushing it. biggest increase will be tires and armor. trust me on armor.

 

They make a 4cly double cab?

 

Yeah. But when I was shopping for it with my dad i thought it was a v6. Oh well.

 

Do you know any good tires? I dont want to big of tires because it will decrease my power and I need all the power I can get ahaha.

 

best mod is driver mod if you dont know what your doing... well the learning curve can be steap, if you do then great.
I took my old subaru places wehre jacked up chained up trucks were barely making it

then of course there is always dumb luck
what it comes down to is you have a 2x4 truck, the motor does not have a whole lot to do with it....
you can get a lot of places with good tires and a locker....
just my 2 cents

 

There's arguments up the wall on which tire. Comes down to driver preference. Want one that's not to heavy, not to expensive, easy enough to find a replacement, and doesn't effect ride comfort/road noise/mpg to much.


If that sounds lame then get some boboboboboggers. Otherwise bfg all terrains wear like iron. 40-60k on some of our work trucks. Border patrol used to use em too. Now some switched to bfg mud terrains. Still not a bad tire.


Also, larger you go more power it will take to turn them, more rolling resistance on road, more wind drag, heavier to change, more stress on stuff like steering.

 

And remember, when you go wheeling, try and go everywhere in 2ed or at least a 2wd mindset. So when you do get stuck, you have 4wd to getcha out. Cause if you get stuck in 4wd with no winch, your shit up a creek.

 

Did you buy it still thinking it was a V6??

 

Yeah. It sounds really stupid.