Why TRD Off Road PreRunner?

You're all WRONG AGAIN.







/endthread

 

OK. I am going to dive into this, even though I KNOW I am going to get blasted. So be it.
I started in 1994 with a 93 standard cab, 4 cyl, 4X4. Underpowered, but got me around. I traded it for a 4X4, V-6, extra cab, 5 spd. (This is called establishing credibility. It gets good in a minute) Both of these trucks are pre Tacoma. In 1995 1/2, Toyota released the Tacoma. It was a huge improvement over the current generation of trucks. When the 4X4 and Prerunners were originally introduced, the trend was to lift the 2 wheel drive trucks and run them with the 4X4 trucks. There are places a 2 wheel drive truck can't go, and there are places a 4X4 can't go. I have had 3 four wheel drive Toys, and they go almost anywhere. I have taken a 2 wheel drive places that it probably shouldn't have been. The 2nd gen Prerunner with the locker is a good truck, and it is good for what 80% of these trucks are used for, running up and down the highway, and rolling through the mall parking lot. The folks on this site are the other 20% who actually use their trucks for something besides mall crawling. I have been on trail rides with a prerunner in the group, and they made it about 10 feet up the trail, hit a rock with the right front, and STOPPED. If you look at my pics, it is the white one with the angel eye headlights. The other trucks made it without any trouble. One first gen, and varying years of second gens. Mine is a second gen, but it is an 06, and doesn't have the fancy, smancy ATRAC system. If there was no demand for it, Toyota wouldn't build them.

 

Truer words have never been spoken.



More prerunner vs 4x4 threads? What's with today?

 

I was stationed in Southern New Mexico the last two years of my career. I saw a lot of people who had a 4X4, but didn't understand what they were trying to do off road. Guy had a 4X4 chevy, but had put those wonderful 20" wheels and low profile tires on it. He decided he was going to run with me and a couple of other guys in reasonably heavy sand. He sank like a stone, I pull up next to him, got out, looked at his truck, got back in my truck, and went looking for a tree to use as a dead man. (Not going to pull him out with my truck. He can use a come-along. Might learn something.) I have been driving off road since I was a kid, having learned to drive on my grandfathers farm, so I know a little about driving off road. 90% of driving off road is down to the nut behind the steering wheel. I have seen guys take 2WD trucks in places that you wouldn't believe, and seen guys in 4WD trucks get themselves seriously stuck when a little common sense and throttle control would have gotten them through. I have the dubious honor of having gotten a HUMVEE stuck, (not a Hummer, the military HUMVEE) in Saudi Arabia. Quick hint: If the wheelbase is longer than the hill you are driving over is wide, the HUMVEE stops on top of the hill, sitting neatly on the frame. It takes another HUMVEE, or a 2 1/2 ton truck to get you unstuck. It also gets you a lot of harassment from your coworkers. Just a quick bit of advice. As far as the OR Prerunners go, I think they are kind of a compromise between the 4X4 Tacomas, and just a plain jane Tacoma. They have the bed outlets, alloy wheels, Bilstein shocks, all the toys of a Off Road Taco, they just happen to be missing the front axle and transfer case. Having never had one, I can't say that they are any better or worse than a 4X4 TRD OR or Sport. I know that the locking rear differential would have come in handy a couple of times, but my truck came with a limited slip, and it has gone everywhere I asked it. Probably save my life once or twice. (remember the blizzard back in February? Sheet of ice/packed snow from town to base. Slick doesn't even begin to describe it. Like grease on a billiard ball. For those of you who don't know, southern NM had the worst blizzard in 20 years back in February, 2011. Managed to shut most of southern NM down for about a week. Water pipes froze all over town, people didn't have heat because the gas lines were shut off, the whole area was a mess. I fired up my fireplace and burned about half a cord of firewood.)
Just my $$0.02.
Darth

 

hey, you're wrong if you think you are gonna end my thread like that

This isn't meant to be a 4x4 vs 4x2 thread fyi.

lol @ stuck HUMVEE