What to do to 2wd to avoid getting stuck

Holeshot · May 6, 2015

There is more useful inform

DVexile said: ↑

Welcome to TW, you've jumped right in and seen the best and worst of it in this thread

Let's ignore the various straw man arguments thrown about already and the various people who responded only after reading the thread title and nothing else you wrote.

There are typically two kinds of "off-road" drivers:

Want to get from point A to point B because there is something interesting or useful to them at point B. Camp site, work site, trail head, something they want to shoot, something they want to hook, etc. etc. For them the destination is the reason and they will take whatever route and means that gets them successfully to that destination.

Want the challenge of driving rough roads. Will go to a location in which they drive in a loop and never exit the cab unless they get stuck, will go to this place intentionally right after it rains because it will suck more. Will drive on a rough unmaintained and washed out old power line access road just 50 yards away from a parallel paved highway. For them the journey is the reason and they will do whatever they can to make the journey as rough as possible. Breaking an axle and getting to repair it with their under hood welder would make their day even more enjoyable.

I'm guessing you are in the first category, but you are also getting butt hurt responses from people in the second category. And of course there are plenty of people that spend time doing both. There isn't a right or wrong way to "off road" in that regard, just different goals and uses.

Assuming you are in the first category and reading your description of your uses I think you are just fine in 2WD and it is very sensible to ask what to do with a 2WD to make it more useful in off-road situations.

For "getting places" off road lets divide up the useful features you might have on a vehicle to help you:

Clearance - roads are rough and have rocks and ruts and the more clearance the less likely you are to get hung up, stuck or damage something.

Traction at a given wheel - the less like a wheel is to spin the less likely you are to get stuck of course.

Making sure wheels with traction also have power - if the wheels without traction are the ones with power and spinning but the wheels with traction are just sitting there with no power then you aren't going anywhere. Worse still, if the design of the vehicle is such that the wheels without traction (i.e. slipping) will get all the power then this is almost a guarantee of getting stuck!

Throttle and power control at very low speeds - On a very rough road or a very steep road life is much better if you can maneuver at very low speeds without braking

Item 1 has nothing at all to do with 4x4 but everything to do with tires and suspension. So you could put bigger tires on and lift the suspension if the roads you are on present clearance issues. I wouldn't do that though, save such modifications for your next truck. I would go ahead and get slightly larger tires when you next change tires, you can go slightly larger on stock without changing the suspension at all.

You can also attack item 1 by being a good driver - that is picking a good "line" on a route to minimize the likely hood of getting hung up. The first principle in that is to drive over obstacles with your wheels and not place them in the center of the vehicle. You can also help item 1 with a shovel and pry bar. Move obstacles that are in the way. Obviously not always an option.

Item 2 is also not directly about 4WD. Start by having good tires for off road as far as tread design goes. Next, air down - this can help a whole lot. But you can go a few steps further in specific situations. As mentioned in a pinch chains can help, but only run them for the specific section you are getting stuck in. Also a traction ladder or board is an important piece of recover gear that allows you to get a specific wheel to have traction.

Item 3 is very much about 4WD, but more broadly about anything that tries to get power to as many wheels with traction as possible. The reason 2WD gets stuck easily is that with an open diff all that has to happen to get stuck is one rear wheel to lose traction. In 4WD with open diffs you are just as stuck if you lose traction on one wheel at the front and one wheel at the rear. But you are of course in better shape than 2WD as you have at least two chances at an axle having both wheels with traction.

The other option to help with item 3 is to not have open diffs or to have a traction control system that makes sure that all drive wheels get at least some power. For 2WD the rear wheels are the only ones you can drive so the goal is to make sure if one wheel starts slipping the other wheel will get some power.

A rear locker force 50% power to each wheel so that fulfills that goal. But again, this seems to me like spending money on the wrong vehicle. A true mechanical LSD makes sure each wheel gets *some* power if not necessarily 50%, so this helps too. Again, I wouldn't add that. The Tacoma already has a traction control system as outlined earlier in the thread. Learn how to use that and what its limitations are. That already has you better than most 2WD trucks.

Also realize that item 3 can also be indirectly tackled as well. Are you stuck because one wheel is spinning? Well get out of your truck and make it stop spinning - give it traction somehow. Traction ladder, sticks, even a carpet scrap can help.

Last one is item 4, and the low gear transfer case of a 4WD is really helpful here and isn't easy to replicate any other way. But it only applies to some situations and those are probably not ones you are likely to get yourself into. Though the one time I really like the low gears is going down very steep rocky roads that are otherwise just fine for 2WD.

I drove a lot of surprisingly bad roads in a 1994 Honda Civic doing these things. It would be a hell of a lot easier in a 2WD pickup like yours of course. But in that Civic with P rated tires I just drove slow, picked very careful lines when I got to rough patches and occasionally got out of the car and moved minor obstacles. Since I was a "get from point A to point B" driver usually the roads were just fine for 90 to 95% of the trip and there were just short sections (usually near the end) where you had to really take your time. Once or twice I did just have to stop and walk the last mile or so and one time I just had to turn around and wait for the day I owned a more appropriate vehicle.

So with all that in mind, I'd recommend:

Don't modify your suspension or drive train

Possibly modify your tires now or later

Learn what the different traction control settings do and practice with them someplace you can afford to get stuck

Bring a good shovel

Bring traction ladders (MaxTrax, TREDs or a variety of less expensive knock offs).

Have a decent jack with appropriate accessories for using off pavement, can get you un-hung-up and can make it easier to get stuck wheel out of a self dug rut in sand.

Bring basic recovery gear that you can provide if you do need someone to pull you out (shackles, recovery straps and so forth)

Understand basic off road driving techniques

And I'll throw out two controversial recommendations of what not to bring. Take these with a grain of salt, but they are based on my experience driving on desert roads for two decades in a variety of vehicles. Your driving conditions may be very different than mine.

No hi-lift jack - These things are a badge of honor off road and your vehicle and your manhood are in question if you don't have one strapped someplace. They can lift up your truck to change a tire, they can act as a winch, they pry things apart, they pry things together, they pull up fence posts, they uproot trees, they can act as a manual "jaws of life" to extract occupants from a wrecked vehicle. They are the ultimate multipurpose tool scaled up to manly industrial proportions. YOU MUST HAVE ONE OF THESE!

That is the standard recommendation. My perspective is that they are inherently dangerous and not the best tool to use in almost any situation they are advertised for. They will do all the things I stated above. But they will do those things in a sucky and unsafe manner. Yes, all tools have danger associated with them and when "properly used" you should be safe. But here's the thing, when you are stuck in the boonies and improvising having a dangerous tool at your disposal is not really a great option. I carried a hi lift for 14 years and every time I might have used it I used another tool in a more safe manner to get the job done. These jacks won't do most of their claimed jobs without appropriate accessories and an appropriately modified vehicle. So if you have bumpers and runners and the accessories necessary to use a hi lift to lift from those points then yes indeed it will be a useful tool for you. But you, and most other people, don't have those things and so the hi lift is just an awkwardly long 40 lb tool that has no purpose.

So again, hi lift can be very useful if you and your vehicle are setup for it to be useful to you. But those things knock out teeth, eyeballs and lots of other things. They are really dangerous tools and using them "right" is surprisingly difficult in most recovery situations. You will likely be served better by tools for a specific task (hydraulic jack with accessories, come-along hand winch).

No power winch - Another "must have" is the bumper mounted power winch. And they are of course really great tools for the right job. That "right job" is typically getting someone else unstuck. It rarely does you any good getting yourself unstuck. The likelihood of there being an anchor point aligned with your winch when you get stuck is low. In deserts anchors are non-existent entirely and you either need to bring your own (pull pal) or use another vehicle. So give this a skip.

Again, winches are super useful as anyone who does the second type of "the journey" kind of off roading in a group can attest to. But often what is happening is one person in a group is using their winch to help someone else who is stuck. Doesn't sound like your use case.

If you are in an environment with lots of available anchors (forest) then a hand operated "come along" is very useful. Even more so these days. In the past such a device was scary as you stood next to the winch with steel cable under high tension waiting to break and remove limbs. These days with synthetic winch lines (Amsteel Blue) a come along is very safe to operate.

Anyway - have fun with your truck!
Click to expand...

There is more useful information in this post than all of the other responses combined, and yes that includes mine.

Conumdrum · May 6, 2015

DVexile said: ↑

Welcome to TW, you've jumped right in and seen the best and worst of it in this thread

Let's ignore the various straw man arguments thrown about already and the various people who responded only after reading the thread title and nothing else you wrote.

There are typically two kinds of "off-road" drivers:

Want to get from point A to point B because there is something interesting or useful to them at point B. Camp site, work site, trail head, something they want to shoot, something they want to hook, etc. etc. For them the destination is the reason and they will take whatever route and means that gets them successfully to that destination.

Want the challenge of driving rough roads. Will go to a location in which they drive in a loop and never exit the cab unless they get stuck, will go to this place intentionally right after it rains because it will suck more. Will drive on a rough unmaintained and washed out old power line access road just 50 yards away from a parallel paved highway. For them the journey is the reason and they will do whatever they can to make the journey as rough as possible. Breaking an axle and getting to repair it with their under hood welder would make their day even more enjoyable.

I'm guessing you are in the first category, but you are also getting butt hurt responses from people in the second category. And of course there are plenty of people that spend time doing both. There isn't a right or wrong way to "off road" in that regard, just different goals and uses.

Assuming you are in the first category and reading your description of your uses I think you are just fine in 2WD and it is very sensible to ask what to do with a 2WD to make it more useful in off-road situations.

For "getting places" off road lets divide up the useful features you might have on a vehicle to help you:

Clearance - roads are rough and have rocks and ruts and the more clearance the less likely you are to get hung up, stuck or damage something.

Traction at a given wheel - the less like a wheel is to spin the less likely you are to get stuck of course.

Making sure wheels with traction also have power - if the wheels without traction are the ones with power and spinning but the wheels with traction are just sitting there with no power then you aren't going anywhere. Worse still, if the design of the vehicle is such that the wheels without traction (i.e. slipping) will get all the power then this is almost a guarantee of getting stuck!

Throttle and power control at very low speeds - On a very rough road or a very steep road life is much better if you can maneuver at very low speeds without braking

Item 1 has nothing at all to do with 4x4 but everything to do with tires and suspension. So you could put bigger tires on and lift the suspension if the roads you are on present clearance issues. I wouldn't do that though, save such modifications for your next truck. I would go ahead and get slightly larger tires when you next change tires, you can go slightly larger on stock without changing the suspension at all.

You can also attack item 1 by being a good driver - that is picking a good "line" on a route to minimize the likely hood of getting hung up. The first principle in that is to drive over obstacles with your wheels and not place them in the center of the vehicle. You can also help item 1 with a shovel and pry bar. Move obstacles that are in the way. Obviously not always an option.

Item 2 is also not directly about 4WD. Start by having good tires for off road as far as tread design goes. Next, air down - this can help a whole lot. But you can go a few steps further in specific situations. As mentioned in a pinch chains can help, but only run them for the specific section you are getting stuck in. Also a traction ladder or board is an important piece of recover gear that allows you to get a specific wheel to have traction.

Item 3 is very much about 4WD, but more broadly about anything that tries to get power to as many wheels with traction as possible. The reason 2WD gets stuck easily is that with an open diff all that has to happen to get stuck is one rear wheel to lose traction. In 4WD with open diffs you are just as stuck if you lose traction on one wheel at the front and one wheel at the rear. But you are of course in better shape than 2WD as you have at least two chances at an axle having both wheels with traction.

The other option to help with item 3 is to not have open diffs or to have a traction control system that makes sure that all drive wheels get at least some power. For 2WD the rear wheels are the only ones you can drive so the goal is to make sure if one wheel starts slipping the other wheel will get some power.

A rear locker force 50% power to each wheel so that fulfills that goal. But again, this seems to me like spending money on the wrong vehicle. A true mechanical LSD makes sure each wheel gets *some* power if not necessarily 50%, so this helps too. Again, I wouldn't add that. The Tacoma already has a traction control system as outlined earlier in the thread. Learn how to use that and what its limitations are. That already has you better than most 2WD trucks.

Also realize that item 3 can also be indirectly tackled as well. Are you stuck because one wheel is spinning? Well get out of your truck and make it stop spinning - give it traction somehow. Traction ladder, sticks, even a carpet scrap can help.

Last one is item 4, and the low gear transfer case of a 4WD is really helpful here and isn't easy to replicate any other way. But it only applies to some situations and those are probably not ones you are likely to get yourself into. Though the one time I really like the low gears is going down very steep rocky roads that are otherwise just fine for 2WD.

I drove a lot of surprisingly bad roads in a 1994 Honda Civic doing these things. It would be a hell of a lot easier in a 2WD pickup like yours of course. But in that Civic with P rated tires I just drove slow, picked very careful lines when I got to rough patches and occasionally got out of the car and moved minor obstacles. Since I was a "get from point A to point B" driver usually the roads were just fine for 90 to 95% of the trip and there were just short sections (usually near the end) where you had to really take your time. Once or twice I did just have to stop and walk the last mile or so and one time I just had to turn around and wait for the day I owned a more appropriate vehicle.

So with all that in mind, I'd recommend:

Don't modify your suspension or drive train

Possibly modify your tires now or later

Learn what the different traction control settings do and practice with them someplace you can afford to get stuck

Bring a good shovel

Bring traction ladders (MaxTrax, TREDs or a variety of less expensive knock offs).

Have a decent jack with appropriate accessories for using off pavement, can get you un-hung-up and can make it easier to get stuck wheel out of a self dug rut in sand.

Bring basic recovery gear that you can provide if you do need someone to pull you out (shackles, recovery straps and so forth)

Understand basic off road driving techniques

And I'll throw out two controversial recommendations of what not to bring. Take these with a grain of salt, but they are based on my experience driving on desert roads for two decades in a variety of vehicles. Your driving conditions may be very different than mine.

No hi-lift jack - These things are a badge of honor off road and your vehicle and your manhood are in question if you don't have one strapped someplace. They can lift up your truck to change a tire, they can act as a winch, they pry things apart, they pry things together, they pull up fence posts, they uproot trees, they can act as a manual "jaws of life" to extract occupants from a wrecked vehicle. They are the ultimate multipurpose tool scaled up to manly industrial proportions. YOU MUST HAVE ONE OF THESE!

That is the standard recommendation. My perspective is that they are inherently dangerous and not the best tool to use in almost any situation they are advertised for. They will do all the things I stated above. But they will do those things in a sucky and unsafe manner. Yes, all tools have danger associated with them and when "properly used" you should be safe. But here's the thing, when you are stuck in the boonies and improvising having a dangerous tool at your disposal is not really a great option. I carried a hi lift for 14 years and every time I might have used it I used another tool in a more safe manner to get the job done. These jacks won't do most of their claimed jobs without appropriate accessories and an appropriately modified vehicle. So if you have bumpers and runners and the accessories necessary to use a hi lift to lift from those points then yes indeed it will be a useful tool for you. But you, and most other people, don't have those things and so the hi lift is just an awkwardly long 40 lb tool that has no purpose.

So again, hi lift can be very useful if you and your vehicle are setup for it to be useful to you. But those things knock out teeth, eyeballs and lots of other things. They are really dangerous tools and using them "right" is surprisingly difficult in most recovery situations. You will likely be served better by tools for a specific task (hydraulic jack with accessories, come-along hand winch).

No power winch - Another "must have" is the bumper mounted power winch. And they are of course really great tools for the right job. That "right job" is typically getting someone else unstuck. It rarely does you any good getting yourself unstuck. The likelihood of there being an anchor point aligned with your winch when you get stuck is low. In deserts anchors are non-existent entirely and you either need to bring your own (pull pal) or use another vehicle. So give this a skip.

Again, winches are super useful as anyone who does the second type of "the journey" kind of off roading in a group can attest to. But often what is happening is one person in a group is using their winch to help someone else who is stuck. Doesn't sound like your use case.

If you are in an environment with lots of available anchors (forest) then a hand operated "come along" is very useful. Even more so these days. In the past such a device was scary as you stood next to the winch with steel cable under high tension waiting to break and remove limbs. These days with synthetic winch lines (Amsteel Blue) a come along is very safe to operate.

Anyway - have fun with your truck!
Click to expand...

Great post, I hope you have this saved on your PC for when folks need this excellent well thought out post. A lot more time spent than needed methinks in this situation. Keep this, you'll use it as a reply more often than you think!

neverstuck · May 6, 2015

DVexile said: ↑

Welcome to TW, you've jumped right in and seen the best and worst of it in this thread

Let's ignore the various straw man arguments thrown about already and the various people who responded only after reading the thread title and nothing else you wrote.

There are typically two kinds of "off-road" drivers:

Want to get from point A to point B because there is something interesting or useful to them at point B. Camp site, work site, trail head, something they want to shoot, something they want to hook, etc. etc. For them the destination is the reason and they will take whatever route and means that gets them successfully to that destination.

Want the challenge of driving rough roads. Will go to a location in which they drive in a loop and never exit the cab unless they get stuck, will go to this place intentionally right after it rains because it will suck more. Will drive on a rough unmaintained and washed out old power line access road just 50 yards away from a parallel paved highway. For them the journey is the reason and they will do whatever they can to make the journey as rough as possible. Breaking an axle and getting to repair it with their under hood welder would make their day even more enjoyable.

I'm guessing you are in the first category, but you are also getting butt hurt responses from people in the second category. And of course there are plenty of people that spend time doing both. There isn't a right or wrong way to "off road" in that regard, just different goals and uses.

Assuming you are in the first category and reading your description of your uses I think you are just fine in 2WD and it is very sensible to ask what to do with a 2WD to make it more useful in off-road situations.

For "getting places" off road lets divide up the useful features you might have on a vehicle to help you:

Clearance - roads are rough and have rocks and ruts and the more clearance the less likely you are to get hung up, stuck or damage something.

Traction at a given wheel - the less like a wheel is to spin the less likely you are to get stuck of course.

Making sure wheels with traction also have power - if the wheels without traction are the ones with power and spinning but the wheels with traction are just sitting there with no power then you aren't going anywhere. Worse still, if the design of the vehicle is such that the wheels without traction (i.e. slipping) will get all the power then this is almost a guarantee of getting stuck!

Throttle and power control at very low speeds - On a very rough road or a very steep road life is much better if you can maneuver at very low speeds without braking

Item 1 has nothing at all to do with 4x4 but everything to do with tires and suspension. So you could put bigger tires on and lift the suspension if the roads you are on present clearance issues. I wouldn't do that though, save such modifications for your next truck. I would go ahead and get slightly larger tires when you next change tires, you can go slightly larger on stock without changing the suspension at all.

You can also attack item 1 by being a good driver - that is picking a good "line" on a route to minimize the likely hood of getting hung up. The first principle in that is to drive over obstacles with your wheels and not place them in the center of the vehicle. You can also help item 1 with a shovel and pry bar. Move obstacles that are in the way. Obviously not always an option.

Item 2 is also not directly about 4WD. Start by having good tires for off road as far as tread design goes. Next, air down - this can help a whole lot. But you can go a few steps further in specific situations. As mentioned in a pinch chains can help, but only run them for the specific section you are getting stuck in. Also a traction ladder or board is an important piece of recover gear that allows you to get a specific wheel to have traction.

Item 3 is very much about 4WD, but more broadly about anything that tries to get power to as many wheels with traction as possible. The reason 2WD gets stuck easily is that with an open diff all that has to happen to get stuck is one rear wheel to lose traction. In 4WD with open diffs you are just as stuck if you lose traction on one wheel at the front and one wheel at the rear. But you are of course in better shape than 2WD as you have at least two chances at an axle having both wheels with traction.

The other option to help with item 3 is to not have open diffs or to have a traction control system that makes sure that all drive wheels get at least some power. For 2WD the rear wheels are the only ones you can drive so the goal is to make sure if one wheel starts slipping the other wheel will get some power.

A rear locker force 50% power to each wheel so that fulfills that goal. But again, this seems to me like spending money on the wrong vehicle. A true mechanical LSD makes sure each wheel gets *some* power if not necessarily 50%, so this helps too. Again, I wouldn't add that. The Tacoma already has a traction control system as outlined earlier in the thread. Learn how to use that and what its limitations are. That already has you better than most 2WD trucks.

Also realize that item 3 can also be indirectly tackled as well. Are you stuck because one wheel is spinning? Well get out of your truck and make it stop spinning - give it traction somehow. Traction ladder, sticks, even a carpet scrap can help.

Last one is item 4, and the low gear transfer case of a 4WD is really helpful here and isn't easy to replicate any other way. But it only applies to some situations and those are probably not ones you are likely to get yourself into. Though the one time I really like the low gears is going down very steep rocky roads that are otherwise just fine for 2WD.

I drove a lot of surprisingly bad roads in a 1994 Honda Civic doing these things. It would be a hell of a lot easier in a 2WD pickup like yours of course. But in that Civic with P rated tires I just drove slow, picked very careful lines when I got to rough patches and occasionally got out of the car and moved minor obstacles. Since I was a "get from point A to point B" driver usually the roads were just fine for 90 to 95% of the trip and there were just short sections (usually near the end) where you had to really take your time. Once or twice I did just have to stop and walk the last mile or so and one time I just had to turn around and wait for the day I owned a more appropriate vehicle.

So with all that in mind, I'd recommend:

Don't modify your suspension or drive train

Possibly modify your tires now or later

Learn what the different traction control settings do and practice with them someplace you can afford to get stuck

Bring a good shovel

Bring traction ladders (MaxTrax, TREDs or a variety of less expensive knock offs).

Have a decent jack with appropriate accessories for using off pavement, can get you un-hung-up and can make it easier to get stuck wheel out of a self dug rut in sand.

Bring basic recovery gear that you can provide if you do need someone to pull you out (shackles, recovery straps and so forth)

Understand basic off road driving techniques

And I'll throw out two controversial recommendations of what not to bring. Take these with a grain of salt, but they are based on my experience driving on desert roads for two decades in a variety of vehicles. Your driving conditions may be very different than mine.

No hi-lift jack - These things are a badge of honor off road and your vehicle and your manhood are in question if you don't have one strapped someplace. They can lift up your truck to change a tire, they can act as a winch, they pry things apart, they pry things together, they pull up fence posts, they uproot trees, they can act as a manual "jaws of life" to extract occupants from a wrecked vehicle. They are the ultimate multipurpose tool scaled up to manly industrial proportions. YOU MUST HAVE ONE OF THESE!

That is the standard recommendation. My perspective is that they are inherently dangerous and not the best tool to use in almost any situation they are advertised for. They will do all the things I stated above. But they will do those things in a sucky and unsafe manner. Yes, all tools have danger associated with them and when "properly used" you should be safe. But here's the thing, when you are stuck in the boonies and improvising having a dangerous tool at your disposal is not really a great option. I carried a hi lift for 14 years and every time I might have used it I used another tool in a more safe manner to get the job done. These jacks won't do most of their claimed jobs without appropriate accessories and an appropriately modified vehicle. So if you have bumpers and runners and the accessories necessary to use a hi lift to lift from those points then yes indeed it will be a useful tool for you. But you, and most other people, don't have those things and so the hi lift is just an awkwardly long 40 lb tool that has no purpose.

So again, hi lift can be very useful if you and your vehicle are setup for it to be useful to you. But those things knock out teeth, eyeballs and lots of other things. They are really dangerous tools and using them "right" is surprisingly difficult in most recovery situations. You will likely be served better by tools for a specific task (hydraulic jack with accessories, come-along hand winch).

No power winch - Another "must have" is the bumper mounted power winch. And they are of course really great tools for the right job. That "right job" is typically getting someone else unstuck. It rarely does you any good getting yourself unstuck. The likelihood of there being an anchor point aligned with your winch when you get stuck is low. In deserts anchors are non-existent entirely and you either need to bring your own (pull pal) or use another vehicle. So give this a skip.

Again, winches are super useful as anyone who does the second type of "the journey" kind of off roading in a group can attest to. But often what is happening is one person in a group is using their winch to help someone else who is stuck. Doesn't sound like your use case.

If you are in an environment with lots of available anchors (forest) then a hand operated "come along" is very useful. Even more so these days. In the past such a device was scary as you stood next to the winch with steel cable under high tension waiting to break and remove limbs. These days with synthetic winch lines (Amsteel Blue) a come along is very safe to operate.

Anyway - have fun with your truck!
Click to expand...

This reminds me of a guy I work with. Ask him what time it is and he'll tell you how to build a watch. I think his cats ignore him too much at home.

David K · May 6, 2015

nd4spdbh said: ↑

Each have their place.

if it was deep mud.... big fat tires in the front to float on top... and skinny tires in the rear to dig down n get traction.
Click to expand...

Provided you are in mud that has a bottom closer than the frame of your truck to the mud!

nd4spdbh · May 6, 2015

David K said: ↑

Provided you are in mud that has a bottom closer than the frame of your truck to the mud!
Click to expand...

shhhhhh lol

btw atrac is AWESOME.... always impressed with it, took my truck up a pretty gnarly steep trail today and atrac just worked its magic. I am a believer like you! screw the rest!

David K · May 6, 2015

nd4spdbh said: ↑

shhhhhh lol

btw atrac is AWESOME.... always impressed with it, took my truck up a pretty gnarly steep trail today and atrac just worked its magic. I am a believer like you! screw the rest!
Click to expand...

Pretty amazing, isn't it? Try getting both the rear tires off the ground by dropping accidentally into deep ruts, and resting on the spare and trailer hitch... while pointed uphill (rear locker useless)... and one of the front tires is in a rut, too... A-TRAC (with just one front tire on firm ground) pulled the truck out of the ruts and away!

monkeyface · May 7, 2015

C'mon guys, don't overcomplicate this. if you have 2WD the best simplest thing you can do is tire chains and sand ladders. Those two things for $300 will get a 2WD out of all kinds of problems in mud, snow, and sand.

There's several people besides me that said the same in this thread, read and heed, it's the truth.

Red_Taco33 · May 7, 2015

Bring a friend with a tow strap and 4x4, if you wanna spend money get yourself a winch installed. It will help with recoveries if you're alone.

prerunner 06 · May 7, 2015

I just wait until a 4x4 comes along and pulls me out. They're all over the place and are happy to show off their power LOL

Manwithoutaplan · May 7, 2015

prerunner 06 said: ↑

I just wait until a 4x4 comes along and pulls me out. They're all over the place and are happy to show off their power LOL
Click to expand...

what happens if you are in a remote area and the 4x4 never comes?

neverstuck · May 7, 2015

Manwithoutaplan said: ↑

what happens if you are in a remote area and the 4x4 never comes?
Click to expand...

It's only a matter of time before there's a Jon Krakauer book about such a tragic story.

Cr250jumper · May 7, 2015

Manwithoutaplan said: ↑

what happens if you are in a remote area and the 4x4 never comes?
Click to expand...

They will come, all you have to do is say 2wd in your rear view mirror 3 times and they come crawling out of the woodwork

Manwithoutaplan · May 7, 2015

lol.

lemons · May 7, 2015

Other than mud tires and a locker, a Winch and a pullpal will be your best friend. Ive used the pullpals before and they are great in the sand, just put a tow strap on them before they get buried otherwise you will have a hell of a time getting it out.

HarlemKnight · Aug 31, 2016

DVexile said: ↑

....

There are typically two kinds of "off-road" drivers:

Want to get from point A to point B because there is something interesting or useful to them at point B. Camp site, work site, trail head, something they want to shoot, something they want to hook, etc. etc. For them the destination is the reason and they will take whatever route and means that gets them successfully to that destination.

Want the challenge of driving rough roads. Will go to a location in which they drive in a loop and never exit the cab unless they get stuck, will go to this place intentionally right after it rains because it will suck more. Will drive on a rough unmaintained and washed out old power line access road just 50 yards away from a parallel paved highway. For them the journey is the reason and they will do whatever they can to make the journey as rough as possible. Breaking an axle and getting to repair it with their under hood welder would make their day even more enjoyable.

I'm guessing you are in the first category, but you are also getting butt hurt responses from people in the second category. And of course there are plenty of people that spend time doing both. There isn't a right or wrong way to "off road" in that regard, just different goals and uses.

Assuming you are in the first category and reading your description of your uses I think you are just fine in 2WD and it is very sensible to ask what to do with a 2WD to make it more useful in off-road situations.
....
So with all that in mind, I'd recommend:

Don't modify your suspension or drive train

Possibly modify your tires now or later

Learn what the different traction control settings do and practice with them someplace you can afford to get stuck

Bring a good shovel

Bring traction ladders (MaxTrax, TREDs or a variety of less expensive knock offs).

Have a decent jack with appropriate accessories for using off pavement, can get you un-hung-up and can make it easier to get stuck wheel out of a self dug rut in sand.

Bring basic recovery gear that you can provide if you do need someone to pull you out (shackles, recovery straps and so forth)

Understand basic off road driving techniques

Click to expand...

This post helps alot with my final decision.

I'm finally about to pull the trigger on a Tacoma and feel that the 2WD with Auto LSD and TRD package is enough for my needs. In the last 17 years, I have only needed 4WD on 6 occasions and imagine the next 17 years would be similar. Even those times when I needed 4WD, I suspect Auto LSD would have been sufficient - which is why I dont want the maintenance/insurance/weight/fuel economy of 4WD.

David K · Aug 31, 2016

Get the OFF ROAD TRD so you have the locking differential... Next best thing to 4WD, and 100% both tires powered. Auto LSD is good, but it applies brakes to even out the power between both tires. As for the kinds of off road drivers, I am both... I want to get to a spot AND I enjoy the difficulty of getting there! 4WD roads are a barrier to keep out most people, and you have a cleaner, quieter camp.
Bad Roads Bring Good People...
Good Roads Bring ALL KINDS of People!
(Anita Espinoza, El Rosario, 1973)

VolcomTacoma · Aug 31, 2016

If you have the choice, pic the 4WD every time. My first time I chose a 2WD for stupid reasons and had never been offroad and got stuck way to many times where 4WD would have just walked right out, and the rear locked in a 2WD just wanted to dig in. If I could go back I would have bought a 4x4 the first time

Sterdog · Aug 31, 2016

HarlemKnight said: ↑

This post helps alot with my final decision.

I'm finally about to pull the trigger on a Tacoma and feel that the 2WD with Auto LSD and TRD package is enough for my needs. In the last 17 years, I have only needed 4WD on 6 occasions and imagine the next 17 years would be similar. Even those times when I needed 4WD, I suspect Auto LSD would have been sufficient during those times - which is why I dont want the maintenance/insurance/weight/fuel economy of 4WD.
Click to expand...

Weight/fuel economy/maintenence of a 4x4 are minor. Maybe 1k over 5 years. Maybe. Insurance is about the same. Here it is anyways.

David K · Aug 31, 2016

The above two posts are accurate.
A major key to getting unstuck (2wd OR 4wd) is letting the air OUT of the tires enough to gain traction and stop spinning!!! Everyone is afraid to deflate?? So, more important than anything is to get an AIR PUMP to fill your tires back up! Dropping all 4 tires (even a 2WD) to 10 psi is usually the place to go if you entered sand without dropping the pressure first to 15-20 psi typically. See my signature link on this subject...

eon_blue · Aug 31, 2016

Back when I had a Prerunner prior to my current 4x4, I got bit by the wheeling bug and used to take it out to the local OHV parks all the time...and of course I would get stuck, all the time. Was beyond frustrating, but I still had a lot of fun. By far and away, the absolute best mod I ever did to that truck was adding a rear locker to it. Once I did that, I was able to hang with many of my 4x4 friends on more of their trails that I had to sit out on (or get pulled through) when I had the open diff. It's really amazing what having equal power to both drive wheels does to help when off-road.

It's still not a 4x4 though, so if recreational off-roading is a thing for you then get the 4x4. Otherwise, if you must go with 2wd get the TRD OR package. That's my 2cents.

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