capabilities of my 04 trd off road 2wd

I have a question about the capabilities of my 04 tacoma 2wd prerunner trd off road. what type of terrain can i tackle? and what does the locking rear diff help out with. ive watched videos about it but still would like input. max speeds? min speeds? what terrain could i drive on? i have all terrain tires . can i drive thru sand or mud. what levels of difficulty..? (ps i am a noob thanks!)

 

A PreRnr is a surprisingly capable vehicle off road... Find a group close to home and start learning...

 

okay, i am in san diego. i will look thru the forums for an SD group. thanks!

 

There are several folks on here from So Cal. I'm sure you will find what you are looking for. Good lock!

 

With a set of good tires, you can do a lot more than people think.

Dirt/Gravel back roads don't take much skill or capability to drive on. I wouldn't use the locker unless you felt like exercising the actuator.

Soft/Deep sand requires a little bit of experience and LOW air pressure (7-15) and a good set of tires. But there's different types of sand (fine grain, how deep it is, if its fresh, etc) and some of it isn't the best to try in 2WD unless you have someone to pull you out. You'll want to remember not to gas it too hard and not get stuck all the way down to your frame. Bring shovels lol.

Mud is typically done best with mud terrains but there's also varying types of mud (how gunky it is, depth, etc.) Dependin on the depth or how your tires clean out themselves, you might wanna air down in mud too. Maybe not as severely as 7psi like sand but to a certain degree itll help.

Rocks crawling isn't the best to do in a 2WD with independent front suspension in the first place, but if you're feeling brave and don't care about rock damage, just take is super slow and air down a lot.

The locker adds equal power to both rear wheels and should only be used offroad. It doesn't affect how fast you go or how slow you go. You can go as fast/slow as you want to with it on. Some people will tell you there's a 15mph limit but that only applies to when engaging and disengaging it.

Definitely go to an off-road meet. There's tons in SoCal. Talk with people and pay attention to how they are driving. Ask questions. The more you know, the less chance you have of getting stuck (breaking out the shovel: not fun).

Edit: if you get more serious into off-roading, tires should always be the first investment, then suspension/armor. Maybe you'll even do a 4wd swap. But you can always add more capability to the truck.

 

One of those things that comes with experience and commonsense !!

Some with the most tricked out Mall Crawlers have problems getting to the mall on a sunny day.

I have seen two WD trucks do some interesting things..

Go with another vehicle until your real good at self recovery !!

Have Fun!!

 

The biggest challenges for a 2wd vehicle even locked are ice / snow and inclines with sand covered rocks. Not having power going to the steering wheels often causes them to wander around while the rear bounces and slides. Driving off camber in these cases can be a bit squirrely as there isn't anything from keeping the rear end from slipping laterally if the rear wheels start slipping. For most cases knowledge of the roads you'll be traveling and the ability to approach obstacles with the proper momentum and angle will get you where you want to be outside of the situations I mentioned.

 

Driving with locked rear diff makes turning dangerous. Use it to get through some shit and then disable before continuing. I have used it to get up steep dirt trails going straight and it really does help.

We have taken the Prerunner all through the Santa Cruz mountains and the Big Sur mountains on dirt trails with light rocks - no crawling. We have also gotten stuck in sand and needed to dig ourselves out, but that was totally my fault.

These trucks are very capable, but know your limits and don't play chicken cus you can easily get stuck and the regret hits. I've been sitting here for a couple years planning on a 4x4 conversion - which is pretty simple on Prerunners as long as you can find the parts.

 

i want a 4x4 but i would only use it 5-10% of the time so its not practical

 

yeah i dont really know the limits. i will take baby steps for sure. im not an extreme rock crawler or crazy off roader. just wanted to understand the limits of the trd offroad prerunner. i will have to experiment

 

thanks

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/southern-california.43/

 

thanks for the knowledge! ill check san diego/socal meet ups. and try to learn.

 

You might learn something from this guy, I do from almost every one of his videos - even the ones for beginners lol. I know his channel's all about 4x4's, but it's also about offroading so it's applicable.

 

watching now! why am i still awake???

 

You might like this if you want to see what happens when you do stupid things to beat up vehicles lol:

 

This exactly, is the biggest drawback that I've discovered. The sand covered rocks, or any loose terrain for that matter, just sucks. Especially loose gravel or loose small rocks. Even the slightest incline becomes impossible and quite scary. Ha.. I just went out the other day and was getting so frustrated and scared because I had to give up and back down over that loose terrain while she was slipping off to the side in the rear with every move.. Airing down very low is a must for almost anything. Even then it's still a pita. Sand is doable, again airing down scary low. Ha. Harder material is much easier to deal with and much more capable. ANYTHING loose though and youd better reconsider unless you've got help close by, or you can self recover.

I also don't push the limits of my truck by 'forcing' it's way through. As in romping or gunning it just to get through an obstacle. Maybe sand. But other than that, if the truck isn't capable, don't force it. That's how you break shit, or roll it.. Ha. That's not to say that SOME forms of gentle coercing, or having a LITTLE extra momentum to get over that stubborn rock (or two), wouldn't be so bad. But certainly not gunning it or forcing it through an entire section to get clear. Ha. Especially when out with friends whom have 4x4 and you trying to keep up. And them creating peer pressure to get you to clear something you're probably not capable of..

There's been some good advice here already tho it seems. I've read threads about people saying some crazy stuff and that 2wd is just as capable as 4wd... NOT the case. Ha. Sorry. But that's just not how it is. Especially if you're new to it. Yes with experience and getting to know your truck helps. But that can take a while. Especially if you don't off road that much.. Just don't go out there thinking that since others say it's 'capable', that you'll be able to pull it off just as easy. And it's not all what the 2wd is capable of. Its what the driver is capable of, with experience, that will make it capable.

 

Do you have an air compressor Ryan?

 

no

 

Well if you plan to do even occasional offroading, itd be a good investment. As said, airing down is gonna be critical. And it's a pita if you don't have a compressor. Ha. But basically anytime you decide to go offroad, you'll want to air down. Unless it's just easy going trails. But even then airing down to like 20 lbs helps a lot on smoothing out the ride. But anything more than easy trails, you'll have to go down pretty low. It doesn't seem like it would help, until you try it for the first time. But it does help immensely. The biggest problem is airing back up. So if it's somewhat close to home, always air down. The only other issue with airing down though, is if it is far from home, whether or not you're gonna need to air back up before hitting pavement. So if you can't air down, that will be a huge factor in your capabilities off road.