Chicagoland area members

Nice! Up there a good bit in the summer. If you see me, don't hesitate to wave! Pic taken at the lake house on Christmas. Down the road from Bald Knob Marina if you know where that is.

 

I had the inspection in feb. and had to wait until sept. for the frame to arrive at dealer.
No other work but I did have to remove my aftermarket front bumper and provide longer u-bolts cause I have 1in blocks in back.

pm is private message, click on start a conversation under the name to pm them.

 

thanks for the help, Sparky. Did the dealer impound your truck while waiting for the frame ? I have read here that happens to some, supposedly unsafe to drive.

 

No the dealer never mentioned anything about impound, but I did get a new rav4 when they did my frame replacement.

 

Elgin just did my frame replacement back in September. Have been happy so far. I dealt with Darryl, the daytime service manager. He is hard to get a hold of on the phone, but good to deal with.

They did impound my truck while waiting for a frame. I was issued a Highlander Hybrid throughout the process.

Goodluck.
Ken

 

How long did you wait ? also, do you know what else, if anything, did they replace with the frame ? And what cost to you ? And happy so far,meaning, no problems ? Thanks for replying, scout67 !!

 

Hey since there is a little action in our thread finally. I’m switching over to a bigbrake set up and have a brand set of rotors and pads if anyone is interested. I have a 14, 6 lug. My intent was to use them as soon as I needed a brake job but again I got the the bigbrake kit.....make me an offer...

 

They will do LCA’s and rear leafs if you haven’t had them replaced already, some have had luck with shocks too.

David Bruce in Kankakee does good work too. Familiar with frame swaps to boot. Takes a week or so

 

The frame itself took 2 or 3 months to arrive at the shop. If you do a search in the site, you will find a jpg of the parts that are typically replaced. New brake lines, leaf springs are included. My suspension was shagged out, so I replaced those on my dime. The shop will inspect and suggest what work could/should be done. The accessment I received appeared to be fair and accurate for the work I knew the truck needed. The only hiccup I had was they failed to completely address a leak in the transfer case. I contacted them, and they corrected the issue, to my satisfaction.

 

Thanks Ken scout67, what kind of tacoma do you have ? And if needed, could I use you for a reference @ Elgin ? And I'm also still looking at other dealers, but so far Elgin is closest to me.

 

pm replied.

 

Sup dudes. Thought Id jump in this regional thread and see whats going on. Been on the forums for a bit and want to chat with the local Taco owners. Everyone seems to be living in all these exotic awesome locations with amazing trails 2min away from the house and Im over here driving around in random backroads trying to pretend Im cool.... so Im not sure if there is a place where to look or who to ask but where do you guys go to get a little fun offroad? I know the few places that have those offroad trails set up but I was wondering if there is any areas where I can head out to and have some fun, anyday, anytime. Im located in the Naperville area so Im sure I would have to drive out a little to get anywhere fun, but if anyone got some suggestions or places to go help me out. We can always join up and go together if youd like. Anyways, forgive the typos, typing on my phone, and also, not sure if any of you guys have seen my truck around, I wave at every Taco I see like an idiot lol some of them are older ladies and they just look at me weird. But anyways, nice to find this sub forum, if you guys do any meets or anything like that, Im always down. Heres pic of my truck, if you guys ever see me, come say hi!!

 

What’s up man, I’m not sure sure where to go close by here as I don’t wheel my truck. If your a facbooker, look up chi-town4x4. They are local and out of carol stream. They do hold various meets (which I always tend to miss these days ) lol and they go to the off-road parks together too. I know that only partially answers your question. However, some of those guys may know some off the wall local trails too.....

 

@x2akimbo
Welcome!
I'm in Aurora and public land wise, to the best of my knowledge, there isn't diddly shit around here for off-roading. The only "trails" that I can think of like that within a decent driving distance is the Trans-Wisconsin Adventure Trail (or TWAT) that starts in Galena. I'm planning a trip up there for sometime this coming summer.

On an unrelated note, I saw that you have an aftermarket shift knob, where did you snag it? Also, how did you get the shift boot to stay up after changing out the knobs?

 

Grew up just over the border from you, Wilmot, Twin Lakes Wi area.

 

Hey thanks, good to know. Im sure someone knows of some good secret spots around here. I was sitting on youtube few days ago and was able to find some people going to Coal City on some random roads but I was unable to locate it exactly where. Ill look into the facebook group though, thanks!

Sucks for us... wish I could experience what these other guys do in Colorado or Arizona... maybe one day.
The shift knob is the heaviest knob I could find. I wanted the shifting to be butter smooth and needed lots of weight. So went with Raceseng Prolix Gloss White. Amazing quality, these guys really dont take any shortcuts and its the best quality knob I have ever seen. Check em out.
https://www.raceseng.com/prolix-gloss-gate-1-m12x1-25mm-shifter-arm
As for the shifter boot holding up. I did the grommet mod. Saw a few people here do it. Pretty much you buy this grommet from home depot ( https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbil...ickid=ypmwg0xHJxyJW2z0MSU5wRc5UkgQURVsQTKg0E0) and then unscrew the OEM plastic piece and shove the grommet into its place. Its rubber so it holds it in place and looks OEM. Never had it poo out once. They are like 50cents each. Great mod and really cleans up the shifter area I think. Heres another pic of mine.

 

There's a few places:

- Cliff's insane terrain in Marsailles IL; Never been. Soupy mudpit that is not recommended for new vehicles.

- River road rally park up in McHenry IL; been there back when it first opened and I heard they expanded. Haven't been there since the expansion.

- Badlands offroad park in Attica IN; Been quite a few times. Little bit of everything.

Unfortunately, the common thing around here lately is saying you will show up to the events that me and the other mods of the local yota 4x4 pages create on Facebook and then just bailing completely.

Last event that was organized in October at the badlands created by a member was a wash. The organizer of the event bailed due to "work" and we come to find out that same afternoon of the event, he was at a 4x4 shop ordering wheels. I was the only one that showed. Dragged my wife along for a good time and left after 2 hours.

Good luck trying to find actual people that want to wheel and are reliable. The local scene here is more about a coffee and donuts meet up in a parking lot than getting off the pavement and out of the parking lots.

 

Not surprising. I feel like I have had that same scenerio in many things in life as I got older and into my 30s. People just flaking out and leaving you hanging. Im all for doing things as a group but I know how near impossible that can be, so going solo is probably going to be my preferred method. Once the weather warms up Ill make it my goal to get out to one of those places you listed and if someone wants to tag along then great as for those trails, are they noob friendly at all? Or do you have to have some extreme offroad experience already? I have been on some backroad "trails" but they are pretty much just gravel roads with some puddles, so my experience on climbing rocks may not be as good lol dont want to go to a park thats for the very experienced and get myself in a sticky situation.

 

River road rally park is noob/stock friendly. Mostly flat and nothing crazy. Could give you experience and build confidence for one of the other parks. Badlands has everything; stock to rock crawling.

I would steer clear of Cliff's. Never been. Unless I get a $200 piece of crap, I don't think I would ever go there

 

Awesome, thanks so much for that info, really appreciate it. I will give River Road Rally a try once it gets a little warmer out for sure. Will make it my goal for the spring.
Thats where I will start and then go from there. Adventure out into Badlands one day.