Bit by the Off-road bug

Welcome to The Forum!

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Welcome to tacomaworld!

My first upgrades I recommend to people is sliders and full skids. I'm running rcimetalworks skid plates and love them. My personal opinion is always get steel. Yeah aluminum saves weight but trust me your first trip out when you need the skid your aluminum will buckle and more than likely wont be able to be beaten flat (just seen from experience) where as steel takes a much better beating and can be fixed easier. I've kept my truck as budget as possible as I'm a college student so I've got to put the money where it counts. Got a brute force fab front bumper. Bilstein 5100 on 887 coils. And lots of trimming. Still factory rear (other than bilstein 5125s but the did not lift it). I'm clearing 295/70r17 but I had to trim fenders and do the cmc. I've got $1000 in the bumper and about $400 in suspension and $1000 in skid plates. Truck takes one hell of a beating hahaha so short story long. Start with sliders and skids. Those are basically something that, no matter what direction you go with the truck, you'll always get good use out of. Attached a picture of my truck along with a video of my most recent trip!

https://youtu.be/IkYgNE6XJmk

 

Welcome to TW

I went with sliders before skids. Off camber and in mud it's easy to find yourself up agianst a tree or rock. You can also use them to pivot around trees if the trail gets really tight.

no damage done here.

 

Thanks for the insight, I feel like I can justify buying armor more so than anything else, just to help protect the investment. Awesome truck man, looks great!

 

Yeah I'm with ya, mountains here in KY have a lot of tight timber!

 

Oh yeah! Believe me, skids and sliders are the single best investment. Bumpers are easy to replace... rocker panels once crunched are expensive to repair/replace and same goes for oil/transmission pans and transfer cases.

Good luck with your build! This forum is full of great knowledge and people but you also take everyone's opinion at face value and stick with how you want a build to go. At the end of the day it's your truck and you've got to be happy with how it looks and performs. Same goes for your off road trips. Dont like guys talk you into trails and obstacles you are not comfortable with. Be vocal! I've seen plenty of guys get talked into shit you could tell they did not really want to do and regretted it shortly after. All it takes is one bad spotter or line to ruin it. My rule of thumb is if you wouldn't trust the guy to drive your vehicle don't let him spot you either. You are basically giving the same level of trust to that person hahah

 

Solid advice man, really appreciate all the input!

 

Where you from?

 

I'm from central KY

 

I'm dumb lol you said it on the original post! I was gonna say if you're close to texas we have a Toyota jamboree the first weekend of may that's a really good chance for the newer guys to come out and get guided runs based on their comfort level. Its a really cool opportunity to see other guys set ups and how they perform. Two tears ago we had over 400 in attendance. Last year we had a little less because of bad weather but still a great turn out.

 

If I was closer, I'd definitely check it out. I've got some really great trails within an hour from me (Baniel Boone Backcountry Byway 100 mile loop around the Red River Gorge) so I'll start hitting those and learn as I go! If you're ever out this way, give me a shout!

 

Sounds good bud!