Can You Wheel a Stock Taco?

TLDR: Yes.

So I've had my 2017 about 2 years now. It's still stock except for a topper and I finally added RCI sliders just this weekend and some Falken Wildpeaks, but I did a number of trails in the stock vehicle without issue. I see a lot of threads here asking about how much lift, tire size, etc. you need to go off road and I thought as a novice and casual off roader I'd share a few things.

First, I bought my Taco as a daily driver and to take me camping, fishing and hunting in places my Outback wouldn't go. It was a conscious decision to sacrifice some on road niceties for some off road capability. And I bought a Taco because I wanted that off road capability off the lot not after spending thousands. If you want to do more than mall crawling you'd be hard pressed to find better than a Tacoma.

Now, if you want to take a Tacoma on something like the Holy Cross City trail (assuming you even could - watch the video on that page) you will need to heavily modify it. I hiked this trail once when my kids were little and we watched a group of off-roaders all the way up. They would stop, unload the passengers, and get out hi-lift jacks to get over one rock and another. They drove Jeeps, a Suzuki Samurai and a few others I don't recall and had huge balloon tires aired down and would struggle quite often. I'm not into that. Seemed more stressful than fun and I hiked it as fast as they drove it. They were nice though and gave us ride down the last couple easy miles as my kids were tired.

I need to get better about taking pics showing the road and difficulty and I don't have any pics from the first trail I did in my one month old truck that I'll probably never do again. I'm sure someone here has pics they could share, but it looked kind of like this.

ETA - so this pic was just a random pic I thought look similar to what I was trying to show but turns out there is a story behind it. Scroll down for more info in the posts below.


If you drive up the Kawuneeche Road near Grand Lake (end of county road 4), stay right, go to the parking area at the top then turn around you'll be at the top of the 4x4 road just a bit back down on the right. I only drove down it, not sure I could go up it. I'll try and go back this summer and get a few pics.

Another trail I did was Montgomery Pass near Gould, CO in the Colorado State Forest. These are my pics but don't really show the difficulty. It's not that difficult, but OHVs and Tacomas were all I saw up top. This was closer to the bottom and up higher it got more rocky and steep in sections.









It may look like a 2wd drive road and the lower parts are. You do need a 4x4 further up but a stock Tacoma is just fine. Here is someone's video of the road.



There are some other roads in the Colorado State Forest that are steep, narrow and rocky and I drove those just fine as well.

Another trail I did is Pearl Pass Road near Aspen. Lower down 2wd is fine and you can get to the dispersed camp sites without 4wd, but it helps for the ones a bit further up. You can then drive quite a ways up the Castle Peak trail. It's a 4x4 road but again a stock Taco can do fine. Here are a few of my pics.



As you can see, loaded down with camping gear (and I had unpacked much of it) I do need to lift my rear up a bit to get back to factory rake and capacity.





Here is more info and a video about Pearl Pass Road. There is a water crossing next to a foot bridge that for some reason they didn't show in the video (unless I missed it). After that it gets a bit more sketchy but again stock Taco is fine.

For the true wheelers here, these aren't extreme roads or anything, but they are roads where you'll need a 4wd and a stock Tacoma is more than capable of this and more. Of course there are limits, but before you rush out and spend a bunch of money on unnecessary shit give your stock Taco a try. Just be sure you have a clue and know when to turn around.

I put on nerf bars mainly to keep others from banging their doors into me, but eventually I did some trails where it was clear they were going to cause more damage than a door ding so that's why I ponied up for the sliders. If you want to spend money, get better tires and sliders. I'm not sure if skids are necessary as long as you don't push it and pay attention. Eventually, skids will help as will a lift and bigger tires, but the point is that you don't need all that to be able to do quite a bit of off roading.

If you have pics showing trails you took your stock Tacoma on please add them.

 

Couldn't agree more. Capability is 20% truck, 80% driver in my opinion.
I'd say un-built trucks are the best way to gain skill as a driver.
Most people just emulate the rigs they see on instagram or something, which tend to be mostly mall crawlers anyway.

For reference, I've been over Imogene Pass, down Poughkeepsie Gulch, and through a number of other trails in that area in a 100% stock TRD Offroad.

 

According to the Google, this is a "Taco Wheel".

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

 

Having wheeled in many rental cars for work... the biggest limiting factor, is the fear of messing up your truck or breaking something. All cars, trucks and SUVs are VERY capable offroad, if you're not afraid to push them to their limit.

 

Nope. Just googled for something that looked similar to the road I was on and stole it. I'm heading back up there end of May so I'll try to get a legit picture of the area.

 

Never had a heavily modified truck. Things like aal for more load in the back but that is about it. Don't hit those crazy trails, but I do plenty of offroad driving during hunting season and never had any issues.

 

Requires, at a minimum, a level lift, black wheels with a wonky offset, upgraded tires of a size that create rubbing on stuff with said wheels and some LED lighting.

Otherwise, fail.

 

Given that story I probably shouldn't have used it as my example but couldn't find a good picture of the area I was. Hopefully someone here has been up there and can share.

 

Did detract from the point of my post though.

Because my near vision sucks, I didn't even notice that the red jeep was smashed up until I took a closer look.

Here is more info on it.

https://www.keeptrailsopen.com/news/2018/8/30/iron-chest-mine-trail-recovery

 

Have wheeled several trails on the Western Slope, mainly in Gunnison National Forest since 1992. Granted some of those were as passenger before I turned 14 and started taking the wheel.

All of my trips were (are) using a bone stock CJ-5 and Scout II both equipped with the six cylinders and OEM tire sizes and original suspension. The vehicles have been in my family since the mid-1970s. Never had an issue minus the rear bumper of the Scout bottoming out on rocks or other outcroppings. Both vehicles in stock form have been just fine on the trails.

I’m fully confident my bone stock Tacoma will be just as capable.

 

You forgot Raptor lights on the grill....

 

WANT!

 

The article says it was a simple mistake, what exactly led to her going off the trail? I’m just wondering because this type of thing freaks me out about wheeling so far from home.

 

You asked if you can wheel, then post all rock crawlers? Yes you can drive off road. Can they crawl like articulated Jeeps? Seriously?

 

To a degree, yes. That was my point.

I didn't post anything about mud and sand, for example, because I've not done that.