Michigan Tacomas

I live in central MI with a 18' 2wd. The rear end felt a little light when in heavy snow. So I put in 5 tubes of sand and all was good. I live in the city and dont have to alot of country or back woods driving. But I never had a problem when I did. Ran 75 down the xway with no problem.

 

Thanks for the insight. I'm also in the city and really wouldn't do any off roading so it's good to know the 2wd will do fine

 

As long as the city plows the roads, before you go to work. My road doesn't get plowed until 2 or 3 days after a storm.

 

Hey I have a question:
Do many of you swap out wheels and tires for the seasons out here in Michigan? I'm thinking of getting some aggressive tires and wheels for summer and swapping out stock wheels with winter/all season tires for snowfall.
If you do, what do you love for offroading these beautiful 2tracks in the summer?
The terrain is not what I am used to put west, so there has been a wee bit of a learning curve when the ground gets soft with sand.

 

No doubt that proper winter tires are ideal in winter... but I’ve always ran MT’s or aggressive AT’s year round. They are great when it snows, and while not the greatest on ice, they’re tolerable (and no tire is truly great on ice). That way you’re also ready to hit the trails still over winter as well. Snow wheeling is a lot fun; trails that are usually boring during the rest of the year become challenging and quite fun.

I would opt for an MT or AT with sipes in the tread though; that will help immensely.

I’ve ran Toyo MT’s, wrangler MTr’s, Mickey Thompson MTZ’s, ko2’s, wildpeak atw3’s, and ridge grapplers. While some might have been bette than others come winter, none of them sucked or made me wish I had something else on my wheels.

 

You've tried a ton of tires! Can you tell us which ones were at the top and bottom of your list?

 

Well to clarify, this was over the course of many years and a few different vehicles (Jeep/Taco/4Runner mix).

I would probably rate them as such based on my experiences:

1. Toyo Open Country MT: This was by far my favorite, and a good jack of all trades tire. The only downside is that they were very heavy. Good on road without being overly loud (they did hum for sure), excellent off road. Gripped rocks well, handled sand and snow well. Also rolled smooth right from the get go, almost didn't even need to bother having them balanced. I put a good 35,000 miles on them, with some long road trips, and some fairly heavy wheeling with rock crawling thrown in; never any issues or odd wear. They were on my previous jeep and left them on when I sold it; still had good tread life on at the time.

2. Nitto Ridge Grapplers: A little bit of hum on road, but not bad at all, and good handling characteristics. Has done great in snow and in sand, and even did decent through mud; have not had them on rocks yet. Only downside so far is that on road in the rain, they will occasionally break traction when taking off from a dead stop.

3. Falken Wildpeak ATW3's: These could almost be swapped with the ridge grapplers for the second spot; I really had no complaints, and I never lost grip on a wet road with them either. They did great in snow, good in sand; but didn't do very well in mud (of course being an AT, my expectations for mud weren't high). Also went cross country and back on these tires, with some offroading mixed in, with no issues.

4. KO2's: Great in snow, great in sand, good on dry roads; my only real complaint with these is that they were not good on wet pavement. They would lose traction trying to take off from a stop, and would occasionally also slip going through a turn. Every now and then I'd be taking off from a stop, and the wheels would just spin... making me look like a jerk who was trying to do a burnout or something.

5. Wrangler MT/r's with kevlar: These tires are phenomenal... for about 15,000 miles (give or take). Then the perpetual balancing issues and funky wear patterns kick in. I know multiple other people with the same balancing and funky wear experience. Until then... they were reasonably light weight, good on road manners, were excellent offroad, including doing pretty damn good in mud; very good grip on rocks. I've heard stories about weak sidewalls too, but myself, and those I've personally known who's ran these, haven't had a puncture.

6. Mickey Thompson MTZ's: I had a ton of balancing issues with these, and I found that they chunked really bad on rocks. Hence why I put these at the bottom.

 

Everyone going to Toyota Takeover at Silver Lake Dunes in 3 weeks?

 

I’m planning on being there.

 

I've been hearing lots of good things about the wildpeaks and it's great to hear confirmation from a Michigander

 

FYI

I’m going to have my Prinsu rack up for sale in the next week or so. I have my truck going in on the 6th for a new rack, and I’ll be taking this one off before then.

It’s an old school Prinsu (at least that’s what I was told when I bought it), so the fairing sits back a little further on the cab than the new style. Standard rack comes with (6) cross bars, this one comes with (10). The last cross bar isn’t pictured as it interfered with my shark mount antenna, and I never bothered trying to fit it. I also replaced all the hardware with black stainless. You can see it bled a little, but a little elbow grease or a fresh coat of black paint should remedy that.

I’d much rather sell it local so we can swap it over in 15 minutes, but I will disassemble and ship. Located in Southwest Michigan. $450+shipping OBO.

 

Hey Michigan peeps! I have owned a 2001 taco for the last year (my first vehicle) and it's about time for me to look into getting the head gasket done and timing belt. I'm from metro Detroit area and was wondering if anyone had a good toyota mechanic that won't rip me off and will do it right. I'd dig into it if it weren't for all the timing stuff to access head gasket or timing belt.

Also would the silver lake dunes be fun for a young (20 yr old)? I just don't know how old the typical attender would be for those events.

 

I'm from the west side, so can't help with mechanic.
Silver Lake would be allot of fun for a 20 year old. The dunes are a blast and lots of girls in the area.
Spent time there in the early 70's. Not interested in the area now. Use my truck mainly for hunting, fishing, and cruising the two tracks of this great state.

 

Silver lake dunes are fun for all ages. There's tons of people your age there all the time.

 

Morning all. I'm searching for a new home for my bed rack:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...l-mount-275-se-michigan.621657/#post-21203005

 

Im old and enjoy Silver lake. lots of cool people to hang out with and run laps with.

 

Anyone going to the the Detroit 4fest in September?
Off road festival at Holly Oaks ORV Park.
http://detroit4fest.com/

 

First I heard about it but I’m going. Can’t wait for that park to be done

 

Looked up Silver Lake. Wow.

Any suggestions on where to camp? Or stay?

 

Silver Lake resort and campground. By far my favorite.

https://silverlakerc.com/