DCLB Stock Offroad Capabilities

Hi all,

I recently picked up a 2020 DCLB TRD OR. My family and I love Utah and seeing National Parks. My question is - With the long bed stock configuration, should I be worried about the stock ride height for basic trails, obstacles, etc? I know it all comes down to each situation, but I'm trying to get a better idea of if I'll need rock sliders right away or new tires/wheels. Thanks for any info/experience stories!

 

DCLB do pretty good. I have one myself and I’ve been impressed with the capabilities. Definitely a longer wheel base and sometimes have to hit obstacles a different way then others but they do just fine.

 

You're fine. These trucks, even the 2nd/3rd gens (1st gen best gen! ) are perfectly capable off road. No need to modify the hell out of it.

Just go out and drive it and have fun.

Sooner or later, you'll start wanting to modify it to personalize it to your tastes/performance needs. But not now, just go drive.

 

Air down, grab some road sodas and recovery gear. Roll along with another truck and go find out and report back to us.
They are pretty damn capable from what I’ve seen just remember you got all that booty.

 

Haha for sure! I have a few friends and relatives with 4x4 3rd gens, so I'm excited to get out on some trails. I don't plan on any rock crawling or anything close to it. I went ahead and ordered these since my wife has some trouble getting in:

$399 Tyger Auto Star Armor Compatible with 2005-2023 Toyota Tacoma | Double Cab | TG-AM2T20048 | Side Step Rails Nerf Bars Running Boards

https://www.amazon.com/Tyger-Auto-T...automotive&vehicleId=5&vehicleType=automotive

Hopefully they provide some basic protection against scraping any obstacles since they have the underside armor, but I plan on never being in a situation where I should need them lol. I know they aren't true rock sliders.

 

Awesome!! They should do well

 

I also have a DCLB. The people in my circle love to give me shit about the wheelbase....but i go everywhere they do...all while carrying everybody's crap.

Because Long Bed.

Youll be fine OP

 

I have the nerf bars that come with the TRD OR and can say that they provide little to no protection. I don't offroad hard at all, but came back from hitting a trail last week to see that the step had hit a rock and is bent out of shape. I remember when it happened and it was a very minor bump on a small rock (not crawling or anything). So just be careful! Even with minor offroading some real sliders could come in handy.

 

Definitely will be careful! Any damage from the step hitting the body? I figured having the powder coated steel steps will be better than nothing at all.

 

Yeah I was trying to finding a picture of the step actually bending into the truck and causing damage on the internet because i have heard of that happening. Didnt happen to me, but I definitely dont think of my steps as adding any protection though, theyre really just steps.

 

I wouldn't anticipate those offering much protection from anything but a glancing blow from a shrub. The problem is they are bolted to the body, so any decent hit and you run the risk of damaging the body, too. As opposed to actual rock sliders, that are bolted or welded to the frame, and are strong enough to support the weight of the truck.

But it sounds like for your purposes regular steps should be fine. Just don't get ahead of yourself and expect them to provide "protection"

 

Most definitely, I'm thinking more in terms if a scraping action "protection" if I cut too close to an obstacle rather than putting the weight of the truck itself on top of an obstacle as sometimes happens with rock crawling. Thanks for the input! I'm fairly new to trails and off roading (I'm mostly a muscle car, street car guy), so all this info is appreciated.

 

Depends on the obstacle, though. I've been wheeling many years without rock sliders on some fairly difficult trails and never hit my doors or rocker panels. With steps, they hang low so you could conceivably hit them and cause damage when you would have cleared and gotten NO damage without them.

There's always the random object though. What *finally* convinced me to get sliders was I was driving down this fire road (super non technical) and I ran over a buried log and it flipped up and smacked my rocker panel and put a 3 or 4" dent right under my door. Several months later I'm out, pretty sure it was the same road, or at least close (WITH sliders installed and something similar happened, but this time the branch or whatever it was flipped up PAST my sliders and hit my door. Haven't been on that damn road since, lol

So the lesson is that if you go wheeling with your truck, just expect some dents and scratches. Doesn't matter how much protection you give it, lol, you're gunna get some trail trophies.

 

I've come to the realization that any damage done while intentionally engaging in an activity is just building your vehicle's "character" haha.

 

It's "custom" lol

Back when I used to race mountain bikes, every time I'd build a new race bike, I'd kick it over in the shop. The sooner you get that inevitable "first scratch" out of the way, the better.

 

mud, snow, sand, rocks it does it all, and still gets me to work daily. I am suprised daily how well this truck does, it does have a few weaknesses, but those will be ironed out with a few upgrades..