My '16 TRD Sport is "meh" offroad

I've been running my truck pretty hard offroad since the wuhan. Keeps us out and about. Nevada trails, lots of dirt, rocks, rutty off camber roads, and dust. Only upgrade is some wrangler duratrac tires

My last offroad vehicles were built jeeps on 35's with the full kit. Now, I know my taco isn't even in the same ballpark as that, and that's fine. But the Sport just seems kinda lousy offroad. Little flex, and I'm pretty sure I popped the driver front spring out of the cup somehow earlier today. Was making a helluva racket after I dropped a tire too hard, and by the time I got out to check it, everything looked fine. While I was poking around in the dirt, I noticed the shocks were kinda wimpy too.

Does the TRD offroad offer a substantially better offroad experience than the sport? I've never had the opportunity to run one of them hard offroad. I'm not abusing my truck at all, it just doesn't "feel right" offroad, if that makes sense. I had less trouble with my stock 1500 ram.

Otherwise, I'll stick with my plan of doing an icon suspension (minimal lift, maybe 1" -- prefer stock height for now) and throwing in a rear ARB with an upgraded compressor.

Couple pics from today:

 

Investigate before you invest.

 

OR has the Bilstein shocks. I know that much. I think the height of the trucks are identical though. I came from Jeeps too but won’t be going back. Not when 99% of my driving is on pavement.

 

Indeed. Somebody in northern NV want to lend me a TRD offroad for a half a day ???

 

I dunno just feels like a truck to me.

 

AVIS and others have them as rentals. After driving both the Offroad felt better. Sport bounces around like a 3/4 ton.

 

That's what I think I was getting at! It's like driving an F350 with a solid front axle. With the jeeps I had you just expect it, and deal with the suck, but you can also get swaybar disconnects and I had nice reservoir shocks.

I'm wondering if the Sport suspension is just too stiff for what I'm doing.

 

Same truck, other than a few gadgets (crawl control and different shocks). Hard off roaders update the shocks on the Off road anyways.

I think the sport has a sway bar that the off road doesn’t have

 

Sport suspension is set up for road handling

 

I think you would be better off getting some 6112 shocks up front, 5160 in the back with some different leaf springs and see how you like it. Or the icon suspension. You don't need an off-road. I upgraded the suspension on my off-road. I didn't need to but I wanted to.

 

Leaf springs add to the weakness. A 4 link ram or jeep has a big advantage in the rear, especially in 4LO with axle wrap.

I'd say do the shocks to at least a 5100 and see how it goes, but don't expect miracles.

 

Any company making front swaybar disconnects for the Taco? Google is telling me no. Wonder how bad the body roll would be if I just took the damn thing off.

 

There's no reasonable way to disconnect, and if you remove one link it eats the CV axle.

 

Thank you for saving me my CVs

 

Interesting, I took a new Ram 1500 off road before, had to get out and have someone spot A LOT on the trail. That thing was so low. I had saw some crossovers drive by while I was taking some pictures of the scenery. I wondered how they made it.

Stock for stock I feel a Tacoma is more capable.

 

Mine was a 2011 ST. Shortbed, quad cab. 33's on it, and no plastic hanging down. 3.93 rear and and 32(?) gallon tank. She was a good truck. Actually traded that one in for the Taco.

 

That plastic on the front comes off easy

 

I took that nonsense off as soon as I got home today lol

 

Ram 1500's are definitely more comfortable on road. Around here you could get a v8 4x4 for the same price as a tacoma. Go for the "classic" trim and it would probably be cheaper.

 

Mine stayed in till I put on new rubber