2003 Prerunner innate off-road capabilities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuti-PrM4Tg

 

As @jbrandt suggests, driver skill is the most important single piece to focus on, followed by tires.

I won a few lunches betting engineers out on field trips I could drive further in 2wd than they could in 4wd w/o getting stuck. Same type vehicle, same terrain.

As you learn, travel with others with experience, recovery gear and at least one with 4wd. Just in case. Especially in a 3rd world country like you're talking about.

 

Thanks for the all the replies guys! I think I’ll be scrapping the locker/winch ideas for now. I’ll start with getting some decent tires and then work my way from there. If I could find the parts and get the 4x4 conversion done under 2k then I’d feel good about doing it, I just assumed costs would be much higher. But, from what you guys say it sounds realistic.

Looks like I’ll invest in some decent tires for now and piece together parts for the conversion over time. Which brings me to the next question lol. What tires would you suggest for my situation? The truck is my daily driver and will be on the highway 99% of the time. The small bit of off roaring would be on loose kind of rocky desert terrain that can get wet and muddy with rain (Baja). From what I researched the bfg ko2s seem to be of good value, thoughts?

 

Don’t get KO2’s. They’re one of the most overpriced off-road tires on the market.

 

Over priced and way over rated.

 

Haha okay my bad! Anyone have experience or thoughts on the falken wildpeak at3w‘s 235/70/R16 ?

 

pfft I gave you yours for free

Granted they were beat to hell

 

But it looks sooo good!


OP should figure out how much they want to go off road before changing their truck with a 4wd conversion. Maybe have a friend take them out froading for a weekend

 

4R

 

both are supercharged too, brown one has steel plate welded in both of the back windows from past "experiences"

 

I had those and they did me well, I'd also consider looking at cooper tires too

 

jesus, you know you've committed to a trail rig when you reinforce the windows with steel lol

 

white one is a daily though

 

For what it's worth I've had 2 sets of KO2s and I thought they performed fine offroad, I wheeled the heck out of mine. The issue I had with them (and why I won't buy them again) is because they chunk up terribly. The tread breaks off and the sidewall breaks off easily. That being said, I never once had a flat with them and I never thought they underperformed, except in snow/mud...but that's going to be true for any all terrain tire and a 2wd really has no business on snowy or muddy trails anyhow.

My favorite so far are Cooper STMaxx. But they are not cheap either.

 

Even better lol

 

I live and offroad in the Mojave which is pretty similar territory and also commute in my truck, big fan of the Toyo Open Country AT3's. You could go 265/70 in the SL rating and be set. TireBuyer had a really good deal on them recently that might still be going.

Hear good things about the Falkens and Coopers too.

 

Only offroading I really do is on the beach. Sometimes the beach here gets to a 4x4 vehicles only level. My truck is 2wd with the e locker and I will say a set of good tires, e locker and petal to the metal has gotten me through 300 yard stretches of deep soft sand. So don't count out the locker idea. It's helped me a ton of times.

BTW. I have a set of Cooper STT Pro tires and probably wouldn't have made it without them.

 

I'm using Hankook Dynapro AT2 and haven't had an issue with them in the 10k miles I've used them. They perform well in loose dirt and some muddy areas I've went through.

 

I had a Prerunner with a locking differential for a couple years before I converted it to manual/4x4. But I will say that the Prerunner always surprised me with its offroad capabilities, and I had a ton of fun hitting trails with it. I will say, however, that the rear locker made a huge difference, especially when things got a bit sandy or muddy. I did still get stuck in deep sand a few times, but luckily I always had plenty of logs to jam under the tires and a friend to pull me out (good times lol).

So probably the two most important things would be getting some off-road tires (I've been using 33" General Grabber AT2's, and they have worked out well for me), and then installing an e-locker if that is an option. However, to fit 33's I did put on a 3" lift in the front and back, so you would have to settle for a bit smaller of a tire if you are not planning on lifting the truck. Without 4x4, since the truck is pretty light in the rear, you just have to be a little more careful if the trail is sandy, and be more aware of the lines you are choosing.

Like others have said, the 4x4 conversion pretty much bolt on, and is not too bad as long as you do all the necessary research. When I did my conversion, the only mechanical experience I had previously was installing my lift kit. If you look around for parts, you could get everything needed for the conversion for pretty cheap.

It sounds for what you want to do, tires, a locker, and maybe a lift would be sufficient, but 4x4 will definitely give you that piece of mind and will allow you to hit some gnarlier areas if you ever want to. Good luck!

 

some of those are impressive but those guys are all mashing the throttle to get through everything because without it, in 2wd they'll get stuck. Mashing the throttle to get through an obstacle is a great way to break expensive parts. The best thing about 4wd is you can take things slow and steady, pick the right line and crawl it. Way less likely to break stuff.

For that reason I think (after good tires), rear locker in a 2wd is the best mod you can do.. aside from converting to 4wd. At least with a rear locker you can attempt to take on obstacles more slowly without having to bomb through it and pray nothing snaps, bends or breaks