Brand new to Trucks and Off Road.

Hey everyone,

Since I've been driving, all I've ever had was fast lowered Honda's/Acura's. Most ground clearance I've ever had in my cars was just under 2 inches from the header. Really not used to trucks all all and after 16 years of building Honda's/Acura's and I'm ready for a change.

Picked up a 2011 Tacoma double cab pre-runner and am curios to where I can go here in Az to have fun with my truck, but isn't somewhere that requires advanced off road skills. Honestly I don't know what the truck can and can't do yet, so I'm up for any idea's.

I have never in my life drove off road in a truck. Been in them while people are doing some really crazy stuff, but never behind the wheel.

Tips and pointers about off roading , links to websites, anything would be appreciated greatly. I'm still laughing every time I slow way down and go over sideways for speeds bumps in my Tacoma.

Thanks everyone!

 

Welcome to TW! This website will tell you everything you ever need to know about your taco! Utilize the search button, some ppl scrutinize posters for not searching first....

Where in the valley do you live? There's accessible desert within a decent amount of driving pretty much everywhere. Ranging from 4x4 crawling to open prerunning. Depends on what you wanna do

 

Welcome! You'll ever look back! Hahahaha Lol you'll find tons of info here and we have meets and outings all the time. just keep checking in. Who part of Az, truck specs, etc.

 

Welcome. Where you located? There's plenty of guys on here that can show you a trick or two off road.

 

Hey everyone!

I've been reading like a mad man on this website, about 4 hours a night..

Please pardon my ignorance but I am absolutely new to off road adventures.

I live out in chandler but am willing to go everywhere.

What I'm wanting to do is maybe some fast driving, which I guess is 'pre-running'..??? I'd also like to climb up some stuff/rocks/whatever works.

My exp in the dirt is a few quads, which all of them I flipped.. 1 time I rode a dirt bike, flipped that too, haha. So I'm taking baby steps into this. I would like to avoid getting Az Pin-striping on my truck for now.. I"ve only had this thing 5 days

My Truck:

TRD Off Road Package, 2011 Pre-runner quad cab, fully loaded. TRD Exhaust and TRD intake are the only other mod's to the truck other than the upgraded shocks and whatnot that came with the TRD off-road package.

 

Welcome to the site man, however if you want to off-road your truck you screwed up. You should have got a 4x4. Rock crawling type stuff you just mentioned is pretty much 99.9% out of your picture now. You can still have some fun on some forest service roads and such... but you'll find the limit fast.

As for running fast.... you need lots of modifications to do it safely and properly... you can still go faster than a lot of stock trucks but you need to be careful with it. I'd first invest into a proper skid plate (AllPro for one... it's a good balance for weight to protection). Suspension is another one to eventually do... and if you really want to run the 2wd fast desert stuff you'll need a cage and a ton of other modifications down the road to do it right.

 

Welcome brother. I am new to all this also. My only previous processing experience was in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Everyone on here is very helpful and willing to show you the way. It's a brotherhood of a whole different kind.

 

Buy my suspension! Thats where you need to start
Extended travel might I add!



Welcome from Scottsdale!

 

Lol. How much are you asking for this again?

 

I don't plan on doing heavy off road adventures so I didn't get 4x4. I've seen what my buddy did with his 06 Tacmoa 4x2 and he gets through some stuff I thought would be impossible.

I'm more just looking for fun trails, or even maybe places to drive off too that would be good to shoot guns, go camping stuff like that. This is my daily driver and I don't want to modify it a lot, I'm just looking for some fun and tips on what I can do with my truck.

 

alot of the places here in AZ require 4x to get too.

but if you ever want to go out let me know and i can show you around

 

That suspension would actually be a damn good start

 

hell yeah it would^^

 

Yup and same.

@aw9d
Not trying to make you feel bad man, just I had a 2008 Pre-Runner first and regretted it the very second I took it out the first time. You can do a lot with a locked Pre-Runner but you'll never have the same confidence. The biggest thing is, NEVER go out alone.... if you follow that, have a 4x4 with you with proper recovery gear you can do quite a bit. All of us are more than happy to help another out, give a tow, whatever it takes... just be safe out there man. I started out with low fast stuff too (traded in a lowered G35 for my pre-runner) so I've been there, done that

 

honestly.... i dont really know any places thats fun in a 2wd unless you like to romp your truck up hills....

like sycamore can be fun for about 10 minutes in a 2wd.

and 4 peaks road gets boring in about... 30 seconds.

 

I dunno man, 4 Peaks is pretty fun at night averaging 35-40 with my fox's

 

Well for now I get excited that I can go over speed bumps without having to get sideways.. So anything that isn't flat road is fun to me right now

I plan on going up to apache lake this sunday and doing some fishing there. Might have to just see what I can get into while I'm up there.

 

you can go up and over 4 leaks to the other side to get there. just an idea!!

 

Yup, take El Oso Road to Roosevelt, cut south to 88 and take the Apache Trail (88) to Apache... makes a nice scenic day trip.

 

I can 2nd that, came from nothing but lowered VW's. Love my taco now, and speed bumps .

I havent ran much of AZ either so I'd be game for whatever runs you guys go on. Just keep me posted. With the company of a 4x4 of course. Josh (Moose1988) was telling me they run with 2wd guys all the time and dont have many problems. Just the occasional tow up a hill