1st Time off-road yesterday

So finally went off road in my 05 TRD SPRT 4x4 yesterday in Gorman, South California. I decided that it would be awesome to go off roading for the first time....in the rain. Not a great experience. They have the trails labled with their difficulty level and I took one of the 'easier' ones, Powerline Road Trail I think it was called, little did I know that the rain pretty much doubles the diffuculty level of anything there(Common sense duh). It was great on the way up the mountain, made it to the top where it was actually snowing, not settling on the ground though, really cool. Then on the way down just turned to crap. Had little traction(I think because the tires were coated in mud by then). I would find myself sliding into the inside of turns, rear first then the front would follow(I was trying to avoid the mud on the inside of turns by taking them wide on the outside, wonder if it would have been better to just take it through the mud on the inside in the first place instead of sliding into it from the outside). Got stuck on one and would not budge, had to reverse out for quite abit and try to get on the outside to go around since the inside of the turn was already a mush of mud from a truck trying to get through before me tearing it up, but just slid right back into it and had to ride with it against the side of the mountain until the ground got a bit more solid again, real sketchy moments trying to power out of sliding off the side of the trail. Never doing that again in the rain, was in way over my head. I guess having some decent tires and a locker would have really helped me get out of some of the sketchy moments. Will be going back out there this Sunday though, when its dry, then on the the LA Autoshow! cant wait.

 

Sounds like fun to me!

General rule of thumb though is ALWAYS wheel with a second truck if you can. Just in case something were to happen, at least you would have a second vehicle to help get you unstuck or at least drive out to get help.

Ask me how I know

 

Oh and pics are mandatory!

 

Both of these are highly recommended to avoid things like this:



and this:

 

I do have a few pics but they are just from a front mounted GoPro, Ill have em up in a few, thanks for tips guys.

 

Ehhh actually the pics arnt that great, Ill just put up a few clips of the trail once I edit the vid.

 

Nice...Hit me up next time you go to gorman or check out my posts about the pronghorn trail at gorman. It's a lot of fun going when it rains but it really changes things especially with stock type tires. Be careful because cell phone reception sucks out there and you may not be able to call for help if you need it. Pack some recovery tools as well in case you really get stuck. Did you play around in the 4x4 test area? How deep was the water trough?

 

pics and vids!!

 

since your taco is an 05 and equipped with the older mechanical style LSD you can do the "poor mans locker". it's very effective and you can enquirer J4RR, dtruijllo63, and SiRMarlon about it's effectiveness. it's commonly an old trick that has been used by other makes and models over the years.

simple to do...all you have to do is engage the parking brake a few clicks when you are in a stuck situation and you feel one of the wheels slipping on the rear even tho the LSD is engaged. this trick is no substitute for an actual locker but it's works.

 

I will be more prepared next time I go out, wont go alone in the rain again for sure, I did not find the test area, I didnt have a lot of time to explore around since I went a little late in the day but I will check it out next time.

I will have to look into this, sounds very convienant, thanks alot for the tip, hopefully I will be getting my locker soon though, I think I might actually just invest into a locker before I get a lift or tires.

 

The video was pretty boring itself so I mixed it up a bit, here are ALOT of pictures instead

http://youtu.be/u2_GBJd3l04

 

That was boring...

 

Yeah watching it in motion is even worse, Ill be sure to get better pics and vids next time.