How to be water crossing capable?

So I have a PreRunner, since it doesn't make sense for me to have a 4x4 for my job. Still, this past year there has been some ridiculous rain where I live and I have found myself crossing 2 feet of water or more in some places.

In one occasion I noticed my Taco revving up slightly abnormal, but it settled as soon as I got out of the water.

My question is, apart from the differential breather mod, what other mods should I do to make my taco more capable when going over some water filled areas?

I noticed some of you crazy peeps going into freaking rivers... so heck, you probably know what I need.

 

A snorkel. But that would look so stupid on a PreRunner.



But I guess if you need it then why not?

 

get a 4x4. honestly your doors and stuff are gonna leak before you would need a snorkel. I have gone through water about 6 inches up from the bottom of my doors and all I have is the diff breather mod.

 

is there anyway you can get some badass weather stripping that will keep the water out?

to the OP i would say you just need to re-route all your vent lines. which is much easier said than done. ive been looking into doing mine be cant really figure out how to do it. but without 4x4 it should be easier because you only have the rear diff, engine and trans.

this thread has some good info
http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/of...f-tranny-transfer-case-e-locker-breather.html

 

The factory weather stripping is fine if you keep moving. I suppose you could get some stick on stuff from home depot or something in addition to the factory stripping. You also need to silicon the plugs underneath the truck too.

 

A high lift kit

 

Thanks you very very much. That was precisely what I was wondering. My interest is purely mechanical, because I just need to be able to pass though some water fast and not have to worry about something getting damaged.

I will probably do as many of those as I need apart from raising the truck a bit.

How would you guys go about raising the truck? I have no experience at all in this kind of thing. Ive read most of the articles and what people have posted about their lift kits, but I do not know what would be practical. I dont want a Mall Crawler, I want a practical truck... that also looks badass...

Would a mid travel kit help me, or is it completely unnecessary? Should I just get some Billies 5100 and do a 2.5 lift? Have in mind that I need to smooth ride, since im in highways a lot, and the roads here suck ass.

Thank you all for the help so far.

 

See the relation?

 

Snorkel won’t really help you, if you are deep enough to need it, that alone will do nothing (you will have water in your tank, your electronics will be done, etc. I have a snorkel, but I have don’t a LOT of other things before I got it (snorkels are really for dust, not water anyway, though if the rest of your truck is setup, they do help)

For you, I suggest:

Extend rear diff, tranni, and fuel vent line. These are all quite low and will need to be taken up.

If you are in anything deeper than about your bottom door jamb, you need to start looking at relocating, or sealing off your electronics (ECU), it is in front of your gear shifter. I have waterproofed mine.

If you are splashing around a lot, you will need to look at electronics under hood as well. Use di-electric grease/paste on all your electrical connections.

If you are crossing deep water, technique is often times more important that what you are doing it in. do NOT fly into it and splash around, ease into it with a constant speed to maintain a nice bow wave.

You may also want to look into sealing the plugs under the vehicle that go into the cab, they have rubber grommets, but if you get stopped in water, they will leak...silicone can fix that.

 

hey barlowrs, do you have any info on waterproofing under the hood and taking care of the grommets? i am thinking about installing a snorkel but don't want to half-ass it

 

Well, the fact is, we are gasoline engines, so they will NEVER be that great for deep water....most important thing is to not go looking for water to cross, try to avoid it...for me it is preventative...if I get stuck somewhere and it rains hard and i have NO OPTION but to cross, I want to make sure I have the best chances possible with my equipment.

That being said.... for just under the hood, I suggest you use a di-electric paste on all critical connectors, if you ARE going into deep water, look into an electric fan swap so you can turn it off, or remove your current belt from the fan clutch (this means you will need to get a shorter belt to replace it with while crossing)...you do not want to throw a fan blade while crossing. That is about it (well intake obviously). You can also silicone on grommets into your cab, though as long as you keep going, you should be alright without. That is only important if you stop in the water, and if you do that, you have more problems than water in your cab.

There is not much more you can do...main thing is get a nice bow wave going and stay behind it, if you do stall, DO NOT try to start engine..pull your plugs first, and eject the water....again though, our gasoline engines do not like water, so don’t go looking for it.

 

Why try crossing deep water in a pre-runner? Traction would be a key issue here and if you get stuck you're screwed.

 

That is verrrry wrong... Pretty easy to hydro lock a Tacoma long before any water seeps in.

 

Barlowrs has given pretty good information although I disagree that a snorkel isn't going to help with anything but dust. Keeping water out of the air intake is critical period and a snorkel will help with that.

But if you are going to play deep, you'll want to address the electricals that he mentioned. ECU, distributor and other connections in the engine compartment getting a good coat of dielectric grease is a good start. I've seen guys use some tupperware containers for things like ignition modules and just bolt them to the fenders in the foctory locations. Just drill a couple holes for the wires to pass through and then silicone the crap out of it where you added the holes.

There are lots of preventative things to do like that but technique will go a long ways to keep you from destroying a motor etc.

 

This is correct, if my post came across suggesting the snorkel will not help I did not mean that. it DEFINATLY helps. as Box Rocket says, the engine needs air to breath, and our stock air comes from inside the wheel well. If that is in water, you will suck up water in your engine...NO BUENO.

I simply meant the snorkel was originally developed for dusty conditions, and was evolved/adapted to what it is today. For deep water, it is necessary (as with everything else mentioned).

 

I'm aware, I was speaking in general terms that all electrical systems need attention if you're getting into deep water.

 

Diesel swap would help

 

I have to agree what was mentioned above, try your best to avoid a deep water crossing if you can.

If you have no alternative and have to go through a water crossing make sure your rig is set up for it, elevate your breathers and silicone your drain plugs underneath. A quick pointer I would like to add make sure your vehicle doors “weather stripping” is clean if dirt and debris before crossing, Use window cleaner or damp cloth to clean the weather stripping to help prevent water from entering....not bomb proof, but it helps.

Our off road club just did the Mojave Desert last week which included a deep water crossing. Again all I did was elevate my rear diff breather vent, silicone my drain plugs and clean my weather stripping before entering the water. Enjoy the video

https://quik.gopro.com/v/akK4L4fGHA/