Alabama Off-road/ Mods/ Meets Thread

How long of a plane ride? I have always found it is best to sleep on the plane, so you should stay up late instead.

Alex, TravHale and I so far. Looks like Paul just wimped out.

This could be one of the last good weekends left of the year, so I plan to take advantage of it.

 

Yeah, I'd like to go, but I need to know if my stock truck will be ok on the trails and directions to the location before I can say for sure.

 

You can always drive there, park it, ride with one of us.

 

So are you saying a stock truck will not make it through?

 

you gonna make it down on the 20th as well brian?

 

not neccesarily, he is saying if you see something you dont feel comfortable trying you can park your truck and hop in one of ours to keep riding. we have always offered that.

 

Gotcha, I need an experienced co-driver since I'm pretty new to this.

 

I'd recommend a CB and the ability to talk to the folks on trail ahead of you. Get behind someone with a similar wheelbase length (that's easy in this group), and just take their line. If you get in a position that you're not sure of your line, have one of them hop out and spot you through it with hand signals.

 

6.5 hours. I've got to be working while I'm flying. I've got two projects coming to a close in the next two weeks and the reason I'm traveling is because i'm starting a new one.

Besides if I went I'd have to take all the easy trails so I could hang out with you guys and pull you out in case you got stuck


anyways, in my absence of a truck, i have been pricing them just for fun. Why are trucks so damn expensive now! any new full size moderately spec'd is pushing 40k nowadays! hell, a 4wd trd or is like 35k

 

My truck was almost 38k before discount--ridiculous

 

yea, i paid 21.5 otd for my 08 trd sport dcsb prerunner in 08. I could see 25 if it was a 4wd. how have prices gone up 10k in 3-4 years?

 

I don't know this particular location, so Alex will have to answer that.

Here is my take of your situation. You have a new truck. No armor, no lift, no offroad tires. I know you have the "bug" in you to put it in 4x4 mode and do something with it. I did and was in the same situation as you are. You will need to be able to trust the person who knows the trail or ride along once to see it for yourself to determine if you want to get your truck out in it. You don't have a Tacoma, so we don't know the stock capabilities of your truck. I don't want to discourage you, but just make sure that you know where you are going (figurative and literally).

I wheeled my new truck stock height on highway tires after riding with someone else the first time. Got stuck 2 times in the same area due to the wheels being in ruts and the center lengthwise of the truck being grounded. No damage and no issues at all with my truck. I did have my sliders on at the time, so I knew my rocker panels were at least safe. I have gone out with other people with stock Tacoma's to the same place and told them they would be ok. I didn't join in on everything until I put my lift on and had better tires, but instead rode with someone else.

I have not been to the place we will be going, so I don't have any input on the level of the trail. I have been places that were "easy", but I ended up with lots of little scratches on my truck. I have been on medium trails that a stock truck could handle. I have been on mediums that had a few parts that you had no option, there was no bypass or pull off to turn around. You were committed to continue on and have to be ready to do what it takes to get out. I been riding with Paul and we submarined his Jeep in something that looked like nothing. He sucked water into his pistons and had to pull all of his plugs to clear it out. Ended up having to have it towed home because the alternator went out. I actually had my truck there but parked it because I didn't know what was ahead.

You will notice that some of the guys don't wheel their daily drivers. A few of us do and have been fine doing it. But, you have to be ready to accept or fix anything on the truck that may happen. I have a 2010 Double Cab Long Bed. Super long wheelbase for offroading. I have it lifted 2 inches in the front, and an inch in the rear with 1" of clearance also added by my tires. I have sliders to hopefully protect the main cab body. As for the bumpers, I am ready to replace either bumper with an offroad bumper if I damage one (silently hoping someone will hit my truck hard enough in the rear to push me into the car in front of me so their insurance can buy me bumpers). As for the fenders, I will either live with the damage or pay the dollars to replace/repair and repaint them. I added real skid plates to protect the engine and transmission (still need to mount my transfer case skid). Mechanical parts, if something fails on the trail, it needed to be upgraded to begin with. I have no real damage to date aside from a few pinstripes, but I have put a few dollars into the truck to help keep me from damaging things.

So for all that above, listen to your gut, ask yourself what you would be comfortable with doing. Ultimately, you are responsible for what you do with your truck. None of us want to be blamed if you have an issue, but we will do everything possible to help keep you and your truck safe and get you both home in one piece.

That is the plan. We need to start figuring out a place.

 

Where is everyone going?

 

think they said something about maybe lakeshore this weekend and out by alex's dad place and then trussville to merkita or whatever on the 20th, if not then i may try to hit skyway or the slab on the 20th

 

Wise words. I'll add to that, if you're going to wheel a new-ish truck that you're still paying on, do so carefully.

The mods should come in this order:
Sliders
Skids
Bumpers (If you think you're gonna need them based on the terrain)
Lift / Tires.

Do the stuff to protect the truck FIRST, then worry about making it go places it can't go now. You'll be surprised where you can get with just 4 low and a locker.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write all that out. I'm looking to have a good time not wreck my truck. With that said, I'm not looking for tight trails with big boulders to smash into right now. I'm going to buy a 2in lift in the next month or so.. But the stock specs on this truck aren't bad. 10.1in ground clearance, rear locker, decent size tires (265/75/16), bilstien shocks, factory skids (probly fine for what I want to do), hill decent controll, etc.. I'm basically just looking to get off the beaten path and enjoy the outdoors.

 

Great. Now we just need Alex to tell us where in the world we are going and what the terrain is like....

ALEX!!!!!

 

It's a good truck, and it'll go lots of places as it sits. Pretty much anywhere a TRD OR taco can go stock, you probably can as well. I think you'd enjoy skyway. Might need to have a tow strap just in case you have traction problems from street rubber, but clearance and everything you'd probably be fine.

 

My advice is not to get air. Not that I'd know anything about that.

 

I still hate I didn't get video of that. Was it Justin who was riding with you?