Serious Offroaders on 35's or bigger

No 35's?? Hey get out of here!!

 

And that is really the bottom line you know. With enough cash anything is possible. But I want my cash to be spent as wisely as possible (of course to many offroading is not spending wisely).

 

I'm on 33's too

 

These might scale to 35's

 

funny - does that mean you have to get out of your own thread?? lol

i think either way this is a healthy discussion. I think there are a lot of people on 33's and 35's thinking the same thing - whats next? How much is the next "tier" going to cost me?

Offroading in general isn't "wise" money spent, but for me having fun with friends and family is priceless so I try to not go to bed thinking about "I could have bought xyz if I didn't do abc to my truck"

It comes down to what you do in your truck, what trails will you realistically run, why you bought it in the first place and can you live without it.

For me - my tacoma meets my needs today. who knows what ill be saying in 6 months though

 

And you Ask would i do it again.




Honestly NO.
Why? You ask. I have a 40k Tacoma that is beat to shit and has no resale value. O it looks good. The young girls like it. My wife hates it. But if I was smart I would have kept my big ass Chevy and picked up a trailer and a jeep.
No turning back with my truck so I will continue

 

Thats true and for the most part my tacoma meets my needs as well. But I am at that "whats next" stage of the truck where the decision has to be made. Dump the money in the truck or change to a platform which has more room to grow. I agree I think there are many folks on here who wrestle with the decision just like on the jeep forums I'm on, its the same thing there, people contemplate going with a tacoma.

On both forums you will find folks who traded for the other, that is just proof at how close the two communities really are.

 

Bingo!

 

Another excellent point and again that is where I am. I have a truck with very low miles but man the paint is scratched to crap. Hopefully not so bad that it isn't repairable as of now but if I wait much longer my truck is going to just keep on dropping and then I wont have as good of an opportunity to trade.

 

If you really want to get serious about wheeling and crawling use the Taco to pull a jeep.

 

you guys are making me think, and feel bad about my rig... lol i love my taco but its never done...

 

Nothing wrong with the taco it just has its limitations, as does the jeep or any other vehicle. We all have different wants and needs the trick is finding the vehicle that most closely suits all of those.

As i said if I had a bucket of cash this wouldnt even be an issue I would have one of everything. But thats not realistic. Some "solutions" are only attainable with the right amount of money.

 

Great thread and discussion, I ponder this all the time as well and like many am locked up in internal strife . . . why can't I win the lottery?

 

If you have any itch about 37s do it, then you might want to regear again which is costly. 37s = more ground clearance. Once my 35s wear out ill be going with 37s. But I do love my MT Baja Claws. They take a beating.

 

After months of decision making I think I am leaning towards heading back over to the jeep camp.

I rarely use the bed of my truck for anything other than firewood and picking up stranded motorcycles. I can put firewood in my trailer and the motorcycles, well I got a tow strap

After all is said and done I will be starting all over financially but my payment should be the same, maybe a little lower and at 2.49% its not a huge hit at the end of the term. I will of course lose the money I already put into the truck but I look at it as taking a step back initially but will be glad in a year or two for making the decision now before I get in to deep.

The truck is getting detailed as we speak and they felt pretty comfortable the scratches were not that serious and should come out. So after re-painting the bumper and sliders and re-attaching the fender flares I should be ready to head to the dealership.

Of course its not a done deal, if the financial hit is going to be greater than I have calculated the Tacoma may be around for a bit longer.

The plan is to see what the dealership will give me in trade first, I am confident I can get easily 29k selling it privately since I just had it appraised by the bank at 31k.

We will see where all this goes......................

 

X2 I tell my wife when I win the lottery, Yes I'm going to win someday, I'm gonna have at least five trucks. A tow truck, a daily driver, an overland truck, a beater truck and an LT truck!!!! She asks me why and I say - just because!!!

 

The JK is a very nice vehicle. I bit under powered for it's size but Jeep finally gave in and built a vehicle that would be stable on the trails and ride nice on the streets. Don't know why it took them so long. It has out sold any 1 year model in it's first year and has brought in more new jeep owners than ever before. That being said it does have it's draw backs. It's it's as wide as the Tacoma but not as long and with a much shorter wheel base so it's not as stable as the Tacoma. Plus it's front and rear Trac are narrower than the tacoma's adding to the instability of it.

My Tacoma is wider than most but i've gotten it into some pretty narrow places where instead of the length being a problem, it was in fact an asset.

I don't drive my truck daily any more but i do drive it every weekend. Going to the grocery store, Home depot or whatever. I have driven it from Huntington Beach to Lake Tahoe, ran the Rubicon and drove it all the way back without issue. Been to Arizona and ran those crazy trails a few times and drove it back home so it can be done if built right.

It gets 14 to 16mpg on the freeway when cruzing at 70. Thats what a stock JK gets before you add anything. Plus the JK only has 205 hp where the Tacoma V6 has 236hp. Not to mention the tacoma is lighter than the JK as well. And we're talking about the double cab 4wd version of the Tacoma verses the JK Rubicon with auto tranny.

The JK Rubicon does come with locking front and rear solid axles and a 4.01 low range transfer case so thats a big plus. But if your going to build them both up I'd still take my Tacoma over the JK any day. And I've seen some very nice JK's on the trails.

 

Just a quick correction, the new jeeps have 285 horsepower vs 236 horsepower from my tacoma.

I hear what you are saying about stability and I agree. However there is a trade off for stability in the tcoma and it rears its head in the form of wheelbase and breakover. Also That extra width on the tacoma does not always do us any favors on the trails even if we are modded to sit on 40's.

You have a fantastic truck and I have no doubt you can take it most places a JK can go however the over riding factor for many of us mortals is money and I think you would probably agree that putting an addtional 40k into a tacoma to make it capable enough to go where a JK with 1/3 that amount into will go is not reasonable.

The discussion is not really what vehicle is better, because each have situations where they will out preform the other, its really about which platform can I do the most with for the least amount of money. for me I see that as being the jeep.

I would probably go with a stripped down sport anyway, dump the stock axles and throw some 60's under here and if thats the case I can always increase my track width a couple inches for more stability

 

The one of the few domestic 4x4 vehicle I wold consider trading my FJ in for would be the JK. And if I was in your shoes it would be very difficult for me too. GLW whatever option you chose.