What to do to 2wd to avoid getting stuck

Stupid post of the day. Congrats!

 

Uh oh! Somebody is very cwanky and needs a nap...

 

Probably, but my point remains.

An "off road" truck without 4wd is like an AR15 with no magazine. Looks cool, but pretty much useless. Or at least no more useful than a single shot rifle or a station wagon.

I realise there are a few LT PreRunners that are built to fly across the desert and I'll make exception there. Otherwise...see above.

But to answer the original question, get a winch.

 

So what you are saying is every truck needs 4wd except the trucks that dont need it. It sure seems like your point is pointless

 

ROFL a few...

https://www.tacomaworld.com/forums/long-travel-suspension.113/

 

of course like everyone else says, tires and locker. but if you happen to come across a rear axle from a 2005-2008 prerunner that you can scavenge they have a mechanical limited slip differential, works really well, and its bolt on so no switches and all to install, thats what mine has.

also, this will get mixed opinions, and it is a 'worst case scenario' type thing, but some GOOD QUALITY off-road tire chains will get you out in a bind pretty easily, but do not go cheapo because if one breaks it WILL tear up some sheet metal and probably an ABS sensor! saved my butt a few times though when I was buried to the axle with no one there to pull me out!

also if you know your hitting mud, some extra weight in the bed helps alot and a highlift jack and/or cum-along is handy to have.

 

If you are airing down your 2wd truck to get unstuck, don't bother airing down all 4 as has been posted here. only do the rear 2. Airing down the front will not only be a waste of time, but will probably hinder you by creating more rolling resistance that you need to push through.

 

Yep. I got a 2WD. I don't off road but need a pickup. It's so simple. You have a 2 WD and get stuck, get a 4 WD. You still get stuck, get better stuff. You still get stuck, stay on asphalt.

 

This.

 

Knowing is half the battle

 

I'd own a 2 wheel drive truck in a second if I lived in an area where it doesn't snow. Honestly I don't even use 4x4 in the snow all that often, but when I need it, I really like it there for when I do!

There is some good advice posted here. Tires make a huge difference! Throttle control makes a big difference. I routinely climb a grassy hill into the back side of the camp. It had rained last night and the grass was slippery and I started spinning. Easing my foot off the throttle and moving slowly I went right up. My buddy behind me went the opposite approach and floored it. He stopped and put his truck in 4x4 after not moving. I understand this isn't "off roading" but its a good example of throttle control.

Without 4x4 you just need to be careful of the situations you put your truck in.

 

Maybe this is all in my head but my truck feels much more stable and balanced since I put the shell on it. I don't do anything hardcore, but it seems to help even out the weight in the back for light off road use

 

Welcome to TW, you've jumped right in and seen the best and worst of it in this thread

Let's ignore the various straw man arguments thrown about already and the various people who responded only after reading the thread title and nothing else you wrote.

There are typically two kinds of "off-road" drivers:

• Want to get from point A to point B because there is something interesting or useful to them at point B. Camp site, work site, trail head, something they want to shoot, something they want to hook, etc. etc. For them the destination is the reason and they will take whatever route and means that gets them successfully to that destination.
• Want the challenge of driving rough roads. Will go to a location in which they drive in a loop and never exit the cab unless they get stuck, will go to this place intentionally right after it rains because it will suck more. Will drive on a rough unmaintained and washed out old power line access road just 50 yards away from a parallel paved highway. For them the journey is the reason and they will do whatever they can to make the journey as rough as possible. Breaking an axle and getting to repair it with their under hood welder would make their day even more enjoyable.

I'm guessing you are in the first category, but you are also getting butt hurt responses from people in the second category. And of course there are plenty of people that spend time doing both. There isn't a right or wrong way to "off road" in that regard, just different goals and uses.

Assuming you are in the first category and reading your description of your uses I think you are just fine in 2WD and it is very sensible to ask what to do with a 2WD to make it more useful in off-road situations.

For "getting places" off road lets divide up the useful features you might have on a vehicle to help you:

• 1. Clearance - roads are rough and have rocks and ruts and the more clearance the less likely you are to get hung up, stuck or damage something.
  2. Traction at a given wheel - the less like a wheel is to spin the less likely you are to get stuck of course.
  3. Making sure wheels with traction also have power - if the wheels without traction are the ones with power and spinning but the wheels with traction are just sitting there with no power then you aren't going anywhere. Worse still, if the design of the vehicle is such that the wheels without traction (i.e. slipping) will get all the power then this is almost a guarantee of getting stuck!
  4. Throttle and power control at very low speeds - On a very rough road or a very steep road life is much better if you can maneuver at very low speeds without braking

Item 1 has nothing at all to do with 4x4 but everything to do with tires and suspension. So you could put bigger tires on and lift the suspension if the roads you are on present clearance issues. I wouldn't do that though, save such modifications for your next truck. I would go ahead and get slightly larger tires when you next change tires, you can go slightly larger on stock without changing the suspension at all.

You can also attack item 1 by being a good driver - that is picking a good "line" on a route to minimize the likely hood of getting hung up. The first principle in that is to drive over obstacles with your wheels and not place them in the center of the vehicle. You can also help item 1 with a shovel and pry bar. Move obstacles that are in the way. Obviously not always an option.

Item 2 is also not directly about 4WD. Start by having good tires for off road as far as tread design goes. Next, air down - this can help a whole lot. But you can go a few steps further in specific situations. As mentioned in a pinch chains can help, but only run them for the specific section you are getting stuck in. Also a traction ladder or board is an important piece of recover gear that allows you to get a specific wheel to have traction.

Item 3 is very much about 4WD, but more broadly about anything that tries to get power to as many wheels with traction as possible. The reason 2WD gets stuck easily is that with an open diff all that has to happen to get stuck is one rear wheel to lose traction. In 4WD with open diffs you are just as stuck if you lose traction on one wheel at the front and one wheel at the rear. But you are of course in better shape than 2WD as you have at least two chances at an axle having both wheels with traction.

The other option to help with item 3 is to not have open diffs or to have a traction control system that makes sure that all drive wheels get at least some power. For 2WD the rear wheels are the only ones you can drive so the goal is to make sure if one wheel starts slipping the other wheel will get some power.

A rear locker force 50% power to each wheel so that fulfills that goal. But again, this seems to me like spending money on the wrong vehicle. A true mechanical LSD makes sure each wheel gets *some* power if not necessarily 50%, so this helps too. Again, I wouldn't add that. The Tacoma already has a traction control system as outlined earlier in the thread. Learn how to use that and what its limitations are. That already has you better than most 2WD trucks.

Also realize that item 3 can also be indirectly tackled as well. Are you stuck because one wheel is spinning? Well get out of your truck and make it stop spinning - give it traction somehow. Traction ladder, sticks, even a carpet scrap can help.

Last one is item 4, and the low gear transfer case of a 4WD is really helpful here and isn't easy to replicate any other way. But it only applies to some situations and those are probably not ones you are likely to get yourself into. Though the one time I really like the low gears is going down very steep rocky roads that are otherwise just fine for 2WD.

I drove a lot of surprisingly bad roads in a 1994 Honda Civic doing these things. It would be a hell of a lot easier in a 2WD pickup like yours of course. But in that Civic with P rated tires I just drove slow, picked very careful lines when I got to rough patches and occasionally got out of the car and moved minor obstacles. Since I was a "get from point A to point B" driver usually the roads were just fine for 90 to 95% of the trip and there were just short sections (usually near the end) where you had to really take your time. Once or twice I did just have to stop and walk the last mile or so and one time I just had to turn around and wait for the day I owned a more appropriate vehicle.

So with all that in mind, I'd recommend:

• Don't modify your suspension or drive train
• Possibly modify your tires now or later
• Learn what the different traction control settings do and practice with them someplace you can afford to get stuck
• Bring a good shovel
• Bring traction ladders (MaxTrax, TREDs or a variety of less expensive knock offs).
• Have a decent jack with appropriate accessories for using off pavement, can get you un-hung-up and can make it easier to get stuck wheel out of a self dug rut in sand.
• Bring basic recovery gear that you can provide if you do need someone to pull you out (shackles, recovery straps and so forth)
• Understand basic off road driving techniques

And I'll throw out two controversial recommendations of what not to bring. Take these with a grain of salt, but they are based on my experience driving on desert roads for two decades in a variety of vehicles. Your driving conditions may be very different than mine.

No hi-lift jack - These things are a badge of honor off road and your vehicle and your manhood are in question if you don't have one strapped someplace. They can lift up your truck to change a tire, they can act as a winch, they pry things apart, they pry things together, they pull up fence posts, they uproot trees, they can act as a manual "jaws of life" to extract occupants from a wrecked vehicle. They are the ultimate multipurpose tool scaled up to manly industrial proportions. YOU MUST HAVE ONE OF THESE!

That is the standard recommendation. My perspective is that they are inherently dangerous and not the best tool to use in almost any situation they are advertised for. They will do all the things I stated above. But they will do those things in a sucky and unsafe manner. Yes, all tools have danger associated with them and when "properly used" you should be safe. But here's the thing, when you are stuck in the boonies and improvising having a dangerous tool at your disposal is not really a great option. I carried a hi lift for 14 years and every time I might have used it I used another tool in a more safe manner to get the job done. These jacks won't do most of their claimed jobs without appropriate accessories and an appropriately modified vehicle. So if you have bumpers and runners and the accessories necessary to use a hi lift to lift from those points then yes indeed it will be a useful tool for you. But you, and most other people, don't have those things and so the hi lift is just an awkwardly long 40 lb tool that has no purpose.

So again, hi lift can be very useful if you and your vehicle are setup for it to be useful to you. But those things knock out teeth, eyeballs and lots of other things. They are really dangerous tools and using them "right" is surprisingly difficult in most recovery situations. You will likely be served better by tools for a specific task (hydraulic jack with accessories, come-along hand winch).

No power winch - Another "must have" is the bumper mounted power winch. And they are of course really great tools for the right job. That "right job" is typically getting someone else unstuck. It rarely does you any good getting yourself unstuck. The likelihood of there being an anchor point aligned with your winch when you get stuck is low. In deserts anchors are non-existent entirely and you either need to bring your own (pull pal) or use another vehicle. So give this a skip.

Again, winches are super useful as anyone who does the second type of "the journey" kind of off roading in a group can attest to. But often what is happening is one person in a group is using their winch to help someone else who is stuck. Doesn't sound like your use case.

If you are in an environment with lots of available anchors (forest) then a hand operated "come along" is very useful. Even more so these days. In the past such a device was scary as you stood next to the winch with steel cable under high tension waiting to break and remove limbs. These days with synthetic winch lines (Amsteel Blue) a come along is very safe to operate.

Anyway - have fun with your truck!

 

This here nailed so much of what goes on here with bashing on people who don't "off-road" the way they think you should.

Very well thought out post, and great advice.

 

That's what I used to think... but actual discovery was if you don't deflate the front tires, they will 'knife' into the sand instead of float on top.

Test: A pencil pushed into sand vs. your palm... which sinks further, the narrow thing or the wide thing?

 

Agree... but add to recommend getting a TIRE PUMP (electric vs. manual, and battery clip for power vs. cigarette lighter). Deflating will be your biggest aid but re-inflating when you are back to pavement is a must. Have a tire plug kit (and the pump) to fix most flats out there, too!

 

I think bottom line is this :
Spending money on 2wd to improve traction is waste of money. Either stay on asphalt or trade for 4x4. Any money you spend on 2wd to make it to be like 4x4 is a complete waste.
On the end all 4x4 trucks are 2wd 90% of the time. Its that 10% that gets you. So either avoid that 10% or get 4x4.

 

On sand you're probably right because you always want to float on sand, but on slick surfaces or mud I don't think airing down front tires on a 2wd truck will help. If you were pushing a car would you prefer it had full tires or flat tires?

 

Each have their place.

if it was deep mud.... big fat tires in the front to float on top... and skinny tires in the rear to dig down n get traction.