Should I remove before going offroad?

Another dumb question... Do I leave my spare tire attached underneath? I worry about clearance and scraping it. It's a slightly oversized tire.

 

I leave it, never hit it before and if anything, it’s weight adds rear traction and helps smooth out washboard. also, it may help protect your rear if you drop off a steep rock or shelf.

 

I had mine mounted underneath for a long time but I noticed it hitting my exhaust when offroading (slightly bigger than stock tire) so I mounted it to my bed rack instead.

 

I went wheeling with my 17 taco and never had any issues scraping the spare tire. My new taco has cbi rear tire carrier attached to the bumper, so I won't be having any issues like that

 

Hey, haven’t you left yet?

Thats ok, I forgot to suggest sprinkling cayenne pepper all over your engine bay before you take your incredible edible taco camping out there - the rats will love you for it if you don’t. hopefully you won’t get hit by them . Have a good time!

 

Starting out tomorrow... last minute packing and planning

 

Nice! Let us know if you need a recovery, we’ll come and help you drink all your beer while we talk about how best to get you out!

 

I run with the regular nerf bars for now but I'm not doing anything nuts. They bolt into the body so you could screw stuff up pretty good if you hit something hard.

 

But the mounts for those are mostly plastic... if anything, they would act as a early warning device that a bad scrape was imminent...

 

You mean the threads in the body are plastic?? I just know they screw into the body itself and not the frame.

 

It depends...

Take them off if you are doing more than just forest service roads. Those are tube steps, not rock sliders, so (1) they will not protect your rocker panels from hard hits, (2) you cannot use a hi-lift jack on them. If you try to jack up your truck using those tube steps you will do significant damage to your rocker panels. Lastly, the step part hangs pretty low, and if you catch it on a rock you might rip the tube step off the truck, and in the process, damage your truck's body panels.

Are they safer than having no rock sliders? Well, they will protect you from very minor dings, so if all you are facing is minor dings - then yes, they are better than nothing. But a major ding to the tube step could result in damage to your truck, whereas if you remove the tube steps, you may not hit that obstacle at all.

So I guess you need to figure out what terrain you are going to tackle. If its going to be forest service roads, rocky dirt roads to a trail-head, etc. - then leave em on. If you will encounter larger obstacles, definitely take them off.

My truck came with tubular sidesteps (but not those really low steps that are on yours), and the first thing I did was take 'em off. If you like the steps for getting in and out of the truck, you can put them back on after your trip

 

I'm as ready as I'm going to be for this trip at least. I've ordered RCI sliders and diff skid plate, but those won't be ready till mid-January. I've mounted my MaxTrax and Hilift, locked them down, but I think I'm keeping the tonneau on to prevent theft as I trek cross country. Switched to BFGs with a 16" wheel. Tube steps are removed for the offroading. Badges have been mostly removed to decrease wind resistance, increase fuel economy, so that they don't get caught on any Joshua trees, and because that's where the government puts the chips that track us (probably mod that has given me the most technical improvement to date).

Also planning on a trail that leads to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Going to be interesting to try that one. My wife is very worried I'm going to do something dumb... I'm probably going to do something dumb... oh well, we'll see.

I think I might start a build thread as I progress. Thanks to the people that answered and gave input on everything.

 

Looking good! Sounds like an awesome trip! I have RCI aluminum skids (IFS, transmission, transfer, and gas tank). I like them. I'll be getting their rock sliders soon...

 

I have those same steps on mine and dragged both sides the first time out on a rather mild but rocky trail.

 

I was waiting to get to cash to put quality rock sliders on my old truck, new one came with them on it already.
I wheeled often without sliders and had no issues. Saw a you tube video, those steps broke off almost completely on a relatively small rock. The guy was not pleased!

 

Link to video?

 

Well I went... everything went better than expected... any of the crazier off road events I never got pics of because I was too busy trying to get through.

Got tons of pics, but here's just a few. She handled beautifully. I'm stoked to continue mods.

Ascent of Colosseum Mine:



Mojave Road:



Descent into Grand Canyon:



Journey home:

 

More!

 

Looks like you had a great time. Glad to hear.