1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

Take your current Tacoma further.

Find a group or just ask your friends to take a trip with you.

Have a back-up plan and let others know where you're going IE girlfriend, etc.

Then go out and have fun. Have someone spot you in those challenging areas.

Ask to be in the middle of the group as you ride; experienced member up front can survey the area and spot you as needed. Experienced member in the rear will ensure no one gets left behind.

 

I wanna get the front end dialed in a little better before I go out. I don't think the first place did that great of a job on the alignment since it still feels a little vague and wandery and pulls to the right a bit. Maybe it needs new bushings idk.

 

CVs on 100s are heavy. Stop by a parts store and pick one up to feel how heavy they are.

 

It looks like you could do a bicep workout with those lol. 200 series CVs are even beefier I think haha.

 

I'm already widely known as an ass though, I didn't want you to have to sully your own representation

 

A man of culture, always

 

I always check the commerce profile

Every time without fail the more items they have listed the crazier the interaction goes

 

Have you put it up on jackstands and looked?

Bushings can be easy to tell once you get a good visual; bad lower control arms can prevent you from getting an alignment.

Also make sure your steering rack bushings are good to go.

That should alleviate whatever you're dealing with at most.

Get it done and go wheeling!

 

You could have flamed me a lot more by now lol. I appreciate you humoring all my questions haha.

I haven't jacked it up no. I'm probably gonna take it to this trusted indy shop out of town to have them do another alignment. They're better than the shops in town I think.

 

Do that and go wheeling!

I highly recommend meeting up with @CS_AR group; the way he describes everything kind of reminds me of our own group when we bring newcomers along.

We'll give you shit online, maybe even in person, but when it comes down to actually running trails, safety is always our #1 concern.

Rest assured even if you're doubting something and getting sideways, everyone around you will have safety as being a number one priority; you have to trust your spotter (if he or she is a good one).

 

He's already a member of our group. Albeit more of a distance to the north. He is welcome anytime.

@Ozark_RegCab I know you see the pattern when we get new members with new trucks that want to take them off-road. We head for Newton County where the trails are paved with gold colored gravel, the waterfalls are stunning and the Elk are friendly. Then when we get to know the member, we start ratcheting up the trail to Payne Ridge, Brock Cemetery, Sulphur Cutoff, up to Richland Creek, the Nars, and Woolum Ford (depending on water level).

I do know about some beautiful trails in Newton County that are technical. I just don't want to see something that beautiful get trashed and rutted out. We pick up bunch of Michelob Ultra cans every time we go on a Johnson County Trail. I'm very careful about some of the more delicate environments in the Boston Mountains.

The opening scene in the video is around Parthenon in Newton County.

https://youtu.be/E961nT7DZRs

 

Does Johnson Co. get a lot more traffic? I hate to see trash left on the trail; that jus threatens to ruin it for all of us if they get closed. In fact I think the Spainhour falls trail was closed for a while.

 

@CS_AR I've done the Alexander Mountain trail and the Dickson Ford/FS 1463 trail several times. Devils Canyon also. Frog Bayou is one I've wanted to do for a while. I'd be fine starting off with easy trails though since I haven't been out in a while.

 

I'd bet money there are many videos on YT of Tacomas/IFS vehicles with very mild builds on sub 35" tires doing the Rubicon.

 

Everyone who has places for proper wheeling inside of an hour of where they live should be very happy to have the chance to go out and break their truck a little while having fun. You're lucky.

 

Even then, driving a few hours to meet up with friends is fun as well.

 

And plenty of videos of Jeep's on 35's using the bypasses on the Rubicon

 

Most of the good places are at least an hour from me but yea it's not bad for a day trip.

 

That's true. And I envy your topography. You drive a few hours you can be in desert or scenic mountains, with BLM land too. Not so much where I am. Beaches are fun but growing up with it eventually it wears off. There are some real technical trails in the western part of VA and more stuff up north. It's a haul though. Lots of Jeep stuff too.

 

Exactly lol. My point was, if you want to do it, you're gonna find a way. And if you want to bypass with your $80K Rubicon, you can find a way to that too haha