Metallic popping sound off road

Took my 2013 TRD offroad package Taco offroading today with a friend, as a sort of trial run for me to cut my teeth on. Mostly trails with rocky patches, but no rocks higher than maybe 6 inches. Went well, lots of scraping of mud flaps.

When going over the rough stuff, both he (who was outside spotting) and I noticed a metallic "popping" sound. It definitely was not the clunk of the drivetrain, and I wondered if it was the A-TRAC but I eventually proved it wasn't.

To me it kind of sounds like a heat shield or other metal plate shifting on a loose-ish bolt; I *think* the sound is reminiscent of the pops and pings you sometimes hear from a hot engine that is cooling down.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? I will be bothering my dealer about it Monday, but as always "noises" are notoriously hard to diagnose, and I can't exactly say to a service tech, "Here jump in with me and let's go drive forty miles to the trail".

 

The bed will clunk if you flex out the suspension and twist the frame. Normal.

 

I have the same thing going on. I think it's the cheapo skid plate on the front flexing. Or the sway bar doing something. Mine has done it with the stock suspension and with my new OME set-up so I know it's not the suspension.

 

Consensus so far seems to be, nothing to worry about. Thanks

I figured it probably wasn't anything bad. I'm just paranoid about odd noises- yes, I realize trucks make a lot of odd noises... It's been hard