Bought a lifted 2nd Gen - Need help fixing issues

Thank you all for your input.

Yeah, I know that they'll handle more severe off road situations. At this point I don't think I'll be doing much serious off roading like that, but who knows. I'm new to this so no idea where I'll take it. I've personally never done any 4x4 off roading, just fire road type stuff up until now. My reasoning behind looking at E tires is for hauling. Over the past couple years I've fairly regularly hauled some heavy loads (1000-2000lbs) in the bed of my F150 and I expect I'll get into similar situations with my Tacoma (although I realize I can't push it as far now).

That's a great example to share, thank you. I'd heard about the heat but not really an actual example. I'll have to try this test myself and see what happens.

My idea of camping does not involve paying a host. The whole point of getting this truck was so we could find stuff further off the beaten trail - places that people w/o high clearance 4x4 can't go. But, I'm new to off roading so I'll be taking it pretty easy for a while I'm sure unless I get some people to really show me the ropes.

 

Sounds to me like your gravitating towards the TRD Baja / Pro look for your truck, and you even bought the matching TRD beadlock wheels. The TRD Baja / Pro is lifted 1.75" in the front and leveled. In that case I'd yank off the spacers & blocks, ditch the stock Bilstein toothpicks, and replace with 5100s set to 2nd (.85) or 3rd (1.75) groove on front shocks with your TRD coils. That would be your more budget friendly option. The other more expensive option would be buying the TRD Baja suspension kit (P/N PTR13-35120), as the TRD Pro kit (P/N PTR13-35150) is no longer available, or buy the more or less Bilstein equivalent 6112 / 5160 package.

 

Aaannnddd....



Should have kept my god damned mouth shut.

This one was my fault though.



That's the power of distracted driving!

 

Man, looks like that ruined a really fun day.

 

awesome scenery while you change your tire!

 

Ouch! I hope I don't regret my decision to go with the P rated Wildpeaks

 

Yeah it was a super sketchy road and I was the only human for miles in any direction, but everything from the jack to the spare tire worked perfectly! So it was still a super fun day, even including the spare tire swap.

It was less fun handing over all my christmas money (and then some) for a new set of tires two days later... but even then, they were super worn out from all my aforementioned terrible driving decisions. It's nice having new tires, especially for snow.

Yes! During the process, the gloomy rain gave way to an epic sunset and a most glorious rainbow. Here are some reposts from the scenic photos thread:



Still probably my #1 stupidest driving maneuver though. I'm super embarrassed, but the fact is that I clipped a super obvious gigantic boulder that gashed my sidewall, because I was driving distracted...
on my own... in a super remote area.



On a positive yet directly related note, I got some mediocre areal footage of the crash itself, and the post-repair scenery.

I'm sure you'll love the wildpeaks, I've heard good things about them. If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that careful driving is more important than having even the beefiest offroad tires.

Oh, and check your spare and your jack from time to time too!

 

Where was this that you had the flat? Looks awfully familiar - although I forget where we were. 5yrs ago or so ago we did a Thanksgiving trip to the desert with my step dad and some of his buddies. Basically 5-6 modded Jeeps and terrain that looked exactly like your pics. We had more flats than we had vehicles. It was pretty terrible and were lucky to get all the vehicles back down safely.

 

This is a high shelf road in the "Old Dale" or "Virginia Dale" mining district southeast of twentynine palms.

This particular route is labeled JT1932 and JT1979 on the map kiosk at the highway turnoff (photo below). It branches south from the summit of Doberman Mountain Road near the Supply mine, and is a spectacularly narrow and steep shelf road by SoCal standards.



The trails in these mountains are made from jagged scary-looking boulders, but I've visited this area many times and never had a problem. That is, until I crashed into a 18" tall razor sharp rock edge with my worn-out tire's sidewall because I was flying a drone instead of watching the road.



I think I've driven to nearly every mine shown on the map now, and have camped out at many of them. The hardest section of trail is between the OK mine and the Gold Rose area, it gets super tippy in spots. But I've gotten thru on 33s with a stock drivetrain in both directions.

Here is a zoomed version of that map:




This is one of my favorite areas in SoCal because it combines challenging rocky roads with stupid-fast sand tracks, and there is almost nobody out there ever. Except for weekends, I almost never see another human. Also, unlike most of SoCal, there are no closed gates; I guess the terrain and desolation keep out enough of the riff raff on their own. Not that their aren't idiots ruining the history and habitat out there, but there's less than you'd expect. And there are so god damned many mine shafts to explore, its wonderful! Most are vertical though, so do watch your step...

 

Thanks for that info, that looks like a great area. Definitely not where we were, but somewhere that would be great to check out.