Deepest river crossing for my stock 2012?

In a couple weeks I'm taking my Tacoma on its 1st real excursion with some river crossings.
With the intake in the wheel well, I'm a little nervous.
What's the deepest that a stock Tacoma can go without making me have to go back to my dreaded Malibu while rebuilding my engine?

 

Pretty much the answer here

 

I was afraid of that. Wondering about disconnecting the intake tube under the hood.
Has that been tried?

 

The stock Tacoma can do amazing things...

But it is not invincible.

Personally, I feel like the top of the tire is your marker. You should never completely submerge the tire.

The intake is just a few inches above that tire and it will suck water for sure if you go any deeper than the top of the tire.

"But how can I know how deep I am? I can't see the tire from the driver's seat!"

Correct.

When in doubt, back out! bending just one rod will have you buying/building a new motor and it's not gonna be cheap.

You know that fearless guy you wheel with that beats his truck like a Red Headed Step Child? Yeah- let him go first. If he makes it then you can too.

 

I've heard on the tundra page that someone hooked up their intake right under their plastic windshield guard (between the windshield and hood). Taking off some of the firewall the do it, Not sure how it'd handle though if you did the same thing in a Tacoma.

I'd just buy a snorkel, but once you reach your hood you're encountering electrical problems for sure.

 

Will a snorkel work?

 

My truck is my Daily Driver.

I don't want to drive around in a trashed-out beater. I will wheel my truck, but I don't just beat it trying to make it do more than it's supposed to.

I personally never got mine anywhere near the top of the tire.

Here's a pic of my '05 wheeling at Spring Creek here in Houston. As you can see, I'm definitely in the water but nowhere near bending rods.



If you look at it, you will see that being up to the top of the tire will have water well past the bottom seam of the door, and will most likely have your carpet soaked with muddy water and forever the color that you see there.

Not my thing. I like my truck being at least nice enough to ride around in, and usually quite a bit nicer than that!

When I said the top of the tire is my marker, I meant that I consider that to be the NEVER EXCEED NO MATTER WHAT LIMIT.

I'm very unlikely to go that deep.

 

Just do the hood scoop mod:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/functional-hood-scoop.29737

 

I once saw a Ford Explorer trac go across some deep water at a low point in the road. He started driving through and the water was almost up to the hood. Then he backed up, turned around and backed accross. At first I wondered what he was doing. Then as he drove through, it was obvious. The water was going over the top of the tailgate, but on the trailing end (front of the truck), it was only about 1/2 way up the grill, like the wake behind a boat. Although "smarter", still pretty dumb to go through that deep of water with a pretty nice truck.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but I've already had water wash over my hood. I thinking I will just go with the snorkel when it's time to do it. I think they are ugly, but they seem to be necessary.

 

Installing mine tomorrow.

 

Are you going to stay with the stock intake?

 

I have the AFE. But gonna have to remove the front air dam off.

 

I saw a military truck once that had a valve of some kind that you could switch between air from the snorkel and air from inside the cab. The problem with a snorkel is that if you're really spinning the tires in reverse to get unstuck, I bet you're slinging water right into the snorkel.

 

This. There are a lot of holes under the cab, and water will soak through surprisingly fast.
I bought my snorkel mostly for sucking up clean air cause it gets pretty dusty where I wheel.

Not a big deal. I've driven my truck on the freeway in heavy Hawaiian downpours. A little bit of water isn't gonna hurt it.

 

With the alternator being at the bottom of the engine how does it not get flooded?

 

Don't forget to do the rear diff breather relocation.

You can also do what I see alot of the Aussies do. Wrap the whole front of the truck with a tarp.

 

My intake box was dry but I would not go any deeper than this

 

It does. Water crossings can severely shorten the life of an alternator.

If water comes up to the bottom of the door, I'm out. I have no interest in flooding my interior or bathing the electronics in my truck. And yes, I cross water fairly often. I walk out in it to test depth.

Also, snorkels are not for water. They're for dust.

 

I assume the OP has done the diff breather mod