Essential Mods Prior to First Offroad

I'm sure the Sig 45 keeps the survival odds pretty far up. lol

Fly fishing and rock climbing have 1 thing in common. You never want to do either with the guys sporting all the latest, shiny, expensive gear. You want to find the middle-aged guy who's gear is from the early 2000's and looks like it's all beat to shit. That's the dude you want to hang with.

 

Yard sale rack and explain to me in 5 sentences or less how to ascend a rope without jumars or no dice, Amen.

 

Carabineer brake, prussik, kleimheist.

 

Thats been my method when necessarry. Cheers!

 

rubber floor mats

 

Got those

 

I agree that sliders are good protection and should be one of the first mods if there's any risk of cab damage (i.e. large boulders, stumps, etc).

However, they make absolutely terrible steps. Sliders are usually tucked up as high as possible to preserve ground clearance and to give them the pinch weld support if they do take a really hard hit, which makes them slightly lower than the cab floor themselves, and now you have to step over them every time you get in and out of the truck. I've had sliders for 2 years at this point, the only time they have been useful as steps is when washing the roof of the cab. In every other situation, they have been worse than no sliders in terms of getting in and out of the truck. They do slightly help my dog get up into the back seat.

I also don't think they make great door ding protectors. Most passenger vehicles have an arch for the rear wheel well on the back doors, making the point of contact into your truck higher than the sliders. The backseat is usually where you would find kids, so the most reckless with opening doors. They may save you from a door ding or two, but you could just as easily be hit by a back door. My one door ding is high enough on the door that I suspect it was a rear door hit.

Also, unless you plan on wheeling your truck every weekend, I would skip rattle canning the sliders. It looks awful in a few months time because it's not durable at all, particularly if you live anywhere that has rust issues. I read a bunch on coatings before I ended up sandblasting + 2 part epoxy primer + raptor liner for my sliders, and they still look great after 2 years of harsh midwest winters, but they still require some touch up where they get hit. If you don't anticipate them getting drug on rocks too often, I'd go for a durable coating vs. having to touch up rattle can sliders every few weeks.

 

Sweet, thanks. Yeah, probably not getting dinged by a bunch of rocks in FL. Probably tree roots more than anything. I’ll look into that raptor liner, haven’t heard of it

 

Drive it stock to get the feel of the truck, and what it can do, then modify with probably tires, first. Get an AT tire on that truck!

 

Agree that sliders make horrible steps. I also had mine spray painted initially but the rust and durability wasn't there. Ended up getting a really good primer and raptor liner. They've been holding up great now this past year.

Not very useful as a step

 

Don't forget the Skottle! An absolute must-have for the 'gram.

As for the original question, as many others already stated, try stock first. You might eventually want better tires or a bit more armor (start with a front skidplate upgrade) but a stock 4x4 Tacoma is going to take most folks as far off the beaten path as their nerve will allow.

 

Honestly, the bare minimum would probably be a tire repair kit, air compressor, and some cheap recovery boards. That's what I started with and I ended up using the tire repair kit and air compressor on a dirt road less than a mile from my house taking the dog to day care on a normal weekday.

 

Priority 1 is sleeping. Priority 2 is food (storage, prep, consumption, cleaning).

You can broverland in a prius, you don't need to do much to the truck in terms of lights, suspension, etc. I've parked up on the BLM lands north of JTNP and woke up to a field full of minivans and priuses. Drove up Indian Bread Rocks and had a forester across the track from me for the night.

Focus on sleeping setup - tents, ground/rooftop, in cab, etc first and foremost. You can eat slim jims and soup of the cans while you sort that out.

Then, sort out food - cooler/fridge, stove/firepit, dishes and cleaning of them, etc.

Your 4x4 tacoma is able to do probably any and all broverlanding trails you'll come across from the factory. Don't spend the effort and $$$ on the truck (suspension, lights, etc) first.

 

This is entirely your own doing. There's many forms of sliders and you don't need to go for the thinnest, most acute angled sliders you can find. I have the Cali Raised sliders with kickout and they have none of the issues you describe. I find them perfectly viable as steps.

 

Sweet sweet, investigating. Thanks

 

Cool, started looking at compressors the other day. Thanks

 

Viair is a trusted brand. 88P is inexpensive ($90) but works. 300P is heavier duty but costs $220-ish. You will find defenders of both here.

 

Not gonna bother with reading all these posts, but I have to say, hot girlfriend is the best off roading/overlanding mod ever.

 

Flat sliders are definitely better than angled sliders as steps, but I would still never advertise them as being good steps. Flat sliders are still only 3-4" below the cab floor, so unless you need to use them as steps, the extra width to step in/out over them is a pain. Obviously YMMV, but my opinion is the more useful they are as sliders (high and tight), the worse they are as steps, and the more useful they are as steps (low and wide), the worse they are as sliders.

Sliders are also significantly heavier and more expensive than conventional steps, so unless you need sliders for the type of wheeling you do, 99% of people would be better off with actual steps.

Here are my sliders, which aren't nearly as high/tucked as @tyepel (no idea on the angle, they were custom made by a friend). I step over them rather than on them 100% of the time. Just my experience.

 

I'm definitely not suggesting that someone go out and buy sliders when they don't get off the pavement and actually want steps. If you're in that situation, definitely just buy actual steps. But if you do wheel, I think you're getting >90% of the benefit of sliders by having flat sliders and if you're also looking for something that has some functionality as a step, buying flat over angled might get you there.

I don't find that they protrude from the frame enough to be an issue to "step over" and I find them handy when getting out of the truck since you can pivot on your ass and put your feet on them to step out. But like you said, YMMV.