Former Jeep Jk owner sucked in to the tacomaworld!!!

That is a nice Jeep, but you made the right choice.

Welcome to TW!

 

That was a really good looking Jeep, but nice to see you caught the Tacoma bug

 

Welcome, I would sit in a tacoma that has a hood scoop before adding one. I love the look of the scoop but not from the drivers perspective. And nice jeep and nice tacoma.

 

Welcome to TW. You traded off a pretty nice JK for the Tacoma. If you're into offroad, check out my products in the vendor forum. link in my sig.

 

Jeep must have pussified the new ones. My YJ with the 4.0L I6 manual tranny had torque like nothing I've ever had before. You could sit at a 45 degree angle on a hillclimb, let the clutch out without any gas it it'd start crawling on its own. No rolling backwards at all. It was frigin awesome.

Sorry to hear the new ones lost some balls.....

 

I mean it had torque but the wrangler isnt all its caked up to be. ya its good offroad.But you can modify any rig to be good off road. It come off road ready but you break a lot of stuff that way. I spent money on a new front axle, new power steering pump, 2 slave cylinders in the clutch and 2 throwout bearings.

It was like something was always breaking on that thing.

I mean the torque and power on the jeep was no match for the TACO! Taco will take it by far

What are the common issues with tacomas?

 

I'm sorry, I don't understand the question? You said issues and tacomas in the same sentence....

Really, as far as breaking, it's the CV joints on the IFS.

 

They definately pussified the Wranglers. I had a 92 & a 94 Wrangler, built 'em up and wheeled the piss out of 'em and never had a lick of problems with either of 'em (the first one was totalled on highway). Jeep reliability isn't nearly as good as Toyotas. However - Toyota has slipped some too. I owned a 96 tacoma and that thing was a tank compared to this 2007.

Like Leadgolem said.... in terms of offroading, the IFS & CV joints is a weakness (per say) compared to solid axles. IFS is a whole different ball game in terms of lifts and suspension travel. You are limited to what you can do. So - although you've been wheeling with a solid axle wrig........ you WILL NOT be able to drive the trails the same way as you did with the jeep. Take it easy until you get familiar with how the tacoma acts in offroad situations.

 

What is the IFS?

I did some cool stuff with the solid axle

 

Independent Front Suspension?

 

Yup. SA would be solid axle.

An IFS gives you wheel travel rather then flex. So doing something like this both wheels would be parallel to the ground. The vehicle it's self would be canted to one side somewhat.

According to an article I was reading a while ago, the IFS with the same lift will be able to handle the same obstacles. Not in the same way though. Without an axle to get hung up on you can let some fairly large rocks pass between the front tires, where with a solid axle you'd get hung up. The IFS is going to ride better on the really easy stuff, fire roads etc..., then a solid axle setup.

The down side is that the IFS just isn't as strong. So your more likely to break it. That means you can wheel a solid axle system harder. Going over the same obstacle repeatedly your more likely to break an IFS then a SA.

In terms of speed over an obstacle, it usually ends up breaking even. An IFS would need to go slower since it's more fragile, but a SA would get hung up more.

There has been a lot of debate on the usefulness of both systems. In the end, I think it depends on what you want to use it for.

 

Ya man Im not much into the whole rock crawling as much. I just love going up into the mountains and exploring, doing some fishing, and taking pics. This Tacoma will be perfect for the type of wheeling I do. I would say nothing more difficult than moderate

 

So was it the 6 speed MT or the 4 speed AT

Im helping pick one up and trying to get some recommendations

 

It was the MT. The autos were even worse. most people had to upgrade to 5.13, add exhaust, intake and the superchip flashpack their jeep just to be able to get it go. The thing always felt like it was towing something. It was wayyy underpowered. Not a fan of the New jeep engine. The MT was ok. I still had low power with 35's and 4.10 gears. even when i had 33's it struggled in the mountains going up hills. it was like driving a cynder block. slow and sluggish.

 

Welcome , hit us up if you need to know where your jack is at .

 

No problem with the Tacoma there. And the auto in the 2nd gens is great. You'll love it.

 

thank you

 

IFS is where each wheel flexs indepedantly of the other wheel without affecting the other wheels position.

Generally, between IFS & solid axle.....Solid axles are better for overall rock crawling and more serious offroading ventures simply because - solid axles are less complicated, less components to break, and stronger. Solid axle suspension pivots under the body (body stays level) and that keeps the side-to-side weight more distributed to the rest of the drive wheels (less likely for rollovers). Solid axle suspensions can flex a lot more than IFS simply because it utilizes compression from one side to gain more droop on the other side. Even though the diff is there....there's still more clearance under the axle tubes as they pivot compared to the center of an IFS vehicle.


For easy to moderate wheeling - you're fine in an IFS. Again - since you're used to wheeling in a solid axle....take it easy in an IFS until you get used to it. It is a totally different wheeling experience than solid axle. Avoid making tight turns in 4WD and if you feel resistance in the throttle or steering, don't force it!!!

Good Luck and have fun with it!!!

 

Dude, I traded in my TJ for my taco and it took a long time to get used the lingo. I knew all things Jeep, and when I got here, total 180. Welcome!
The guys on here really know there stuff so just search around and you can find a lot of what you'll need. The big shock is there is no Quadratec catalog for Tacoma, it really sucks!