How long before you went “off road”

How long did you wait after getting your new truck until you took it off the beaten path?

I’ve had my truck just under 2 years and I’m at the point that I want to explore logging roads but at the same time I’d hate to scratch the truck with branches. I love the look of a clean truck but I know it wasn’t made to simply commute to work.

 

Was on trail beating it up under 50 miles on the odo.

 

Drove 1000 miles to get home from the dealership. THEN I went offroad.

A year and change later, my Taco's seen Florida swamps and Maine's North Woods logging roads.

Get out there and explore. Pinstripes are a badge of honor you can't pay for but you CAN pay to have them waxed/buffed out.

 

Couple of hours.

In 1978 I was working for a local farmer during summers while in college. The owner had ordered a brand new 3/4 ton Chevy truck and the dealership had delivered it to the farm just a few minutes earlier. The owner came in the break room and looked at 5-6 of us sitting around and told up to round up some cattle from one pasture and move them to another. The owners nephew said." Hey, uncle Charlie, let me use your new truck". Charlie threw him the keys and I rode with Ricky. The truck had only been on the property 20 minutes and it got a good breaking in. If we'd filmed that "round up" Chevy could have used it for a commercial showing how tough their trucks were.

 

with in a week I was exploring icy mountain trails, then that summer I was up to the headlights in a water crossing.

 

Hit an old quarry on the way home.

 

I’ve only had mine 6 weeks but I won’t be off road very much. I had Jeeps before my Taco and they are meant for gittin dirty so maybe get some armour and be smart out there too but these trucks look great with some cuts and bruises. If you have the terrain get out there man

 

I only had mine for a month or so before heading up into some snow on logging roads. Nothing extreme. And many logging roads you have like 0 worry of pinstriping. You should know well before you get scratches that the trees and brush are encroaching!

I'm not the biggest fan, since i'd have to wash my truck first, but GOAT armor might help with your piece of mind when it comes to pinstriping/scratch protection.

https://goat-truckarmor.com/collections/toyota-tacoma-gen3

 

2 weeks or so before I went to ardbeg

 

I took mine the first week of owing it! 2 years is an awful lot of anticipation...Don't work yourself up to being bummed if you brush your truck up to some branches. Rip the band aid off (if you really want to get out there) and just drive, otherwise the longer you wait the more hypotheticals you'll come up with, and it will just be mental torture lol . 90% of trails (especially backroads, FSR's, well know crown trails) won't do anything to your truck. It's just about being prepared and using common sense.


If the outdoors/exploration/camping/ whatever you want to call it truly interests you, you'll probably find it a lot more fulfilling to use the truck as a tool to get you to the places you want to go, as opposed to having it sit neat in the driveway. You don't need to have one or the other though, just go easy and get familiar with its abilities. Your truck will be okay!

 

About 6 months, but only cuz a lot of the fun stuff gets gated off in the winter or is super muddy and I bought my truck in November

 

I took mine "off-road" same day I bought it. Little fire service path.

I went on my first pin striping trail with it within the first month of owning it.

 

If a truck is still beautiful at (blank) yrs. old, you didn't need a truck.

At some point, you have to fill that in.

 

It's always beautiful. Some might argue moreso with obvious usage

 

I took a year before going "offroad". Never drove a pickup or even a rear-wheel drive vehicle in a long time and figured, spend the year to learn how the truck behaves in all conditions (Snow rain, dusty roads, etc).

The faster you make peace with your paint, that it will get scratches, the more you will enjoy the outdoors. worrying about the paint 24/7 will ruin the experience.
I went a day without touching a leaf or bush on my first trip, at the end of the day, night has fallen and we were about 20km from getting back to the main highway - there was a thin tree that was in a valley sticking into the road and i saw it too late. left a scratch that went from the headlight all the way to the back of the truck as i hit it at 40km/h.
it's not a matter if preventing or if you will hit something and scratch the truck. it's a matter of when.

Exactly this.

 

I got my truck in January, did most of the mods in June thru early August, and was on the trails in late August. Once a year I do a polish & wax to hide the pinstripes until the following year.

Logging roads (like those level 2 trails in the Five Points trail system) are usually wide enough not to cause any pinstriping. If you want to explore tighter trails and want to avoid pinstripes, you can spend $2k on a wrap (good for around 5 years) or about $500 on the magnetic sheets. The magnetic sheets add to the workload:

Before each trip, wash and dry the truck, apply the magnetic sheets.
After each trip, remove the magnetic sheets, wash the truck, wash the magnetic sheets and hang on a clothesline to dry.

 

During the test drive, told the salesman to hold my beer.

 

Less than 1000km (one week after purchase). Pinstriped and trailer hitch chain loops bent. Life is short and I bought the thing to explore and have fun with. First truck, first part-time 4wd vehicle. Loads of fun!