Newbie, to Tacos, and trucks period. (Lengthy intro)

Hey guys,

My name is Josh. I'm currently stationed at Fort Hood, TX. I you guessed I have recently received a Tacoma. When I returned from my last overseas tour I bought my wife a car. So recently I've been complaining about needing my own vehicle to get back and forth to work(as she works in Austin). My bud let me borrow his Ram 2500. This being the first truck I've had in a long time. So I told my wife I wanted a truck I loved how the Tacomas looked and she put 2 and 2 together. I now have a 2011 Tacoma Dbl cab, 2 wheel drive, leather interiour, TRD sport. Has been in my possession for 4 hours as of now lol.

My other current vehicles are, 2006 Audi A6 3.2, and my baby and 06 Ninja 636 (we've been to hell and back). My previous vehicles are as follows; 2011 Mustang premium..but it was a v6, a 01 and 05 civic EX, a 96 Caprice cop car, a 87 cutlass supreme, an 88 Supra turbo, a 2000 Kia Sephia, and lastly my pride and joy my 1988 Porsche 944 turbo.

Ok now back to the truck. I've never owned a truck nor do I know anything about offroading, except from watching prerunner, dakar, rally, and baja racing. From what I gather off of this site, to do any really rough terrain ie mud and deep snow, a 4wd is optimal. I realize this but so far I'm happy with this truck. If not for the truck the fact my wife is willing to spend her hard earned money on me, so I will not be complaining and or trying to get rid of it for a 4 wheel drive.

Now onto the questions. I'm still in the process of reading through the forum so bear with me. First what can I do to maximize the potential of my 2wd? I do not have the atrac and locking rear options. Should I have that put in down the road? I do want to go off road. Most of the good areas around here are desert/gravel, with a hint of mud once every blue mood. I'm really intrigued by the prerunner type setups, ie long tube suspensions and such. Granted that is an expensive journey. Anyways any advice of push in the right direction of parts and other stuff I should invest in down the road to make this vehicle more capable will help alot.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to being part of this forum.

 

Welcome to TW !

Brett

 

Welcome to TW. Nice truck!!

 

Welcome to TW.

The mods you need will greatly depend on your use. Don't go anywhere without someone that can pull you out. You will quickly find out what you need to make you happy. Just because I use 4x4, doesn't mean you will...same with anything else.

Search around here, check some members builds, and you'll find everything you need.

 

Lol I tried checking other members builds... It made me want everything lol. I am really liking the 2 wheel drive prerunner look of things with the mt or lt suspensions.

My area is mostly desert/gravel. A little rocky but not anywhere near crawing status. Just slightly rocky terrain. I went out and explored a bit today. This trucking thing is the shit. Only one downside I wasn't tracking the land going back. And bottomed out pretty hard lol. It was fun and nothing was broken.

P.S. Note to self and other newbs when going over rough terrain keep head away from window/A pillers I hit a rut and headbutted the shit out of my truck.

 

Well as cool as long travel is i might just go mid. Need the bed for my sport bike. Next thing I'm buying is some weather tech floor liners.