Off-roading in a stock Tacoma?

If you were careful and took some of the bypasses around the more technical obstacles, your truck would run the Rubicon trail without any issues.

When I build vehicles, I do the following: Good tires, armor (rock rails/skids), and then lift. A lift never gets you anything aside from the rocker panels higher off the ground and more clearance for tires. The only way to get more ground clearance is bigger tires. I've run my '20 TRD OR with zero mods other than slightly bigger tires through some shit that a lot of people would consider impossible in a stock truck. Just drive a lot and learn you and your trucks limits

I'm building another jeep right now that's going to stay on 35's with a 2.5" lift. Pretty low clearance overall, but some armor and 36" of droop on the front axle and it'll go pretty much anywhere I want to go.

 

I don't think it matters at all if people ask the same things. I'm a fairly new member and his post came across the feed; I saw it and potentially replied with information or perspective the other posts don't have. To get ALL the info available yea you should also go look at the other posts. Some people are even nice enough to link those threads.

 

Good to know- definitely wouldn’t want to wait that long to air up/down. That one seems like a great option, I’ll look into it, thanks!

 

Thanks- good to know as I will probably eventually add armor, I’ll definitely start with that over a lift. Luckily I was planning on that first anyway haha

 

Armor first, then lift, then all the "overland" nonsense that people inevitably add to their trucks.

 

I figured this exact question has been answered before- I used the search bar but I must have done it wrong or something cause nothing came up so I just started a new thread, not sure what I did wrong
Thanks for all the responses and patience through the repetitiveness!

 

I'm rocking stock skid plates and then rock sliders. The stock skid plates are more there to just say "Hey you're scraping now, maybe you should pick another line."

 

Good point! These trucks are capable, but that doesn’t mean I should go beating them up and pushing it to its limits. Want the truck to last a long time!

 

I’m in Utah- I’m sure there are trails around to test I’ll just have to look around.

 

Come on now... Are you trolling? A stock TRD Sport 4x4 will not make it past the GateKeeper.

 

It's a pain in the dick and you have to do a bunch of backing up and re-positioning, but yah, it can absolutely be done lol

*short bed. I wouldn't do it in my 6' bed taco with stock tires and no armor

Edit: It has been a bit since I ran the rubi. I watched a couple videos on gatekeeper, and nah, I wouldn't run it in a stock taco without at a bare minimum of some rock rails.

 

Some engine skid plate, even if just aluminum TRD plate instead steel.

I second the

$98 Viair 88p Portable Compressor Kit (12V, 120 Psi, Forup to 33" Tires)

Viair 88p, but the 400 is not a waste of money either. Whichever compressor you buy, get spare fuses for the power-cord. They are notorious for overdrawing amps for just a millisecond just to be ornery BUT the fuse is gone. If you gave spare fuses it will be fine immediately after you replace the fuse. These are inexpensive automotive fuses, not expensive specialty fuses.

 

Excellent Questions and ones I wished more people asked before jumping in.

I wheeled a stock:
2wd 84 Ranger
2wd 93 Ranger
2wd 00 Xterra
2wd 07 Titan
2wd 13 Ford Fusion Hybrid (yes)
4wd 19 Ranger
4wd 23 Taco

6 Stock Trucks and minimally in a stock Hybrid.

What you need to add to the truck largely depends on where and how you wheel. Most of my Texas wheeling was East Texas and South East Texas with smooth sandy trails. The only people I knew that did rock crawling went to OHV Parks where they imported boulders. All of that was easily done with stock.

Then out here in AZ, probably 85% to 90% of the states wilderness is available to a stock truck. This is where I wheeled the Fusion Hybrid. Not saying it was a smart idea. But I did it. Most of our roads and trails out here were created by miners who got a Stock Model T loaded with gear to drive 50 miles into the open and untamed desert down a horse trail that was laid by the Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Zuni, Hohokam, or other tribes that passed through. They were smart people who surveyed the land and picked a great route for ease and conservation of energy and resources.

My current truck has the following features and how much I use them

• 4WD - Use it all the time now.
• 4LO - Rarely. Mostly just to keep the actuators and gears moving.
• Locker - Have played with it. Never needed it.
• Multi Terrain Select - Nope. Played with it and found it to be frustrating.
• Crawl control - Nope. Played with it. I have one single trail in mind I want to try it on to see if it might be OK there but otherwise nope.
• Stock Bash Plate - Once it took a pretty decent whack from a rock that made my pooper pucker for three days. Only left a tiny dent in it.

If you are looking to upgrade, here is what I would consider FIRST.

1. All Terrain Tires - BFG ATKO or similar.
2. Get those little valve stem devises for airing down.
3. Get an air pump for airing up.
4. Get a snatch strap.
5. Get a hitch recovery point
6. Upgrade the recovery points in the front.
7. Get a GMRS or Ham Radio
8. Shovel and Hatchet
9. Beefy first aid kit
10. Some way to carry a lot of water - just buy a flat of water or a Gott 5 Gal cooler.
11. Gas cans / gerry cans.
12. Get some of those emergency battery powered flashers / strobes

After that and I mean many miles after that you may consider:

1. Sliders
2. Under armor
3. Beef up the suspension by an inch or two (keep it tame)
4. Then add some slightly larger tires
5. If you are out after dark, maybe some lights

Honestly the best investment in upgrades is the 8lb grey blob that sits in the 6" between your ears. Study up and get experience. That costs nothing and weighs nothing. Takes no room to store. Once you know HOW to drive, most of the upgrades just become SEMA Truck P0rn. Fantasy Crap you don't need. Unless you are picking up redneck chicks at the mall. Then yeah - you need all of that stuff and more.

 

Are they 10 amp? 15 amp? I have plenty of Toyota oem spare 10s and 15s. Don’t ask why

 

When you get the unit just look at the fuse in the power cord. 400 should take bigger fuse than 88p, but that is a guess.

 

Great reply, thank you. I will screen shot a lot of this and use it for the future. Seems like an air compressor is a very important thing to have. I will start there!

 

Sounds good, I’ll cross the bridge when I get there. Thanks!

 

Good tires (which Toyota gives us stock) and an air compressor. That's the minimum bar to entry. You got it.

Air down to be merciful on your tires and soften the ride.
If your tires take 35ish lbs, you want to air down to at least 2oish pounds for starters and probably end up around 12 to 16lbs eventually. Deep sand you can go to 8lbs. BUT the lower you go the more you risk breaking the bead / tires grip on the wheel. So don't go lower than 9.

Also - you can drive 2X your PSI in MPH. So if you do go down to 8psi, don't go faster than 16mph. If you go to 15psi, don't go over 30mph.

 

With the right experience you can take a stock vehicle all sorts of places. The problem is the only way to really find out how far you can push a vehicle is by finding the line where you can't push it anymore.

I have taken all sorts of wildly inappropriate vehicles to places where others thought you needed a built off-road vehicle without any damage.

Of course I have also bashed up the bottom of my built Tacoma on what seemed like a simple forest road. If you want piece of mind and plan on doing any offroading you definitely need good skid plates and rock sliders.

 

Peace of mind is definitely important to me, however I do know there will always be risk, no matter how careful I am. I’ll have to try it out first, and if I’m uncomfortable with how it performs then maybe I’ll have to get armor.