Scariest Experience in your tacoma

not quite the scariest but the stupidest.

scariest would have to be stuck in a canyon for 3 hours at night before the truck clawed its way out or jumping out of my bed just to hear a rattlesnake at my feet. i believe that is the highest this white boy has ever jumped

 

Mine wasn't in a Tacoma but..

About a year ago my dads buddy who is a dealer gave my mom a Mercedes convertible coupe to drive while her Nissan was in the shop.

I live on a 2 lane 60mph paved road in the country with very little traffic. My buddy and I were going into to town to grab some groceries in the Benz and were having some fun and flying. A garbage truck was coming the opposite direction and just pulled into our lane and stopped. No signal no nothing. I put the brake pedal through the floor and turned into the other lane and we stopped about 5 feet past the front bumper of the garbage truck in the other lane.

I was furious and got out of the car, apparently the garbage man wasn't paying attention and was just going down the road and doing that to get all the cans.

I'm lucky we were in that Benz it handled incredibly. If we had been in my Gran Torino doing close to 100 we may not have still been alive.. No way my drum brakes and tires could have handled that.

 

My first Toyota pickup was an 83' standard cab long bed. I bought it brand new on a Friday and Saturday morning all my buddies came over and wanted to go wheeling. I didn't even have the truck 24hr. We hit an old excavation site on the Salt River to play around in and bam....I hit 3' deep mud. The trucks chassis laid flat on top of the mud, you could barely see the tires. We dug and dug for hours with no luck. One of my buddies drove off to use a phone and call a wrecker. An hour later he shows up and we pulled out about 100' of winch line and hooked it to my rear bumper....yeah yeah... I know....the bumper is not the best place to hook a tow line. Not a minute after the line was tight, the bumper ripped right off the truck ...my brand new truck... Then the wrecker got stuck. So we walked over to the excavation site office and had a guy come down with a D60 bulldozer. He pulled out the semi truck wrecker, cost me $50 and then the wrecker went around to the other side of the area I was stuck in and we decided to hook his winch to the tow hook in the front of my truck. We spent an hour digging the mud out from the front of the tires and then he started to pull..... The line got tighter and tighter and then the truck started to move.. The problem now that I had, I was starting to plow mud with my bumper... I started the truck up and slapped into low range and jumped the clutch a couple of times to get the truck up and over the pile of mud I was pushing. We finally got the truck to the edge of the mud hole, but the wrecker was on a hill 20' higher then me. The wrecker pulled me up the hill....my truck was probably on a 60 degree angle and I could smell gas. We finally got it out of there 8 hrs later and I spent all day Sunday cleaning it.... What a suck ass day...

 

My mom... Was driving my dads 2001 tacoma not knowing that she accidentally hit the 4wd button with her knee. (4lo) She wondered why the car was turning weird and had high rpms but she pressed on. She got onto the interstate and knowing her, she probably hit a minimum of 75 mph... Long story short she ended up on the side of the road about 25 miles later.. Appalachian tire had no clue what happened so we took it to a Toyota dealership (expensive). They said they've never had this happen before. The camshaft had literally broke in half.. A 2-3 inch steel bar just destroyed. What had happened was the water pump went out, the timing gear got stripped and some how the cam just exploded. The dealership said that a bunch of tiny pieces from the camshaft had gotten into the engine and there's nothing to do about replacing the cam.. They said an engine swap was required.. Total bill before buying and installing engine $4500.. It was $400 just to say I've got a problem with my truck.. NEVER go that fast in 4 low.. You'll be in debt.. We still have to buy an engine and pay to install it.. Fun fun

 

was on my way home from work the other night with my father in law in the truck and was going up the mountain when was going around a turn and had to lock up the brakes cause a head on collision happened right in front of my the white explorer went over the double yellow head on to the civic the driver of the explorer was ejected but lived with his 2 month pregnant girlfriend in the car both in there 20's and the 35 year old lady coming up the mountain on here way home from work was killed very sad i had to stay on the sight for and hour and a half to talk to the cops sence i was first on the scene and witnessed it
my truck with all the fire trucks around it
the explorer with the civic in the background

and the civic

 

The scariest moment was when Harrelson, Chas, and me went up to Chiva Falls, and my ABS kicked in on the sand. I came within inches of ramming the back end of Harrelson's truck.

 

I had a similar experience minus hitting my head on the steering wheel and pissing my pants.

This hill was a lot steeper(more like a cliff) when I drove off the back side of it.

 

The two that jump out at me: Corkscrew Gulch, San Juan Mtns Colorado- almost rolled off the shelf road into a 500'+ near vertical drop, and Porcupine Rim, Moab- almost bounced off shelf road into a 300'+ near vertical drop. Those are two where I distinctly had to collect myself afterward and still give me the willies today.

Too many instances to mention of off-camber/scary situations that created a lot of stress and adrenaline, including a very steep, muddy, tippy predicament at the White Tanks last week... but that's just good fun, not like the two mentioned above.

 

Back in high school my friend got a used Tacoma. He came and picked me up and we snuck into this field by the highway. The grass was about 5 feet tall and we were driving slow and trying out the 4WD. Well, there was a fire hydrant dug down in the middle of the field. The front bumper got impailed on the hydrant and our front wheels were off the ground. We couldn't move. Many hours later we were able to get some jacks in there and lifted it up and had a buddy pull us out. The front bumper was torn up pretty bad with yellow paint everywhere. We told his dad someone with a trailer backed into us in the parking lot at a movie theater. His dad said he would keep his eyes peeled for a yellow trailer.


Not in a Tacoma, but back in my big rig days I had some scary experiences- was unloading in kind of a seedy/industrial part of this town in the middle of the night. No one else was around. I had to go through a series of gates and ended up in a back lot against a fence next to a road. I turned off my truck and went to unload my trailer and this dingy pickup truck with a camper pulled up and stopped. It was a domestic fight, and this woman jumped out and started screaming terrible things at her boyfriend/ husband. This guy jumps out of the pickup and tackles her and starts beating the shit out of her right there on the side of the road. I didn't know what to do. The guy was huge, at least 300lbs. I turned on the high beams and started blowing the air horn. He stopped and looked up at me. His fat face was illuminated in the night, a thick bead of sweat was running down the side of his pudgy cheekbone leaving behind a moist trail and the demonic, burning look of hate in his eyes is still seared into my soul. I will never forget that. The woman jumped up and ran away, but he walked up to the fence and started to try and climb over. I thought he was going to kill me. I didn't have any weapons except for a tire iron, and even then it probably wouldn't stop the brute. He made it about 2/3 of the way up but couldn't quite figure out how to get over. He jumped into his pickup truck and drive away in a cloud of dust. Domestic disputes are the worst. I will never get involved again. It's just not worth it.

My scariest experience ever was hauling a load down the coast highway in the middle of a storm. Extended weight, low trailer clearance, and unfamiliar territory in the middle of the night. It was cold, the wind was howling and pushing me around, and the fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife. If anyone loves the beauty of the Pacific they also know it also lashes out with a scornful vengeance a few times a year. I couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of me. I was heading to a coastal depot on the mouth of a river out on a sand dune. The road I was supposed to turn on changes names about a 1/4 mile from the highway cutoff, so if you are looking at the signs from the highway you will see the road (with a different name) and not know to turn. I missed the turn. It didn't take me long to realize I went too far. I went white as a ghost. The coast highway is nasty and curves around rock outcroppings, tunnels, and bridges. There really isn't much room to turn around. About 10 minutes later I came to a town and found a place to turn around. Not the most pleasant 10 minutes I've ever had.

 

About 5 years ago i had a fight with the gf at the time because she wanted to have her friend stay over because it was snowing and I ended up not getting laid. Needless to say I was in a bad mood, I had my first 06 for about 2wks then and the tires were shot. Was headed home and the road seemed to clear up some so I kicked her out of 4hi. The road turned to shit I pushed the pedal too much and the back end kicked out. I crossed the oncoming lane into the embankment where the front end caught a stump and spun me around once, the drivers side tires then caught and I rolled onto my drivers side. Din break a single glass either.. and no airbag deployment when I was doin almost 60. She was totaled.

 

a lady-friend i had at the time handed me a positive prego test... she was just being a bitch thank god. it was her roommates and she just wanted to fuck with me... im pretty sure my heart stopped for a few minutes. but it happened in the taco soooo yea thats my scariest moment by far!

 

hhmmm...I think my scariest moment was when I rear ended a car. I looked over on the side of the road, looked back and the guy was stopped for now reason.......I slammed on my brakes and hit him going about 20 (give or take 5). nothing happened to my truck, I thank the lord for my winch guard...his car was totaled.

it happened so fast, yet I saw the entire thing in slow motion. I still get nervous riding in other people's cars when they put their brake on later than I usually do and stop quickly....

 

My scariest moment so far was probably when I first bought my truck, I previously owned a 2011 Altima coupe, fwd. anyway, the Tacoma was my first truck and wasn't use to the rwd yet... So one of the first times I drove it I was pulling out into traffic on a main road turning left out of a neighborhood and I was looking at the traffic coming both ways there was just enough room between the two large chunks of traffic I was use to gunning it out in my Altima and getting through, not thinking about the extra hp and the rwd in my new truck I gave just enough gas to fishtail right out into the middle of traffic causing my truck rear to whip me into oncoming traffic! Yikes!! Luckily every one was paying attention and slowed down enough for me to correct and get back into the right lanes of traffic! I haven't been so generous with the gas pedal since then!

 

I had a spin out on black ice once...hit a tree on a dirt road once...then the final straw was driving too fast on another dirt road and lost control with my bald ass tires...went over the side after bouncing off the side of the hill and rolled down a 100 ft slide/ciff...that was the scariest by far. got ejected through the front window.

 

Out on the mojave road I hit a whoop way too hard. My rear end kicked up and was damn near 90 degrees straight up. I came back down and bounced a few times and narrowly missed a Joshua tree. If I didn't have a high clearance bumper i would have went end over end. Truck came out ok and I was done wheelin for that day.

 

Came to close to flopping more times then I can count while on the trail. One of the reasons why I got myself a crawler

 

I was riding with a buddy in his 1st gen single cab going on Tangerine rd. around midnight a while back. A car coming the opposite direction pulled into our lane to pass a slower car. Luckily my friend was paying attention, ripped the truck into the dirt shoulder, swapped violently on and off the asphault and dirt untill the truck just whipped around from the slight undercorrection even though the steering wheel was at full lock, we slid across the 2 lane road backwards until we hit the shoulder on the other side and slammed against the embankment and had the truck on 2 wheels for at least 2 seconds. I thought we were going to die.....

 

about 2 weeks ago coming home from the dealer. 3 days before i was going on a 650 mile road trip. came around a curve and backend came out at 30 maybe 35 mph and i did a 180, off the road and was heading backwards toweds a pole and a bunch of trees. i came about 5 feet from trees and about 8 or 10 from the pole. got it stopped buy flooring the gass once i hit the grass and was sliding backwards. if i think if i would not have i would have hit the pole or the tress.

 

cased it hard on a large g out, bent my core support and sliced my tires real good. lucky my air bag didn't go off.

 

Had my first incident yesterday and am still paranoid if something on my truck is bent or broken that I can't see or tell if it's damaged like in the steering or wheel components. Spun out around 85-90 mph on the freeway on the way into work, possibly black ice, scariest 10 seconds of my life. At that speed I was unable to correct once I started to fishtail toward the driver side, from that point I don't even know how many times I spun around in both directions back and forth across 3 lanes. I think i was slamming the brakes the entire time i was spinning circles across the highway but like I said it had to be for a good 10 seconds just sliding and spinning facing traffic etc. Got a scuff on my tire and a tiny dent in the front fender I think that saved me possibly from bouncing off the guardrail. Truck didn't want to start up after that but things seem ok now... I'm still paranoid and think certain things feel funny in the wheels. Took it slow around that turn on the way in today.