Tampa Bay Area Tacomas BS Thread

Yes I’m as ready as can be.

 

You too be safe!

 

You make out alright bud?

 

Good morning John yes all is good thanks.

How are things on the east coast?

 

Al good over here lucked out

 

Thanks John

 

Once again, Tampa's Hurricane Repellent Magic came through for us. No damage here.

 

No vehicle damage here either. Just a lot of limbs down and tree debris. It appears we dodged another bullet.

 

Definitely more than luck at this point. MacDill has some kind of hurricane steering device.

 

Hello - I'm a new truck owner. Moved from an Avalon to a 2022 Tacoma SR5.

I am in love with it and the hobby of customizing, but I would like to learn how to drive off-road. I have zero experience.

Are there any meetup groups, training companies, coaches, or other ideas you'd recommend on how to use the vehicle and places to take it?

edit: I live in Ruskin so the Tampa/St Pete/Brandenton/Sarasota area is best for me.

 

Welcome

There's not a whole lot of places to off-road nearby. Probably the best place to cut your teeth on off-roading is at Citrus WMA between Brooksville and Inverness. There hasn't been a lot of action in group meet department since Covid hit. A lot of us sold our trail rigs and focused on other hobbies. That said, it's always possible that there will be a random off road meet set up by someone. I'd like to do a little light trail riding myself. I just have the T4R now and it's mission critical for work so I can't beat on it very hard. Problem is I work weekends so I wouldn't be able to attend a weekend ride.

At any rate, keep an eye on this thread and the Florida BS thread and possibly inquire if someone wants to have a Citrus ride.

 

Is anyone up for a meet up in the Lakeland/Winter Haven area? A little Taco gathering to hang out and shoot the sh*t.

 

With nicer weather, I could see this happening.

 

Hopefully someday soon.
This used to a meet up that would happen many moons ago.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...t-smokey-bones-in-lakeland-fl-ongoing.376097/

 

I have heard that Antifa an BLM are at voting precincts in Pinellas county is this true?

 

Both together in harmony?

 

I havent done any off roading, how does Croom compare to Citrus?

 

They both suck really. But citrus is better than croom

 

The only interesting places at Croom are out of bounds areas and the place tends to be crawling with FWC and FFS patrols.

Don't listen to this ^^^ guy ^^^. He intentionally rolls his truck because he's bored. (BTW, the picture in the banner at the top is of that event during the recovery phase. At least it was a decent training session on rigging up a winch for an off angle recovery.) He's been up north to the real deal with a custom built 1-ton 3 link SAS rig, so shit in Floriduh isn't shite to him. Might as well be driving on flat ground. Even the OGT, which wasn't SAS'd, sat on 33s, with a front spool and rear Detroit locker pretty much handled whatever Citrus could throw at it in 2WD, the exception being mud. Mud at Citrus...at least the stuff that won't get you ticketed for being off the trail, but will get you bitched at for playing in it, sucks as far as mud goes. It's mostly red clay with a hard hump in the center and if you don't have enough tire, you WILL end up high centered on the center hump and if you do have enough tire then you walk right through it like you were on solid ground (and by that I mean, the final iteration of the OGT before I pretty much gave it away to a good friend was on 36" Super Swamper TSL-SXs and there were places I couldn't make it through if I was in 4WD or not, so I'm thinking 40"s at best, maybe 38"s if it's drier. Of course I made my attempt at that one spot while it was extra wet and was denied. Had I tried it when I wasn't pushing a couple tons of bow wave, I might have had more success. Never know at this point.) Luckily there's a bypass off to the side.

Long story short, Citrus is good for cutting your off-road teeth on. Stay out of the water and you won't get in too much trouble.