Offroad Payoff x 2!

Today, we're taking our completed Wrangler LJ out for an off road payoff to see how our upgrades work.

And we're taking our rework Tacoma

along to see how it stacks up to the Wrangler.

It's all today here on trucks.

Hey guys, welcome to trucks.

Well, we've been working on our bright orange 2005 Wrangler unlimited for a little while. Now, we've got it lifted axles, locked big tires, a little bit of body protection. So we thought we'd come out here to Woolies off Road Park and spend the day, take advantage of this beautiful weather we're having and see how our Jeep does.

We couldn't resist dragging our 2000 Toyota Tacoma out here as well with its newly installed Squires turbo system. And although this is a decidedly milder off-road rig, it's proven itself to be very capable with 31 inch tires and stock suspension. But today, we want to test out what that 100 odd extra horsepower is gonna give us along with the gray wire mod. See if this thing does better off road.

Now, in comparison to the Toyota, well, this Jeep has had a lot more parts thrown at it, but it's still what you would consider to be a fairly mild rig overall. And we spent quite a few shows putting this rig together and in case you haven't seen it from start to finish.

Here's a quick refreshment.

Now, our LJ came to us nearly stopped,

say for a cold air intake and AC B radio.

And with what we had planned for this Jeep,

that wasn't going to cut it. So we picked up a long arm suspension system from Rusty's off road

and to beef up the factory installed Dana 44 rear axle, he installed aftermarket axle shafts

along with 456 ears and an air locker.

The front got an air locker as well, but it got upgraded 30 flying shafts.

The T case was treated to a heavy duty slip Yoke Eliminator kit

and for tires and wheels, we picked up some 35 inch Mickey Thompson Baha

Claws.

Then we added a winch powder coated bumpers and rocker skids along with some flares to keep mud off the paint.

Then

save our backs, install some Mastercraft suspension seats,

finish things off with the dynamic exhaust system.

Then it was time for a quick flex test before we took it out here today.

We've had the Tacoma kicking around for a little while too. And the truth is we've been dying to get our hands on one of these for quite some time because just like that, Jeep, the aftermarket is really rallied and there's all kinds of parts and support for this vehicle platform.

And although it's very capable from the factory,

here's what we've done to make it even better.

Our mild up Tacoma was well overdue for a new timing belt. So with that and some other basic maintenance taken care of, we took it out and beat the heck out of it

and tested it for weaknesses which it didn't have many of.

Oh and as well as being a little under protected. One of the things we wanted to improve was the accessibility to the electric locker. So with the gray wire mod, now it's selectable in two and four wheel drive. Then we beefed up the side protection

and added 100 horsepower worth of turbo.

Yeah.

Now, since then we've installed this map sensor that's tied into the manifold so we can provide a signal to the new boost gauge in the cab.

We also upgraded to an optima red top to give us more cold cranking amps and increased vibration resistance.

Now up here on the a pillar in an auto meter pod is a wide band air fuel ratio gauge to make sure we don't run lean under a boosted condition. This is tied in with an 02 sensor into the exhaust.

Now, the bottom gauge is the boost reference gauge like we said is tied into the intake manifold and the new map sensor under the hood.

Now between these two gauges. We should have all the information that we need to make sure that we're running this truck safely. Even if we're pushing it a little harder.

We decided to mount the air inlet filter for the turbo inside the toolbox. Now, despite you having only seen us drill a couple of holes. Trust me, there's about a dozen holes in there. It'll breathe. Since then

we installed a 16 gauge cover to protect the filter. And so we can still use the rest of the toolbox for supplies like coolant royal purple fluids and a whole raft of Matco tools. And that will make us trail ready for both of these rigs.

Now, since we got both vehicles down here, we thought we'd do a little comparison testing since they offer up so many different contrast. We've got longer wheel base versus shorter wheelbase turbo versus natural aspiration,

ifs versus solid axle lifted versus stock, not to mention the whole import versus domestic thing. So, we've got a route picked out here down at woolies that we can take both vehicles through

and uh put them through the paces and do a little friendly comparison testing.

I

thanks a lot, Katy.

Hey, guys. Welcome back to trucks. Well, our Jeep is up first in the comparison test between it and our turbocharged Tacoma

and we're starting right here right now.

You're rocking over here, man. Get it,

get it.

Mhm.

Now, since this Jeep isn't that old the paint is still shiny

and it looks pretty good. But we didn't want to tear this thing up too much,

but we did want to put our modifications to the test.

So we had to walk the line and balance, being too aggressive with making sure we could drive home at the end of the day.

Now, even though this trail or this area hasn't seen rain in the last few days and

we still found some slick gooey mud

ready.

One more of those. We ought to be good.

This is what you call the southern bump.

It works every time.

Now. It might not work every time, but it's worth a shot.

And for you guys that don't know what give it a bump means. Well, you just have to roll into the obstacle with a little bit of throttle.

You usually bump into it and the momentum will carry you up and over it.

But that's the theory anyway.

Now, in comparison to a regular short wheel base TJ, this LJ has about 10 more inches of wheel base

while it does give up a little bit in the maneuverability department, it makes up for it with added stability during hill climbs. So we think the trade off is well worth it.

Now, our long arm suspension system did great in the rocks.

It flexed plenty, allowing the tires to stay in contact with the rocks. In fact, I don't think we lifted a tire or wheel the entire day of wheeling

got.

And since we know this thing is capable of crawling, it's time to pick up the pace a little bit and see how this Jeep does and how it handles at a higher rate of speed.

Now, we realize most of you guys won't drive this fast off road, but it's always nice to know you can if you want to

and with the rocks and go fast stuff out of the way. We wanted to move on to the hill climb section of our route.

And we've been here before with varying degrees of success.

Do you remember the Bronco?

Which one you wanna hit?

Do

you remember the Bronco? I

avoid that one. Don't find a giant tree root.

What goes up must come down

while this hill doesn't look that steep.

You guys that have shot your own trail ride videos where you know that it looks much more tame on the TV screen in comparison to the view from the driver's seat.

And while this 4 L, no slouch,

we fully expect our Tacoma to do a little bit better on these open stretches of trail.

Not just because the extra power that turbo charger is going to give it, but also because it's got independent front suspension

as opposed to our solid axle quipped Jeep,

which is doing ok and holding its own.

Hey, welcome back. Well, the Jeep did great. So we're gonna take practically the same course. Well, we may have to bail out a little early on the rocks, but uh I think everywhere else, we may just have an advantage.

Perfect,

nice.

You got it. Perfect,

nice.

Just come straight at it

and we knew the ground clearance was going to be an issue, especially on this course. So with Ryan spotting, the little truck actually did pretty darn good.

There were a few times however that we sure could use the locking diff up front, but we plowed through anyway.

Now you're about to see why it's pretty common knowledge that lift kit and wheeling go hand in hand a

little less.

Yes.

Now, uh we've got a little problem here in our rush to get this toy out on the trail and join the jeep while we failed to build any protection for our turbo plumbing

and well,

took a little bit of a shot from this rock, but it's not broken and still working. So we're gonna move forward and uh get back in the shop, build this good play.

Is that your

r

right there?

That is why the Goddess Trails taillight.

You just bought a new one.

So

now there is an extra pedal and it is a longer wheel basement. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to ground clearance

n

and just slowly come up it, I wanna see the

make sure the rear doesn't get caught in that hole

that felt solid

and Ryan's reaction pretty much sums it up,

huh?

We had a classic high center.

All right.

That's good. That's good.

Now, with both these rigs in the woods at the same time, it was sure nice to have the Jeep and the Jeep's winch, which got us out of trouble in no time flat.

We still threw a floor mat over top of the winch cable, even though there wasn't much pressure on the cable or the winch itself just to be safe.

Now, with the ground clearance measured and my ego in check, we decided to take advantage of some of the assets of this little truck rather than focus on the liabilities. That side's kind of shiny.

My wife everywhere.

Oh, that thing sounds awesome.

Sounds good. Watch out. Watch out.

There we go.

Turn right.

Ryan's correct. Most people don't drive flat out on these roads. But man, it was hard to resist rolling that turbo power on, on some of the flat stretches

and for a bone stock truck weighing in at a little bit south of 4000 pounds, it's still compact and nimble and that extra power sure came in handy on some of the challenging trails.

Do

it,

do

it, do

it.

And you gotta love a rev limiter. Otherwise we'd still be up there picking up engine parts.

Now, one of the major differences from the Jeep was the independent front suspension on the Tacoma, which really helped soak up some of the bumps at speed. So we liked it. We might just keep the independent front suspension, just give it a little more wheel travel.

Now, another difference and an advantage in this case is the manual transmission in the Tacoma,

you can drop this sucker and low and let the transmission slow you down, going down the hill rather than overuse your brakes.

One of the best things about this Tacoma is that it's just a truck, it's street legal, there's nothing exotic or expensive about it. And at the end of the day, you can either go cut wood or just drive yourself home.

And now with all the power that we're gonna need with this rig, we can plan our next round of modifications and focus on extra wheel travel and extra ground clearance too.

Yeah.

Hey guys, welcome back to trucks and to Woolies off road park. Now, down here at Woolies, we found enough variety of terrain to completely test both of these vehicles in a good variety of conditions. Now, we had a great time doing the testing or even

mildly abusing both of these rigs, but we suffered through it for you guys. So we could show you the strength and weaknesses of both the Jeep and the Toyota.

Now, as far as the Tacoma goes, the turbo was awesome. It gave us enough power to pull through just about anything.

The serious shortcoming with this vehicle is of course the stock suspension there's just not enough suspension travel, not to mention the small wheel and tire size. So we know what to do to improve it and keep it from high, centering these

bumpers.

Well, they offer almost no protection. Plus it would be nice to be able to put some kind of a winch up front here because as you saw it was sure handy to have another rig with a winch to get us out of trouble. So all in all this thing keeps on proving itself over and over again off road and we know now where to improve it again.

As for the Jeep.

Well, it's one of the most well rounded dual purpose rigs I've ever been in. It does great out on the road on the highway. And well, you saw for yourself how well it does off road. Now, the body protection saved us from beating up the body. We didn't pick up a single dent.

The extent of our body damage is just kind of some Tennessee Pinstriping due to the tree branches sticking out. Now, the winch came in handy for both us and the Toyota

and one modification that really came in handy were the suspension seats,

my spine and Kevin spine sincerely, thank you.

Now, it's no secret that modern vehicles have flimsy sheet metal. The evidence is in the dis that we picked up from the trees that we ran into. Now, this could all be fixed and it may end up as a project on the show. But what's even more interesting is this from the rock slider

right up to the front. There's absolutely no sheet metal damage. Those guys did their job, but they couldn't protect everything. Check out the bottom side.

Now, our turbo plumbing did get a little damaged and it took a couple of shots from rocks but it's no big deal. Nothing we can't fix and nothing we can't prevent from happening again with a couple of skid plates.

Now, the stock bumper held up. Ok. But it's a good thing that it's mostly plastic because we rammed it into and folded it under a number of rocks, enough to tweak the bumper brackets and enough to mess up the way it aligns with the sheet metal. You can see it's a lot closer here on the passenger side

in comparison to the driver side. So a stouter front bumper is in the plans as well.

Speaking of protection, here's something brand new from Bushwhacker. They call this their ultimate bed rail and tailgate cap system and it's perfect. If you got a little bit of damage on the top of your bed size, you wanna cover it up and make it look better or if you got nice clean paint and you wanna prevent it from happening in the first place. Typical Bushwhacker insulation is easy with double sided tape and no drill clips. They look pretty snazzy too.

Thanks for watching. Trucks. See you guys next time.