Do you folks do real offroading in financed 5th gens?

[patkelly4370]

You can get dents, dings, and scratches enjoying the vehicle as designed on your terms.
Or, you can get dents, dings, and scratches in the supermarket parking lot.
Or keep it a pristine garage queen.
Mine acquired "Arizona pinstripe" on the way home from the dealer. Now has a bit of rock rash.

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[TRD PANTHER]

You may want to get some Goat Armor. Works pretty good. I used it on my last two trips to avoid the annoying pinstripes. Pricey but better than constantly polishing. If mine wasn't black id probably make due without it, but man do pinstripes pop on black!

Nice Rig! I checked the GOAT armor out starting about a year or more ago. I like the concept, but did not want to keep removing and putting it back on. They have a new version that is suppose to be better and stay on longer. I will probably get some after I have scratched the paint up so much that I want to cover it. I think it looks cool and gives the vehicle character. Although, my scratches do so too.

 

[TRD PANTHER]

You can get dents, dings, and scratches enjoying the vehicle as designed on your terms.
Or, you can get dents, dings, and scratches in the supermarket parking lot.
Or keep it a pristine garage queen.
Mine acquired "Arizona pinstripe" on the way home from the dealer. Now has a bit of rock rash.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

My worse flaw is a bad dent in the driver's door from a parking lot. More noticeable than any of the other blemishes. I also have another one on the drivers side from hitting a full size bedliner on the freeway at 70. Driver in front of me dangerously swerved at the last second and I was up against the K rail with someone to my right. Luckily I was in the 4Runner. Hit it hard with the left side tire and skid plate and it went flying out from underneath, put a good dent in the lower rear door, even with sliders, and almost flew over the K rail into opposing lanes.

 

[Captain Spalding]

If the plan was to smash in to boulders and drive like there's a high probability of rollover, I wouldn't want to rely on that vehicle as my daily regardless of payment method.

Yes. If it’s your daily driver, you don’t subject it to too much risk. If it’s not your daily driver then it qualifies as a toy, and you don’t finance it.

As for the notion of “Why buy it if you’re not going to use it,” there’s a complimentary bit of reasoning. “It’s better to have it and not need it rather than need it and not have it.”

A lot comments have been made that carry assumptions about the nature of what off-roading should be and to what use a 4Runner should be put. There are many for whom the challenge is traversing rated trails with a high degree of difficulty. There are others who, rather than going on a “4WD trip” where the obstacle is the destination, have a destination in mind that requires 4WD to get to. There’s room in the 4Runner world for both types of people. Beating the crap out of your truck is one’s prerogative. But it’s ludicrous to imply that if you are not willing to beat up your truck then you get demoted to mall-crawler status.

 

[2021nightshade4x4]

It’s not a toy unless it’s in a toy hauler


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[DAW89446]

I'm looking at buying a 5th gen because 4runner, and I'm sitting here thinking...man these things look great, but...I don't think I want to offroad a $40k+ vehicle I'm making payments on. I'm talking real offroading. like 5, 6, 7/10 difficulty scale, with 10 being full on rock crawling on 37's. Not driving fire roads to go camping in a designated camping spot. deep backcountry, high elevation, locker actually necessary kind of trails.

anyone here do it?

I paid for my ‘18 in full. I’m up in age now, senior citizen status so don’t wheel as much as I did in my youth. But my T4R has plenty of skid plate dents and scrapes, as well as paint pinstriping.

In June, 2002, I lived in the eastern Sierra Nevada region of east central California. The eastern Sierra, Death Valley, west and central Nevada were my playground. I bought a ‘02 Tacoma TRD 4x4 SR5 Xtracab. I paid it off in just less than two years. Of course, the truck was far cheaper - just over $22,000 brand new. I didn’t abuse it, I didn’t baby it. It got used over a lot of 5-6 trails on your scale, as well as some short 7-8 sections. The rear locker was used a lot. The skid plates took what they were built for, I tore up the OEM BFG Rugged Trail T/A tires (to their credit, they were sliced and diced but held air with no flats) and had replaced with BFG All Terrain T/A’s. I had one fairly good rocker panel dent under the passenger door (it was on the bottom so wasn’t very noticeable), and I backed hard into a small pine tree on a rocky, soft and loose hill climb and partially climbed it, denting the rear bumper.

When I bought my T4R I gave the Tacoma to my son, my grandson is learning to drive. The truck is still going strong, on its original clutch, looks good and nothing has ever broken and 210k miles.

I climbed this section so I could turn around and take this photo. I was doing a prerun of the trail after flashflooding for friends who conducted 4x4 tours. I’ve taken this trail many times over the years.

The road and creek were one for a third mile when this photo was taken. The following summer a cloudburst destroyed the area and the road was rerouted.

 

[Modro]

I personally don't take mine on any "real" offroading trips. I have mine more for the high reliability and capability in the backcountry, but still mostly on "roads". I like the relative peace of mind I get, when hours from cell service, knowing I'm in a vehicle unlikely to break down and capable enough if the road is rougher than anticipated (or washed out!).

This is where I am with mine. I'm not smashing it off of boulders, but we do 6/10 trails pretty regularly. 4Runners aren't cheap, but the climate near Phoenix is pretty extreme, so the peace of mind of something reliable when we are out on one is worth it. Get up close to Amos and you'll see the pin stripes and paint flaws that go along with being used.

 

[02SE]

I bought my 4Runner outright, to use on 4wd trails. That said, I'm not into body damage and parts breakage, I had my fill of that in the days before cellphones. Breaking down in the middle of nowhere sucks.

It does fine on the 4wd trails I want to take it on.