Off Roader AND Daily Driver???

[adkinsadam1]

Is there anybody here that uses their 4runner as their daily driver, but also as their off roader? Or is that foolish?

The whole use of my 4runner is a huge amount of miles. I drive to and from school, cross country several times per year, thousands of miles storm chasing every spring, but I also go off roading during the summer and fall. Should it be considered to have a different vehicle for this? What I want is literally a good-for-absolutely-everything vehicle.

I have been reading around on buying threads and people were grouping cars into either "daily driver" or "off roader", which is why I started to wonder the foolishness potential. Thanks for the opinions!

 

[KidVermicious]

It depends on how you define "offroading", and how bad you thrash your truck when you're doing it.

The thing with a truck that sees a lot of hard trail use is it needs a lot more maintenance (and it sees a lot more serious upgrading ). Both of those translate into increased downtime in your driveway. If you need a vehicle for your commute and don't have something else to drive while the 4Runner is down, I don't recommend wheeling it hard.

 

[IBallEngineer]

Is there anybody here that uses their 4runner as their daily driver, but also as their off roader? Or is that foolish?

The whole use of my 4runner is a huge amount of miles. I drive to and from school, cross country several times per year, thousands of miles storm chasing every spring, but I also go off roading during the summer and fall. Should it be considered to have a different vehicle for this? What I want is literally a good-for-absolutely-everything vehicle.

I have been reading around on buying threads and people were grouping cars into either "daily driver" or "off roader", which is why I started to wonder the foolishness potential. Thanks for the opinions!

No easy answer, but it is definitely doable. The variables are many, because no matter what, there will be compromise. On road manners will suffer, off road capabilities will be limited. Only you can decide to what degree each of these will be true.

Your ability to deal with maintenance and to a lesser extent what you can live with in terms of the compromises have a huge impact. Find the blend that works for you and run with that. Life is too short not to try.

 

[xhimsa12x]

I'm gonna say a FIRM YES!!! Mine is a daily but I don't do a TON of off roading. I live in Florida so the type of offroading this thing sees is Mostly Mud,Sand,Clay. Not much in the way of rocks and def ZERO mountain climbing. I drive 40 miles a day to and from work so I elected for All Terrain tires rather than Mud tires. I've YET to get stuck anywhere however, I do not go beyond my capabilities. I have a BLAST on the weekends with the offroading that I do plus, when SHTF, I'm one of few who are capable of going ANYWHERE.

 

[JWaldz]

I DD mine. I drive it almost 50 miles daily. Even on the highway doing 70mph. I'm one of the few 3rd gens on here that will do anything from camping to expeditions to full fledged rock crawling and still drive my rig home. I've even done out of state wheeling. I'd say it's very feasible if you know your limits.

 

[NateMob]

ABSOLUTELY. A well thought out rig along with some sense and skill while offroad and you can build a very capable Trail rig and Daily Drive it. Like [MENTION=58830]JWaldz[/MENTION] , i drive mine just over 50 miles a day and love every minute of it. With my suspension setup its a beast offroad but still very streetable. Its not fast or even quick by any means, but it wasn't when i bought it bone stock either so i dont have unreal expectations for fuel mileage or drag racing. lol.

I dont hesitate to use my rig hard almost every weekend, only once in the 17 months ive had it, did i need to borrow a friends extra car for a week while i waited on parts to fix something i broke. I broke the part in my garage on my work bench, not the trail. A big part of DD a wheeler is that after every trail i crawl underneath and look things over as a sort of visual inspection and periodically check to make sure all the bolts are tight for the areas that see lots of stress. Parts like the upper and lower links, shocks, control arms...

 

[lhsoulrebel]

Absolutely you can. As others have mentioned, you just need to be cognizant that at the end of the day the vehicle has to take you to work in the morning. Mine was a. Daily driver for 3 years.... Also saw over 500 miles off road during that time, some pretty tough terrain too... 5000mi road trip with 350miles off road in the Rockies... Never had a problem... Knock on wood. Don't go crazy on the tire size, and gun it over things you have no right too, and you'll be fine. These are amazing vehicles!

 

[downpour11]

What is this blasphemy?! It's not possible. No way you can DD your truck and take it off-road, it's just not in the cards. :couch2: Nope, not happening. Ever. Can't do it. Too dangerous. Not capable. It's like cheating death. It's frowned upon. You'd be crazy to do that. I've never heard of such nonsense. Maybe on another planet? Not sure why anyone would stray from a perfectly good paved road?

 

[Doc2012]

WW/DD?
Never gonna happen.
Horrible idea.

(I'll just leave this here:

http://youtu.be/f39A_o2B9Mg )

 

[JWaldz]

brock in the mud on danials - YouTube

I so want those doors...

 

[Doc2012]

I so want those doors...

YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM!!!! THEY'RE MINE!!! Lol..

If you get another set, let me know. I'll help ya out.

I'm going to make some small adjustments to mine, when I have the time and not another million projects...

 

[JWaldz]

YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM!!!! THEY'RE MINE!!! Lol..

If you get another set, let me know. I'll help ya out.

I'm going to make some small adjustments to mine, when I have the time and not another million projects...

lol.. It's not so high on the priority list either but if I happened to stumble upon doors for a good price I might tackle the project. Either that or if you decide to redo yours and make a complete new set I'll take your old ones

 

[98OzarksRunner]

If this is what you mean by 'off roading' maybe not.

But if you do overlanding, backcountry exploring, and maybe a little rock crawling, it certainly can be done. My rig is pretty much ready to go all the time, and it's my daily driver.

 

[Gerdo]

YES, as long as you don't beat the heck out of it while wheeling. I wheel pretty hard and until late last year, It was my primary vehicle. I have wheeled it for the last 130,000 miles (a thousand miles or more, offroad). During that time, I have taken cross country trips without thinking twice.

Keeping the build moderate will help keep the road-ability of it (I can still comfortably cruse the highway at 80+mph). Keeping the build moderate will also keep you off those trails that can do some real damage to the rig.

Be smart while wheeling and also carry spare parts (and the knowledge to repair it) is also vital. Anyone wheeling should but this is more important when relying on the same vehicle for daily transportation.

 

[adkinsadam1]

Maybe a good idea is to tell you all what I want out of my car and you tell me if it is a good idea.

1. On road miles. I drive storm chasing, cross country, coast to coast, and often 100 mph (storm chasing especially). So I do not want to modify my car for off road use and hurt efficiency on the road. But, I am getting an e-locker retrofit on Saturday and I have some good all terrain tires. I need this car to take me the distance on the freeway. My 4runner has 9.6" of minimum ground clearance unmodified so.

2. Off road recreation. I go off roading because it is fun, and because of the scenery. I would say I go maybe 6 times every summer. I don't do hard core rock crawling either. Just moderate trails with spectacular scenery. But if there are nice rocky obstacles or water crossings along the way then that is a huge plus! The kinds of trails I run are Red Cone, Engineer Pass, mosquito pass, argentine pass, Webster Pass, Santa Fe Peak, and others in the same category. I would like to try slightly more challenging ones in my new 2000 4runner once I get the locker, but not much more challenging. Never a trail that could damage my car. I just want to be able to drive from Denver to Durango, run a few trails at the level of what I mentioned, and drive back home, then storm chase across the Midwest, then head back to the mountains, run Red Cone, and come back home, etc. without off road modifications.

I see no reason why this can't be practical.

 

[white_n_slow]

YES, I have done it both ways in the past. I now have a WW and DD because my work requires it.

IF you go this route, you will have to be more careful when off-roading than you would with a dedicated wheeler. Take some of the easier lines, get a winch or a tug when you *probably* could have made it with momentum or bouncing off a rock or tree.

The trails you describe would be fine for a decently prepped 3rd gen. Sliders, underside armor, a decent lift and good baseline maintenance will get you through any of those trails. Most of them could be done in a stock 3rd gen, but you might end up denting something you didn't want to

:edit: I wouldn't recommend driving 100mph in ANY truck, stock or otherwise. A sports car, sure. I think 80 is about the limit of safety for anything taller than a Subaru Outback.

 

[slapdappy]

yes. 99 ltd w/elocker. I'm not a rock crawler but did Red Cone twice and Devils Punch Bowl. Stock Michelin LTX tires.

 

[adkinsadam1]

YES, I have done it both ways in the past. I now have a WW and DD because my work requires it.

IF you go this route, you will have to be more careful when off-roading than you would with a dedicated wheeler. Take some of the easier lines, get a winch or a tug when you *probably* could have made it with momentum or bouncing off a rock or tree.

The trails you describe would be fine for a decently prepped 3rd gen. Sliders, underside armor, a decent lift and good baseline maintenance will get you through any of those trails. Most of them could be done in a stock 3rd gen, but you might end up denting something you didn't want to

:edit: I wouldn't recommend driving 100mph in ANY truck, stock or otherwise. A sports car, sure. I think 80 is about the limit of safety for anything taller than a Subaru Outback.

You know it's funny - I ask this question now because I have a new 4runner. Before I had a 2006 Ltd with NO modifications. That only had 7" of ground clearance. And I ran all the trails I listed, and drove cross country, and it never once had a single problem. The only thing is that the skid plates were TRASHED. I figure that with the increased clearance I have with my 2000 I should be able to do everything I love in one truck! And more. I just need reliability!

 

[Doc2012]

Like [MENTION=52371]Gerdo[/MENTION] said.

As long as you don't trash it, you'll be fine for both a DD/WW.

Mine is a DD/DD/WW(yes, two daily drivers because I do more of that than I do wheeling,lol).

Still, I beat on mine pretty good out on the trails. I know my set up is a little different than most, but that's really got nothing to do with it.

YouTube "Uhwarrie National Forrest", and you'll see some of the terrain I've put my rig through. Never broke a CV on a trail. Everything broken has been a result of my ****-up.

Not nearly as severe as the stuff out west, but still knarly.

Bottom line. Be smart. Skinny pedal isn't your friend when wheeling.

 

[Gerdo]

If you want to stay stock height, I would armor the belly and gas tank with good skids, sliders too. The lower you are, the more will contact the ground while wheeling. Going to 265/75-16 tires will increase ground clearance a little. Other than armor and a suspension lift, the rest of my rig is stock. The 3rd gens are very capable.