Has anybody done Elbe Hills in their Tacoma?

I was talking to someone from Washington state the other day who was saying “the only Tacomas that can keep up around there are SASed.” This sounded like BS to me since I’ve done some pretty gnarly stuff in my basically stock 96 Taco.

I’d bet a good driver in an IFS Tacoma with a rear locker and good tires could out-wheel one of these gung-ho types that insist you need Dana 60/14 bolt boat anchors bolted to your truck to go off pavement. What gives?

 

You could probably make it with a winch and a healthy disregard for body damage. The biggest issue I've run into is my 33" tires are just not big enough for the rocks in a bunch of the parks here, anything less than 37s is just going to be sitting on the center skid plates.

 

Yes if you can fit big tires on IFS and hold it all together, it can actually perform better than a solid axel due to the extra clearance.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w2uCP-NkhEk

 

I've run elbe but not in my Tacoma. PNW is all about tire size. It's lots of mud and rock. You need tall wide tires. Id say minimum 35s unless your gonna full send it with no shits to give. Then again alot of people don't realize how good IFS can be. You just need to keep the suspension very soft so you can fully cycle it through the rocks. Alot of lifted tacos are too stiff and won't flex out enough and get stuck.

 

Is it all that gnarly up there though? I'm seeing plenty of mild to moderate tracks on Onx. The kind of stuff you're talking about, you might as well just build a tube buggy that you don't have to worry about rolling.

 

Not a Tacoma but close enough

IFS:

https://youtu.be/aHnzrx1TtXY?si=R6wAKqnCF6We2jaZ

Back with SAS:

https://youtu.be/oxioWvchkqE?si=RnCp3OWwRiLmvugd

 

There are some mild trails. Busy wild and such can be a real pain. Really depends on the weather too. Snow or alot of rain can make everything alot harder. There are definitely trails for more stock rigs though.

 

Fun videos, but the solid axle didn't really appear to perform much better on that trail, other than not breaking. But that's one example; maybe he just needed to get stronger CVs instead of spending God knows how much on a SAS just to drive through some mud. It's a cool build though.

 

The biggest difference was he went from 35s? to 44s. that jump made the trail look pretty easy. On the solid axle he seemed to drive a bit more aggressively though.