Increasing my SR5’s off-road abilities

I'm a rock climber, so the majority of off-roading I do is for the purpose of getting to the rock climbing areas. The off-roading tends to be steep, bumpy trails with rocks here and there. Most of the off-roading I do is in mountainous areas (the Sierras-Tahoe, Bishop, or southern Nevada and Utah deserts.) My tacoma handles ok in most of these spots as is, but every now and then I bottom out, which is why I wanted just a couple more inches of clearance.

 

Skinny tires may be for you! That and armor/sliders.

 

@theesotericone

 

Bottoming out every once in a while is fine. What areas specifically are you having trouble accessing with your current rig? There's a few I can think of that require some crawling but they are far from popular.

Don't look at me man. 15 years ago when I was living on the road climbing full time I climbed in all those areas in a 2WD van. lol

 

I mean, I wouldn't say I have a lot of trouble accessing the areas that I do. Sometimes, certain roads at Donner summit can pose issues, depending on the kind of winter we get. Not sure if you're familiar with Coldstream Canyon, but I drove up there once a couple years back and it was extremely sketchy. Lots of crawling and bottoming out. Wouldn't do again without upgrades. And it would just be nice to have that extra wiggle room and confidence in situations where I'm not familiar with the road, or if I ever wanna chance the Rubicon trail in South Lake, since there's a ton of amazing new bouldering out there.

 

I lived on Donner Lake for two years when I was building a house in Martis Camp. I know Tahoe pretty well. I don't remember Cold Stream being bad at all. A lot can change seasonally with dirt roads though.

There are areas that I can think of where a lift is useful. Lots of stuff in Shuteye. If you want to approach Calaveras from the top. A few areas in the Domelands. Queens Creek. More then a few areas in Canyonlands. Lots of stuff around me that's under the radar and will stay that way.

The thing you need to decide is if a 2" lift and 33's is worth the time and money to be more comfortable accessing areas like that. If you decided to go that route you might was well budget in sliders and real skid plates. To me it's a lot like climbing. If you dream of climbing 5.12 or bouldering V10 you have to put in the time or you'll never get there. In the case of lifting and properly protecting your vehicle it's not time that's needed but money.

For the record I have a 97 4Runner that's lifted on 35's fully locked, dual cased and fully armored. I don't worry about where I want to go climbing. lol

 

Yeah Coldstream has gotten really bad. No one drives to the top anymore.

 

You will need a lift to get to this one. Well, you don't really need it but I'd rather drive 5 miles then hike 5 miles if given the choice. lol