At least it is made in Canada. Personally I would love a Tacoma but won't go into debt to buy one, so the '04 Highlander needs to live a bunch of years longer.
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Snowed in on Rain Lake, Algonquin PP November 2015
- Thread starter tear_knee
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At least it is made in Canada. Personally I would love a Tacoma but won't go into debt to buy one, so the '04 Highlander needs to live a bunch of years longer.
I drove a front wheel drive caravan all over the US and Canada before finally getting rid of it this year. Looking back I can't believe some of the roads it traveled down and still made it back out, though admittedly more than once it took some scooping and pushing. The most nervous I ever got was driving it in Gila Box in Arizona. I was about 15 miles down what I'd guess you'd call a road through the desert when I started down a one track trail into a small canyon. The road was nothing but rock and it soon got quite steep. There was no place to turn around and considering the drop-off to one side I wasn't thrilled about trying to backup. So I just kept going down and down wondering how long it would take someone to pass by or how long it would take me to walk out and what supplies I'd load up in the pack. Also wondering how expensive it was going to be to get someone out there to pull me back up.
Near the bottom was an open gate with an area I could pull off and turn around. I stopped there and walked the rest of the way down to see what I'd gone to all the trouble for. Beautiful area with a nice clear creek running through and lots of cottonwoods. When I got to the van I crossed my fingers, put it in 1st gear, and that old girl just walked right up out of that canyon. Never been more proud of her.
Like others have said most people underestimate what you can do with a 2wd, though they certainly do have there limitations, ground clearance being one of them. You need to drive smart and take it slow. I like Canotrouge's idea of driving in in 2WD and only using 4WD to get yourself out of a jam. I don't know if I could show that much restraint though.
Glad you two made it out of your adventure in one piece. Great story to tell.
Alan
Near the bottom was an open gate with an area I could pull off and turn around. I stopped there and walked the rest of the way down to see what I'd gone to all the trouble for. Beautiful area with a nice clear creek running through and lots of cottonwoods. When I got to the van I crossed my fingers, put it in 1st gear, and that old girl just walked right up out of that canyon. Never been more proud of her.
Like others have said most people underestimate what you can do with a 2wd, though they certainly do have there limitations, ground clearance being one of them. You need to drive smart and take it slow. I like Canotrouge's idea of driving in in 2WD and only using 4WD to get yourself out of a jam. I don't know if I could show that much restraint though.
Glad you two made it out of your adventure in one piece. Great story to tell.
Alan
When it comes to comfort I'd rather drive something the size of my living room, but a smaller front wheel drive can handle lots of sketchy driving conditions. Anything will bog down once it's buried up to it's axles. It's a ground clearance thang. When I drove a small rear wheel drive car I kept a big log in the trunk. I'd worked in the bush so there were lots to choose from. With 4 snows on in winter it drove like a tank. Unstoppable. Later drove a small front wheel car. Same 4 snows but no log. It was a slushy snowy road hugging little beast. Unstoppable fun. Having standard transmission helped for slow crawling climbs. Larger rear wheel drive trucks and cars have always been like driving hay wagons on ice. Both front and back ends seemed to have wills of their own. I've yet to drive a 4x4, so no idea how much trouble I could get into there. Like I say, anything will get stuck up to it's axles.
overall, i've had very few car troubles on trips, but i've had a lot of trips...it adds up 
my tacoma, which is my second taco, and third toyota truck in a row, just turned 475k -- at some point i'll probably replace it with a ford ranger...possibly 2x4 -- ground clearance is more important to me than the 4x4 traction...the taco, with 4x4 and the locking rear-end it pretty unstoppable, but even with my 2 mile muddy bush-road up at my camp. i don't 'need' it, it's just handy...and lets me do stuff with ease that i would either walk, (like two miles of two feet of snow) or negotiate a little more carefully...the new tacos are too big and too fancy, and too pricey -- i just need a truck, not trinkets...
saw this in the feeds this-morning...never had this kinda troubles
my tacoma, which is my second taco, and third toyota truck in a row, just turned 475k -- at some point i'll probably replace it with a ford ranger...possibly 2x4 -- ground clearance is more important to me than the 4x4 traction...the taco, with 4x4 and the locking rear-end it pretty unstoppable, but even with my 2 mile muddy bush-road up at my camp. i don't 'need' it, it's just handy...and lets me do stuff with ease that i would either walk, (like two miles of two feet of snow) or negotiate a little more carefully...the new tacos are too big and too fancy, and too pricey -- i just need a truck, not trinkets...
saw this in the feeds this-morning...never had this kinda troubles
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I remember the late Bill Mason saying he chose old beaters for tripping vehicles. Running well enough to get you there and back again, but run down enough to be of little interest to trouble makers. Most of the vehicles I've ever owned easily fit into this category.
tump_lion seeing that article makes me REALLY happy that we took all of our gear and our canoe out before leaving our car behind.
I like that you call your truck a taco, and o totally agree with you about new ones being too fancy. And small boxes! Now what is the point of a teeny little box? It's a truck! That's the whole point!
My dad is a bit of a gear-head and used to participate in mud rallies in his jeep back in the day. He's kept trucks on the road far longer than what should be possible. Maybe now, as he has mellowed with time, he will let us borrow one of his.
Alan Gage I want to see a photo of your former adventure mobile! I have so much love for camper vans.
Odyssey that's the kind of vehicle I want to drive, too. If it had wood panelling too, I'd be sold. Ha. Andrew likes shiny new things though.
I like that you call your truck a taco, and o totally agree with you about new ones being too fancy. And small boxes! Now what is the point of a teeny little box? It's a truck! That's the whole point!
My dad is a bit of a gear-head and used to participate in mud rallies in his jeep back in the day. He's kept trucks on the road far longer than what should be possible. Maybe now, as he has mellowed with time, he will let us borrow one of his.
Alan Gage I want to see a photo of your former adventure mobile! I have so much love for camper vans.
Odyssey that's the kind of vehicle I want to drive, too. If it had wood panelling too, I'd be sold. Ha. Andrew likes shiny new things though.
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Odyssey already touched on it but I truly believe having a manual transmission (5 speed is what I've always gotten since you can't find 3 on the column anymore) is one of the keys to winter driving and having control. Combined with four good snow tires and four 60 pound bags of tube sand in the back, even my two wheel drive Tacoma will get me where I'm going as long as I use some common sense. There are a lot of mornings where I just repeat over and over..."2nd gear is my friend, 2nd gear is my friend" (and that goes for both uphill & down). The other part of winter driving is also knowing when to stay off the roads. I know most folks feel like they need to be somewhere at a specific time but I've never felt I'm all that important. I'll either stay home or be late. It's easier in the end.
That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.
snapper
That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.
snapper
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Tear Knee - While not as low to the ground as your Mazda, I did push a whole lot of snow with the front of an old '62 Willy's jeep I had one winter here in central NYS. A friend of mine had his tools snowed in (he was working on a vacation home up in the woods) so we drove up and proceeded on our way. About half way up the drive I put the jeep in 4 wd high and we proceeded forward. We bogged down behind the house so I dropped it into 4 wd low and we crawled at a glacial pace until we reached the barn where the tools had been stored. Once the jeep was in a good position pointing downhill, we rescued his tools and then went xc skiing for a few hours before looping back into the original track and making it back tot he main road. My guess is there was at least 16" of snow we had to drive through that day. I think the saving grace, besides the jeep, was the snow being light and dry. I'm just glad we never needed to do that again.
That's all for now. Best of luck in finding your new adventure vehicle and until next time...be well.
snapper
That's all for now. Best of luck in finding your new adventure vehicle and until next time...be well.
snapper
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