Elephant Hill / Needles: Advice on Rig (Tacoma)?

[florisvb]

I'm considering doing a trip to the Devil's Kitchen area via Elephant Hill in the Needles district of Canyonlands. This would be a more serious trail than I've done yet, and I'm hoping to get a little advice on what additional modifications we would need to make this kind of trip safe and fun. Long term, the goal is to keep this rig light but capable, given the weight of the topper, camping gear, etc.. but willing to mod a bit more.

I drive a 2021 Toyota Tacoma DCLB with a AT Atlas topper. A few relevant mods:

• Icon stage 3 suspension, front threads tightened as far as Icon says is okay.. ~2" lift?
• Deaver stage 3 expedition rear leafs, timbren active off road bump stops
• 265/75/R16 tires
• AL rock sliders

Would it be crazy to drive elephant hill with this rig? Would it make a substantial difference to go up to 285's? Is it stupid to do this without a front bumper or more armor? Also.. any advice on reducing the rake is welcome.. I expected to get a little more lift in the front than we ended up with, but not sure where to go from here.

Thanks!

 

[Mickey Bitsko]

Just watched a couple videos on the trails , I wouldn't say the trails are that tough.
Definitely smaller trail rig is better. Don't know why you can't run your tacoma as is.
No matter what modification you do to the truck you will need a spotter..imo

 

[mtnbike28]

here we are with exactly what you are asking -

 

[86scotty]

Air down and hammer down. Beautiful area. Have fun!

 

[florisvb]

Thanks for the video Jay - I had seen your friend's companion video earlier (link below for reference). Both really nicely done!

My question: how important do you think your bigger tires (33 or 34's?) and full skids were, at least for the section over Elephant Hill to Devil's Kitchen?

 

[jadmt]

I would want bigger tires as you will want to be aired down . I think going down SOB hill is a bit of a challenge because of the tight down hill turn probably possible to kiss your front bumper if not careful.

 

[jadmt]

here we are with exactly what you are asking -

you don't look aired down.

 

[mtnbike28]

I was aired down, but maybe not enough? Of course the video only shows the problems and not all the parts we walked over ; )
We took our time, and even with close spotting, I know we both banged our skids several times and it was a great peice of mind knowing we had them. I was on 34s and James on 33s (small ones)
At one of the tougher spots, the hikers mentioned in his video stopped and watched us, after we both got through without a bang or bump, he said he has watched a lot of folks on that spot and was impressed with us... I don't know how reliable he was ; )

It's an awesome day of off-roading, James travels full time in his truck and mine is my DD and I had over 1,000 miles to drive home, so we were careful.

Thanks for the video Jay - I had seen your friend's companion video earlier (link below for reference). Both really nicely done!

My question: how important do you think your bigger tires (33 or 34's?) and full skids were, at least for the section over Elephant Hill to Devil's Kitchen?

 

[jim65wagon]

I have the black 2nd gen Tacoma in those videos. The tires are the 255/85/16 Cooper ST Maxx. They're about 32.8 " tall new but at Elephant Hill they had about 55,000 miles on them so even shorter than 32.8. I'm on a 1.5" lift and used the skid plates a few times, even with careful pre-walking, spotting and rock stacking. You'll need to be cautious and careful but I think it's doable on 265/75s.

I aired down to 17 and lack of traction wasn't much of an issue. I think Jay was somewhere about 22 or 24.





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[transalper]

I've done that trail twice on motorcycles (r1150gsa and drz400) and saw a landcriuser with 32s and stock bumpers navigate it just fine. I would feel comfortable taking my colorado zr2 with 32s. Not sure if i would do it with open diffs.

Just call ahead if you plan to take Bobby's Hole - it can be impassable at times.

 

[86scotty]

I aired down to 17 and lack of traction wasn't much of an issue. I think Jay was somewhere about 22 or 24.

I'm not an expert, I guess probably a legit novice at technical trails, but I start at 20 and drop from there if necessary. I bet 17 is the ticket for that area. My last Jeep trip out there included a fast 1 day run of the White Rim and stayed at 20 happily on KO2's all day. Actually several days. I find 20 to be a good happy medium for most trails with short stretches of pavement between as long as I'm not over 45 mph or so.

 

[florisvb]

Thanks all for the feedback, really appreciate it! Definitely going to get some full skids, and go careful, but it sounds doable.. can't wait!

 

[kdeleon]

I've done that trail twice on motorcycles (r1150gsa and drz400) and saw a landcriuser with 32s and stock bumpers navigate it just fine. I would feel comfortable taking my colorado zr2 with 32s. Not sure if i would do it with open diffs.

Just call ahead if you plan to take Bobby's Hole - it can be impassable at times.

Impressive to do it on a GSA!

Although i've done it on an LC with 35s, i feel 33s should be about perfect, probably some minor scrapes. SOB hill can be done easier by backing up and avoiding getting turtled. Yes i got turtled and winch myself out of it on my first pass thru it (solo). Went twice thru it, first was to hike druids and 2nd to exit out thru bobby's hole. Needless to say, we backed up on 2nd pass to avoid the drama.

Enjoy, needles is one of the best!

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[97heavyweight]

I did this with my DCSB 2018 Tacoma. No lift, running 31s, rock sliders, factory skid plates and my camper. I ran it from Bobby's Hill to Elephant Hill. One spot at the 90 degree turn I drug my rear axle. Other than that it was great. The pic is from one of the large shelfs on Elephant Hill.

Basically i'm saying you'll be alright. Just know where your truck is relative to the obstacle and know that you will bump things underneath.

 

[Corbet]

The only issue I recall when I ran it was due to rain. On our way out we got wet and I was tail gunning. As the other trucks pulled sand up on the slick rock features ahead of me it acted like little ball bearing when I climbed the steep faces. I ended up locking my axles and still had some wheel spin. I was in my 80 series on 315’s and had zero clearance issues. Point and go. We had a first Gen Tacoma on 285’s that had no issues.

I‘d take your truck as is with a good spotter.