Scariest offroad moment in a Tundra?

What's been the scariest moment you've had offroading a Tundra? What happened? Everyone ok? Damage? Share your story.

I'll start. Yesterday. We ran a trail called "Smiley Rock" here in AZ. Trails Offroad and FunTreks list it as "Hard" or 5/5 in difficulty. And honestly, they're right. I'm undermodded for such a trail (2.5/1, 295s, sliders and only the TRD skid) Should probably have at least a 3" lift, be running real 35"s (maybe even 37"s) and definitely more skids underneath. But we figured we'd try anyway, and only get as far as we felt comfortable going while still being able to bail out if needs be. Got about 3/4 of the way and it just got too hairy, so we turned around. On the way back down, something jumped out from nowhere (aka I missed a serious flat faced boulder somehow). Was only going 2 or 3mph, but this freaking thing hits the driver front tire/wheel, stopped the truck dead in its tracks, sent a shutter thru me and the steering wheel and I heard and felt this ridiculously loud POP.

Now, mind you, while I'm no expert offroad, I'm also no rookie. I've wheeled for years and have broken lots and lots of parts on the trail. Some of which left me disabled and needing help out. This hit, in terms of sheer violence, tops them all. I was positive I'd just bent and broken all kinds of stuff down there.

But not. Nothing. No apparent damage whatsoever. We drove 70miles home after and no alignment issues, no wobbles, no strange noises... nada. I still can't believe it.

That one, yesterday, tops my list of scary moments thus far in the Tundra. Obviously there were no safety concerns here (other than having to figure how to get out if I'd just killed the truck) but I don't think I'll forget that shutter and pop for a good long time. Dunno if I'm just stupid lucky, or if Toyota has built me a tank. Either way, all smiles here.

Pic for attention. Taken when we were back on flat ground and after a thorough assessment looking for the damage we never found.

 

Not in a Tundra but in my old 1994 Toyota pickup back in high school.

Myself, my best friend and our respective girlfriends were out camping at Jones Lake near Hope, BC. I used to spend a ton of time in that area fishing, hiking and exploring. We decide to take the girls out for an afternoon of shooting rifles at a gravel pit I knew of in the next valley over.

So we're heading up this road, tunes cranked and I'm doing about 70km/h (40mph), fast but not stupid since I knew the road and it was hard packed gravel in great condition. We come to a spot that has a slight corner then a small rise. As we near the top of the rise I see that sometime in the last week someone has dug a drainage ditch about 2ft wide and 1ft deep across the road, piling up the dirt on the side that I was approaching. Basically, this meant that the ditch was hidden from view and that you won't see it and have time to stop if you're doing anywhere above 30km/h.

I had to make a snap decision between locking up the brakes would mean I skid into the ditch and basically come to an abrupt stop doing who knows how much damage or drop a gear and stomp the gas, hoping to basically use the slight rise and piled up dirt as a ramp and jump the ditch.

I opted for option 2, yelled "hang on!" and sent it. We cleared it and landed nose heavy. The poor girls got the worst of the impact, being crammed in the small extended cab jump seats but were ok. We checked the truck out and other than a missing hub cover all seemed ok and we carried on at a slower pace...

We found out later in the weekend that my 4wd wouldn't engage but other than that the truck was fine. After a month, I finally had time to get it into a shop and have it looked at. The mechanic asked me when the damage happened and how far I'd driven like that. I was like "A month ago. Spent the rest of the weekend offroading, then came off the mountain and daily driving since then". He looked at me and said "goddamn Toyotas...". I went "huh?".

Apparently my passenger side front hub was cracked and my axle was broken. He said I never should have made it off the mountain...

 

My first scariest moment was when @COMiamiFan took us through some 10 foot grass and shrubs. Hearing the scratches on the newish BLACK paint.

It wasn't too bad though! The previous summer it had been through 2 hail storms.

Now I just think, that'll leave a mark. Then, it'll buff out.

 

Scariest offroad moments are when someone in your group goes off the side of the road and can't be recovered at that time. Another time one person flips their truck on it's side. Luckily both times no one was hurt.

 

And we didn’t know what was on the other side

Every outing is scary to me on an unknown trail cause I don’t know what I’m getting my self into. I know my limitations so luckily I haven’t gotten into a scary situation worth noting.

 

Getting mud on mine. I hate cleaning that shit off

 

Only caught the last couple seconds on video but this brush lasted a good 30-40 seconds.
https://youtu.be/fpHQ4VJz1w4

 

Cliffhanger in Moab.

 

Not in my Tundra but in my old series 80 Land Cruiser, my buddy and I turned off on some trailhead on the Lower Gold Camp Road between CoSprings and Victor, and we had never done that trailhead before, let alone with half a foot of snow on the ground, we're off path and we come across some flat ground, turns out we drove out onto a frozen pond, with no idea how thick the ice was. Immediately put it into R and found dirt again.

I miss this truck like crazy.

Taken about a week later, had warmed up a little so we went shooting

 

I love smiley rock! It’s really fun in the snow
Glad you didn’t break something. If you get out of the wash and onto the road beside the trail it goes up to the top of woodchute and then down into Jerome for burgers, tattoos and ghosts!

If you don’t know the guys yet from Wrecked Gear/Wrecked Offroad, they wheel that area all the time and are really awesome people. They would have been extremely helpful if you had broken something out there.

 

Not in my Tundra but did Red Cone Pass in CO in my 1991 4Runner the first week I got my drivers license back in 1999. Anyone else who has done this trail back then knows what I’m talking about, before it got so popular with people stacking rocks blazing cheater routes around the hardest obstacles. It is a one way trail that starts west of Bailey, CO over the continental divide and ends up in Montezuma,CO the last few miles are the Hairiest terrain I’ve ever driven to this day. When you go over the “cone” you are at about 11,500ft and past the point of no return. The trail rides the ridge of the peak and is only about 10 ft wide and you can see all the way down to the bottom of the valley on both sides about 3,000ft. then you get to the steep part with the moguls of loose rock and gravel where you can only proceed in low 4wd in 1st gear idling down you pretty much slide the entire way about 150 yards and alternate lifting tires “front left and right rear” at the same time then “right front and left rear” if you even tap your brakes during this you will start to go sideways and have to motor out of a slide to recover. Scary as shit in the middle of the night seeing what your rig is capable of. Many vehicles have rolled off this peak back in the day losing control and go all the way to the bottom. This was our high school stomping grounds and definitely still my favorite trail in CO to this day!

 

Driving in Mississippi gumbo mud to get to the duck hole. It will take the rubber off ur tires.

 

If I remember correctly a tighter 90° turn to the left with a bank we had to ride high on.

Daggum, fun weekend though!

 

Not a TUNDRA, and honestly not too scary.

https://youtu.be/JtJQ_WvKb24

 

I went off the driveway a few weeks ago and hit grass.
I couldn't believe it.

Got out and looked to see the best plan of getting it back on, turned my wheel slightly and inched her forward
Turned again and backed the old girl back on the driveway.

 

Good stuff. Keep it comin.

 

This thread reminds me why I don't buy used vehicles

 

Haven't really had any nailbiters in the Tundra.

I have two somewhat "offroad" scares in the same truck - my first truck, a 1976 F150. First off - I was a teenager - and did/tried a lot of dumb stuff in that truck. Here are my top two:

2. We used to drive our trucks a lot on the local backroads in the mountains around our little town in Northern Colorado. Often, we were driving much faster than we should. One time, I came around a corner a bit too fast and the rear pitched out on me. I didn't really try to correct with steering at all, hoping to just sort of gas through it. It was working ok, but the hill side on the driver's side of the road sort of jutted into the road and my driver's side tire struck the hill. It pitched the truck up pretty hard and I was sure we were going over. I remember my passenger, who just pulled his arm in the window and curled up into a ball. I am still not sure what happened, but the truck managed to come back down on all four. I remember I had a rim in the bed of the truck that ended up getting tossed out during that event.

1. This is the scariest one for me. It is the main reason that I am more of a slow/finesse offroad driver now. A bunch of us were out camping and decided to go cooler raiding over at the local reservoir (yeah, dumbass teenagers being dicks). I had two passengers in the cab with me and about 6 in the bed. Driving too fast on a dirt road out towards the reservoir. I was pretty familiar with the road - and that was the problem. I came into a corner too fast, and they had just laid down fresh gravel, which I wasn't expecting. The truck pitched sideways and eventually I was going backwards pretty much. Everyone was screaming, and I was trying my best to right the truck. Again, I am not sure what happened, but the truck eventually righted itself. I wish I could say it was because of my awesome driving - but I had no clue what I was doing and just got amazingly lucky. I pulled the truck over and everyone was yelling at me. I had to sit there for quite a while before I could drive back to camp because I was shaking so badly. That night could have ended so badly - the stretch of road where it happened had fairly significant dropoffs on both sides.

 

Anything that @ColoradoTJ does off road.............

 

Driving home from Cabo San Lucas after hurricane Julietta. River crossings that are normally dry had 2-3' of water and a mile long line of cars in both directions waiting for the water to recede. Many hungry folks had been waiting for 5 days by the time we arrived. We, my girlfriend now wife, and I must've had 8 crossings with a bow wave clearly visible at the top of the hood. One crossing the truck started to get washed sideways by the current and I saw water splash on the passenger window, my girlfriend stroked the dash and uttered, "come on Julietta," she'd named the truck after the storm. In La Paz they were using a D8 to push cars across the river. The last, northern most crossing, after the Federales pulled a jeep from the river, only 3 vehicles made it across. As the sun set we were the 3rd vehicle. I said to the attending police officer who'd just arrived, "muy facil." (very easy) He threw his arms in the air and declared the crossing closed.

Here in Santa Cruz there's an idea that before you get married you go on a 1-2 week Baja surf trip with your SO. If you're still talking after the trip your marriage might succeed. Well, 17+ yrs later I'd say there's some validity to the test. 5 Tundras but same wife.

 

Took the whole family up Bald Mtn Jeep Trail on the western slope of the Blue Ridge Mtns. near Sherando, VA. It's an awesome trail, very challenging, and also very narrow. The entire time the mountain laurels were scratching the shit out of my paint. At one point, I was creeping over these boulders and slid down the other side. My wife and girls let out this huge scream, and we were basically nose planted at a 60 degree angle. I said " It's cool. I got this!" In reality, I thought I had just stranded us halfway up the mountain. I downshifted, gave it some gas, and the truck emerged undamaged. I yelled out " What a machine!!" and we finished the trail no problem. The scratches were able to be buffed out by a detailer. Still not sure how the hell he did it.

 

Haha. I actually know the guy that bought my soggy 2001 Tundra. He's a surfboard shaper here in town and is still driving it.

 

Care to share the full story?

 

Your camera man completely shit the bed on that one. Missed the best part.

 

Yes he did. There is another video from a different angle. I'll try and find it.

 

Here ya go.

https://youtu.be/8Uf07I8xvGE

 

Back in Nam' 2019 there I was...actually pushed up on the concrete bumper in the Cost Co parking lot! I think the front of my truck lifted a whole 3/4 " Keeping cool under RPG/SNIPER fire, We managed the rest of our trip unscathed. Yes even in the gas line. #WARRIORLYFE.