2006 rav4 offroad

[filipi]

Has anybody tried to go offroading with their 2006 rav4 ?
How do they stand?

Thanks.

[Quickdtoo]

I took mine offroad the first weekend I had it! About 50 miles of single track primitive unimproved(read no gravel, just mud with a lot of deep ruts that I had to drive around or negotiate carefully to keep from sliding in them!) road that was real sloppy from recent snow melt, nothing hardcore but definitely not 2WD territory.

The lack of underbody protection combined with lack of ground clearance will limit how hard you want to push it, there's no armor on the fuel tank, but fortunately it's a metal tank, not plastic. The evaporative canister filter is really exposed, one member at Rav4World ripped his off on the highway in standing water at 60mph!!

I built a shield for mine to help protect it, but the plumbing to it is still exposed. The Australian model has a protective shell over everything in front of the tank, something I think the US model should have as well.

It's not a rock crawler, but it's also not a street queen!!

[chaslau]

Maybe Toyota can provide a basic off road kit or make it an option for future models.

[fotorb]

I drove my two month old Rav 4 (at the time) thru 2 National Parks in Arizona, that had barely surfaced dirt roads, without incident. Of course I was barely moving (maybe 5miles per hour) 'cause I was trying to keep my teeth in my mouth.

And that photo in the attached ad - ya right!!

[edde]

Thought I was doing pretty good crawling along some steep, rutted, muddy roads not far from Santa Fe when a little old lady in a Suburu wagon zipped past me. Well, maybe it wasn't as rough as I thought.