Quez
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- Joined
- Oct 16, 2025
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- Location
- Nashville, TN.
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- Tacoma
- 2025 TRD Pro 4GT & 2025 TRD Pro 6G4R
What’s up everyone. Few posts, but here's my first real trip report. I’ve been in Toyotas for about 10 years now, and after plenty of seat time in previous generations, I finally got the chance to stretch the legs on my 4GT and actually get it off pavement after having it for a couple of months.
I took advantage of some great Tennessee weather and headed out to the OHV area at Land Between the Lakes. This was the first time I’ve been able to off-road the 4GT, so I went in with some small expectations of it being a good ride. I mean it is Toyota's top trim suspension.
High Speed Dirt and Gravel
For a factory suspension, I’ll be honest: I’m fairly impressed. The TRD Pro setup is way more capable than people give it credit for. I spent a good amount of time running mixed dirt roads and light gravel at around 20–30 mph, and the truck felt composed the whole time. Never once did i worry that I was in over my head with feeling the terrain.
For reference, I ran the shocks on setting 1 for this entire trip. I normally daily the truck on setting 2, and I still haven’t tried setting 3 yet, so I can’t speak to that just yet. I do tend to prefer a slightly stiffer ride day to day, so I’m curious how that third setting will feel.
Coming from a 3GT on Kings, this is obviously a different animal—but for a stock setup, the TRD Fox shocks handled high-speed dirt really well. It wasn’t quite a “floating” feel, but it absolutely ripped through washboard, small mounds, divots, and uneven terrain without any hesitation. Anyone who enjoys faster dirt road driving will be happy with this suspension out of the box. No doubt in my mind about that.
Rock Garden Time
Now for the reason I actually went. Rocks. No, this isn’t the Rubicon, but in Tennessee we have to work with what we got haha. Windrock Park isn’t exactly a casual day trip. It is on the list for this year, though.
The park had two sections:
Section 1:
This is the section pictured below. its comprised of mostly smaller rocks. I'd say softball to basketball sized, with a few bigger ones mixed in. The suspension felt a little bouncy here for my personal taste, but that’s likely due to running setting 1 and wanting to really feel the baseline. Zero issues getting through it. Honestly, the 37s probably did 90% of the work here anyway. No real complaints—just preference. It was a great start to getting warmed up to the suspension in this type of setting. Very manageable, but still fun.
Section 2:
This one was more fun as seen below. About 50 yards long with larger rocks ranging from basketballs up to beach ball size. There were two lines: one more challenging and one more moderate, with a couple of bigger rocks right in the middle. Sure, there was a bypass to the left side, but where’s the fun in that?
I chose what I’d call the “moderate” line. If I had full skids and sliders, I definitely would’ve taken the harder route head on. The suspension felt similar to the first section. Soft but controlled. The 2.5” lift paired with the 37s helped keep the body and underbelly mostly clear, though I did tag the diff once.
The softest setting paired with the sway bar disconnect definitely gave the truck enough play to do what it was asked to do each time.
All in all, the TRD Fox shocks held their own for the entire day. I’m planning to go back and run the same lines on setting 2 & 3 to really see how it changes the feel. I might even try it without a locked diff, and without doing a swaybar disconnect just so I can really see where the limits of each added option are.
Bonus: OEM Rock Rail Test (Unplanned)
Quick cameo from my wife. She’s always joking (is it a joke though?) about wanting to drive when we're out on the trails. Since it was New Year’s Eve and the park was completely empty, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to get her some seat time. Dry conditions, low risk trail wise, and I could guide her through anything sketchy.
After some hesitation (mostly fear of hitting rocks) in the new 4GT, she hopped in the driver’s seat. With a little coaching on throttle control and braking, she successfully navigated both rock garden sections herself.
On the way back through the second rock garden, she unexpectedly tested the strength of the OEM rock rails. I was recording and could’ve guided better, but that’s on me. The good news though: the rock rail did exactly what it was supposed to do. It bent slightly upward toward the body, but there was no damage to the truck itself. I was pleasantly surprised that Toyota actually made them strong enought to take a smaller drop onto the body like that. If it was the predator steps, or anything of that sort, I would've kissed my body panels hard. And I mean hard lol.
The upside? She now fully understands why armor is essential. No more questions on "what's this do? Why did we need this?" Second upside, it always a blast getting your wife in the seat and having her take on a first person point of view on why we enjoy the things we do. Makes it a lot easier when a trip is planned haha.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think the TRD Pro suspension is an excellent out-of-the-box setup for someone who wants a genuinely trail-capable truck without immediate upgrades (other than tires, but again that's personal preference.) It shines at higher speeds on dirt and stays compliant in the rocks—maybe a bit soft for my taste, but that may change with a different setting. More to follow there.
I’m definitely looking forward to pushing it harder, learning the setup more, and testing setting 2/3 before making any upgrade purchases. I really want to push it to it's limit before that. I mean, I'm going to upgrade it either way, but I still want to see what it can do you know?
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I’ll update the thread after the next trip.
Happy trails!
I took advantage of some great Tennessee weather and headed out to the OHV area at Land Between the Lakes. This was the first time I’ve been able to off-road the 4GT, so I went in with some small expectations of it being a good ride. I mean it is Toyota's top trim suspension.
High Speed Dirt and Gravel
For a factory suspension, I’ll be honest: I’m fairly impressed. The TRD Pro setup is way more capable than people give it credit for. I spent a good amount of time running mixed dirt roads and light gravel at around 20–30 mph, and the truck felt composed the whole time. Never once did i worry that I was in over my head with feeling the terrain.
For reference, I ran the shocks on setting 1 for this entire trip. I normally daily the truck on setting 2, and I still haven’t tried setting 3 yet, so I can’t speak to that just yet. I do tend to prefer a slightly stiffer ride day to day, so I’m curious how that third setting will feel.
Coming from a 3GT on Kings, this is obviously a different animal—but for a stock setup, the TRD Fox shocks handled high-speed dirt really well. It wasn’t quite a “floating” feel, but it absolutely ripped through washboard, small mounds, divots, and uneven terrain without any hesitation. Anyone who enjoys faster dirt road driving will be happy with this suspension out of the box. No doubt in my mind about that.
Rock Garden Time
Now for the reason I actually went. Rocks. No, this isn’t the Rubicon, but in Tennessee we have to work with what we got haha. Windrock Park isn’t exactly a casual day trip. It is on the list for this year, though.
The park had two sections:
Section 1:
This is the section pictured below. its comprised of mostly smaller rocks. I'd say softball to basketball sized, with a few bigger ones mixed in. The suspension felt a little bouncy here for my personal taste, but that’s likely due to running setting 1 and wanting to really feel the baseline. Zero issues getting through it. Honestly, the 37s probably did 90% of the work here anyway. No real complaints—just preference. It was a great start to getting warmed up to the suspension in this type of setting. Very manageable, but still fun.
Section 2:
This one was more fun as seen below. About 50 yards long with larger rocks ranging from basketballs up to beach ball size. There were two lines: one more challenging and one more moderate, with a couple of bigger rocks right in the middle. Sure, there was a bypass to the left side, but where’s the fun in that?
I chose what I’d call the “moderate” line. If I had full skids and sliders, I definitely would’ve taken the harder route head on. The suspension felt similar to the first section. Soft but controlled. The 2.5” lift paired with the 37s helped keep the body and underbelly mostly clear, though I did tag the diff once.
The softest setting paired with the sway bar disconnect definitely gave the truck enough play to do what it was asked to do each time.
All in all, the TRD Fox shocks held their own for the entire day. I’m planning to go back and run the same lines on setting 2 & 3 to really see how it changes the feel. I might even try it without a locked diff, and without doing a swaybar disconnect just so I can really see where the limits of each added option are.
Bonus: OEM Rock Rail Test (Unplanned)
Quick cameo from my wife. She’s always joking (is it a joke though?) about wanting to drive when we're out on the trails. Since it was New Year’s Eve and the park was completely empty, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to get her some seat time. Dry conditions, low risk trail wise, and I could guide her through anything sketchy.
After some hesitation (mostly fear of hitting rocks) in the new 4GT, she hopped in the driver’s seat. With a little coaching on throttle control and braking, she successfully navigated both rock garden sections herself.
On the way back through the second rock garden, she unexpectedly tested the strength of the OEM rock rails. I was recording and could’ve guided better, but that’s on me. The good news though: the rock rail did exactly what it was supposed to do. It bent slightly upward toward the body, but there was no damage to the truck itself. I was pleasantly surprised that Toyota actually made them strong enought to take a smaller drop onto the body like that. If it was the predator steps, or anything of that sort, I would've kissed my body panels hard. And I mean hard lol.
The upside? She now fully understands why armor is essential. No more questions on "what's this do? Why did we need this?" Second upside, it always a blast getting your wife in the seat and having her take on a first person point of view on why we enjoy the things we do. Makes it a lot easier when a trip is planned haha.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think the TRD Pro suspension is an excellent out-of-the-box setup for someone who wants a genuinely trail-capable truck without immediate upgrades (other than tires, but again that's personal preference.) It shines at higher speeds on dirt and stays compliant in the rocks—maybe a bit soft for my taste, but that may change with a different setting. More to follow there.
I’m definitely looking forward to pushing it harder, learning the setup more, and testing setting 2/3 before making any upgrade purchases. I really want to push it to it's limit before that. I mean, I'm going to upgrade it either way, but I still want to see what it can do you know?
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I’ll update the thread after the next trip.
Happy trails!
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