Word of Advice to Stock TB & AT4 owners

Amaze Productions · March 9, 2020

I recently took my 19 AT4 stock off-roading. Unfortunately I damaged my truck. Before I explain what happened, let me disclose that it was completely my fault and I am not blaming the truck or anyone besides myself lol. I love my truck! I was at the off-road park for about 30 minutes. I did some minor rock crawling (minor as in driving over rocks no larger than 6 inches in width). My problems began when I attempted to turn the vehicle around and exit the park. I drove into tire grooves about 2 -3 feet deep. The tire grooves were filled with water, so i could not see how deep they were. Next thing I know the truck is dipping and slams driver side bumper into the ground. As I Ieft the park, I then noticed that any time I would turn my wheel to make right turns, my tire on driver side would rub into the wheel liner. Long story short, my bumper was not only pushed upward but inward towards the wheel well. Took it to a reputable service/body collision shop near me and told me that I needed a new front valence, new bumper, new skid plate, and a new fog light bracket for my driver side fog lamp. Total cost is $3,150. At this point im beating myself up lol. Called my insurance company and they will cover it. All I have to do is pay my $250 deductible and I have a good driving history so my agent told me my premium will not be hardly affected. Just wanted to let anyone with stock AT4s and Trailbosses know to be careful going off-road. If you don’t have a lift, I would exercise caution. I’d hate to see anyone experience what I have gone through this past week. I will post a picture of my truck if you look at the bumper on the driver side you can see it being pushed inward as I described above. It doesn’t look bad from the front. I wish I would have taken a picture from the side to show you all.

Edited March 9, 2020 by Amaze Productions

lapoolboy · March 9, 2020

You're so silly.....these trucks aren't supposed to go off-road!

Edited March 9, 2020 by lapoolboy

Amaze Productions · March 9, 2020

Edited March 9, 2020 by Amaze Productions

Amaze Productions · March 9, 2020

4 minutes ago, lapoolboy said:

You're so silly.....these trucks aren't supposed to go off-road!

Believe me, I know that now

EXSlider400 · March 9, 2020

5 hours ago, Amaze Productions said:

Believe me, I know that now

Good thanks for sharing the information. I consider these all-terrain trucks just like all terrain tires they’re not true hard-core equipment but they do more than just pavement. They’re way too expensive to tear up so go get a cheap toy like an old Jeep and have at it.

Amaze Productions · March 9, 2020

1 hour ago, EXSlider400 said:

Good thanks for sharing the information. I consider these all-terrain trucks just like all terrain tires they’re not true hard-core equipment but they do more than just pavement. They’re way too expensive to tear up so go get a cheap toy like an old Jeep and have at it.

Your right man, could not agree more!

TheTicketTX · March 9, 2020

They can be turned into off-road monsters but you’ll need to probably put about 10k into that AT4

with it stock, I’d stick to mudding and country backroads.

Amaze Productions · March 10, 2020

3 hours ago, TheTicketTX said:

They can be turned into off-road monsters but you’ll need to probably put about 10k into that AT4

with it stock, I’d stick to mudding and country backroads.

Sounds about right man they’re great trucks, down the road I plan on doing some addons!

ShamrockShooter · March 10, 2020

I've driven out on the Wyoming prairie for a few hunts and the two track roads are just like you say as in two to three foot deep in some spots. It was very nerve wracking trying to stay out of the ruts like that without falling in them.

But it sounds like you had fun so it was worth the $250. Maybe look at an old Jeep next time.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

Amaze Productions · March 10, 2020

3 hours ago, ShamrockShooter said:

I've driven out on the Wyoming prairie for a few hunts and the two track roads are just like you say as in two to three foot deep in some spots. It was very nerve wracking trying to stay out of the ruts like that without falling in them.

But it sounds like you had fun so it was worth the $250. Maybe look at an old Jeep next time.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

Yes exactly! Those ruts can be deep and yeah definitely will keep that in mind!

BIGDOGx · March 10, 2020

22 hours ago, Amaze Productions said:

I recently took my 19 AT4 stock off-roading. Unfortunately I damaged my truck. Before I explain what happened, let me disclose that it was completely my fault and I am not blaming the truck or anyone besides myself lol. I love my truck! I was at the off-road park for about 30 minutes. I did some minor rock crawling (minor as in driving over rocks no larger than 6 inches in width). My problems began when I attempted to turn the vehicle around and exit the park. I drove into tire grooves about 2 -3 feet deep. The tire grooves were filled with water, so i could not see how deep they were. Next thing I know the truck is dipping and slams driver side bumper into the ground. As I Ieft the park, I then noticed that any time I would turn my wheel to make right turns, my tire on driver side would rub into the wheel liner. Long story short, my bumper was not only pushed upward but inward towards the wheel well. Took it to a reputable service/body collision shop near me and told me that I needed a new front valence, new bumper, new skid plate, and a new fog light bracket for my driver side fog lamp. Total cost is $3,150. At this point im beating myself up lol. Called my insurance company and they will cover it. All I have to do is pay my $250 deductible and I have a good driving history so my agent told me my premium will not be hardly affected. Just wanted to let anyone with stock AT4s and Trailbosses know to be careful going off-road. If you don’t have a lift, I would exercise caution. I’d hate to see anyone experience what I have gone through this past week. I will post a picture of my truck if you look at the bumper on the driver side you can see it being pushed inward as I described above. It doesn’t look bad from the front. I wish I would have taken a picture from the side to show you all.

These trucks are just not made to off road, they are far to big and built far too weak imo to take any serious off roading and climbing over rocks, even smaller ones is something i would avoid.

Amaze Productions · March 10, 2020

44 minutes ago, BIGDOGx said:

These trucks are just not made to off road, they are far to big and built far too weak imo to take any serious off roading and climbing over rocks, even smaller ones is something i would avoid.

Yeah I agree, unfortunately I learned the hard way

amxguy1970 · March 10, 2020

50 minutes ago, BIGDOGx said:

These trucks are just not made to off road, they are far to big and built far too weak imo to take any serious off roading and climbing over rocks, even smaller ones is something i would avoid.

Not made to off road? Is that why they put all the stuff on it to help it off road or take pictures and allow test drives off road? There are different degrees of off road, scale 1-10 these trucks can handle a 3-4, that is the rating I used for my truck and it is a little smaller than these (1.5 level, 1 inch rear block and 32.8" tire along with the skid plates). What do you consider serious off roading? Fins and Things can can be fairly serious IMO, ditto with some of the trails in the links below. They aren't built rock crawler with front and rear lockers serious though. Mine did the entire alpine loop (including lower engineer pass), white rim trail and some rivers and trails in New Mexico with zero issues or damage and it is probably less capable than the TB or AT4. They are plenty capable, but like anything you can push them too far. Plenty of Rubicons have been damaged by owner stupidity (which is what the OP did and owned up to it), does that mean they are not capable off road? AT4/TB is plenty capable stock for exploring the back country and some overlanding type of stuff, just because one persons bends a bumper being in attentive doesn't take anything away from what these trucks can do. Most buy them for looks, some don't and I applaud that as the engineers tested them to handle extreme situations. Now is a dedicated trail rig better? Sure, but only if your adventures seek that type of off road environment, these can take you to some pretty remote places a Rav4 could only dream of.

I would say these trucks are plenty capable off road. Here it made it up the harder cliff hanger trail.

https://www.tfltruck.com/2018/10/will-the-2019-chevy-silverado-1500-trailboss-conquer-the-cliffhanger-2-0-video-review/

Here through some solid water and mud up to its bumper.

https://www.tfloffroad.com/2019/07/does-it-get-stuck-chevy-silverado-trail-boss-takes-on-the-muddy-hydroline-off-road-review-video/

And here is scrapes less and is preferred over the Rebel and hangs tic for tac with the Raptor in Moab.

https://www.tfltruck.com/2018/12/three-new-off-road-trucks-one-epic-moab-review-2019-chevy-trailboss-ford-raptor-and-ram-rebel/

Here is my truck in around 3ft of water (bow wave makes it look deeper), no issues 9 months later and no water intrusions or failures. If my truck can do it they can...

Tyler

TheTicketTX · March 10, 2020

1 hour ago, amxguy1970 said:

Not made to off road? Is that why they put all the stuff on it to help it off road or take pictures and allow test drives off road? There are different degrees of off road, scale 1-10 these trucks can handle a 3-4, that is the rating I used for my truck and it is a little smaller than these (1.5 level, 1 inch rear block and 32.8" tire along with the skid plates). What do you consider serious off roading? Fins and Things can can be fairly serious IMO, ditto with some of the trails in the links below. They aren't built rock crawler with front and rear lockers serious though. Mine did the entire alpine loop (including lower engineer pass), white rim trail and some rivers and trails in New Mexico with zero issues or damage and it is probably less capable than the TB or AT4. They are plenty capable, but like anything you can push them too far. Plenty of Rubicons have been damaged by owner stupidity (which is what the OP did and owned up to it), does that mean they are not capable off road? AT4/TB is plenty capable stock for exploring the back country and some overlanding type of stuff, just because one persons bends a bumper being in attentive doesn't take anything away from what these trucks can do. Most buy them for looks, some don't and I applaud that as the engineers tested them to handle extreme situations. Now is a dedicated trail rig better? Sure, but only if your adventures seek that type of off road environment, these can take you to some pretty remote places a Rav4 could only dream of.

I would say these trucks are plenty capable off road. Here it made it up the harder cliff hanger trail.

https://www.tfltruck.com/2018/10/will-the-2019-chevy-silverado-1500-trailboss-conquer-the-cliffhanger-2-0-video-review/

Here through some solid water and mud up to its bumper.

https://www.tfloffroad.com/2019/07/does-it-get-stuck-chevy-silverado-trail-boss-takes-on-the-muddy-hydroline-off-road-review-video/

And here is scrapes less and is preferred over the Rebel and hangs tic for tac with the Raptor in Moab.

https://www.tfltruck.com/2018/12/three-new-off-road-trucks-one-epic-moab-review-2019-chevy-trailboss-ford-raptor-and-ram-rebel/

Here is my truck in around 3ft of water (bow wave makes it look deeper), no issues 9 months later and no water intrusions or failures. If my truck can do it they can...

Tyler