Kind of a long story, but I think it's worth posting
My buddies and I (total of 10 people) spend a weekend mountain biking in PA. On Saturday, we went for a long technical ride (5 hours total). Several people in our group were starting to get seriously tired. Ride leader told us that there were two ways to complete the last four miles of our ride. We could either continue on the rocky single track, or take the less rocky "jeep road" for the next three miles. Either route would bring us to the final mile, which was just a paved downhill.
With few people way back (out of site, but we had 2-way radios and they were cursing us out, big time), I decided to take the "jeep road" out, ride as fast as I could and drive the 4runner back to pick them up. It was a gamble, because no one knew if the gate to the jeep road would be open. The jeep road was still full of rocks, plenty of climbs and a LOT of water crossing (I was able to go around them on my bike). When I made it to the paved road, I was extremely happy to see that there was no gate at the entrance to the jeep road and no warning signs of any kind.. looks like it was open to anyone.
I rode back to the lot, packed my stuff and took off in the runner to pick up my buddies.
I had the truck in AWD (center unlocked) and was trying to go as fast as I could, keeping safety in mind and being cautious not to cause damage to the truck.
I was amazed how smooth the ride was over fairly large rocks, on both descends and climbs. I was now getting closer to the section that was full of water crossings. I knew I wouldn’t be able to go around them, like I did on my bike and I had no idea how deep they were (pretty scary). I just took it slow and tried to as close to the side of the road as possible. Most crossing were smooth and not deep at all.. until I got to the "big one". This one was about 40-50 feet in length and there was a ride around it, which was very narrow (trees on both sides). I didn't want to take the ride around.. I was afraid I wouldn't fit and I really didn't want to cause serious damage to the body.
I tried to keep driver side wheels on the berm and began moving slowly. At about 10 feet in, the truck was at about a 20-25 degree angle and it just slid sideways off the berm into the middle of what turned out to be a not so shallow water crossing! I brought the RPM’s up to about 3000.. traction control started kicking in.. the truck shook side to side a bit and finally made it out of the water! I was SO relieved. Would have sucked so bad to get stuck and not get to my friends to bring them out of the woods.
Shortly after that, I spotted my friends on the jeep road. We loaded up they bikes, turned around headed back for the lot.
When we got to the evil water crossing, knowing what was coming this time, I locked the center diff and didn't even bother trying to keep two wheels on the berm. Truck made it through beautifully. With center locked (and VSC automatically off) it was a breeze!
We made it back to the lot in no time.
I am more impressed with my runner now than I ever was in the 9 months of ownership. By the way, my rig is 100% stock, except for the rain guards

 

awesome man. isnt it a great feeling?

im assuming you dont have any mods as far as supsension/tires/armor goes?

 

Cool, I'm glad to hear it came through for ya.

Oh what a feeling!

 

Cool man!!

Did you do the rear diff breather extension?
If not, you may want to change your rear diff fluid.

 

Oh what a feeling...toyota.

 

Nope, didn't do the breather mod. Honestly, I didn't think my truck would ever see dirt. I've got 13000 miles on it now. Think it would be OK to let it go to 15000 and change rear diff fluid then?
I plan to hose the drivetrain off tonight and maybe hit all the zerks with a little grease.

 

Everything is stock
I was making sure to roll wheels over larget rocks rather than letting rocks pass between the wheels. I didn't hear anything scratch the bottom once

 

Well, it wouldn't hurt to change the rear diff fluid. Its pretty easy. It better than running the chance of blowing out an axle seal and then having to replace your rear brakes. The fluid should only cost you a couple of bucks and it will only take you about 15-30 minutes to change.