I know this section is usually reserved for mechanical problems and bitching about whether the 2.4 is better than the 3.0 or not, but on the lighter side of "truck tech" a little story:

SO......

I pulled my 1987 4runner back into the parking lot at work after returning from lunch today. I work @ a wood/metal shop down near the Hudson River in upstate new york, adjacent to some railroad tracks, as well as a patch of wetlands home to several species of Birds and wildlife.

Hopped out the truck with a full belly and headed for the shop door. Looking to my left I saw my friend cruising back from lunch on his skateboard. Around the same time I heard a fantastic "WHOOOSSSSHHHH" followed by some unmistakeable crunching noises that sounded like a T-Rex was walking through the wetlands! I Turned to my friend and said "ay...you here that big noise from in there??? What was that?! .....

He took a quick look from where he was at. Then: "OHHHHHH crap, your truck man!" I looked over and my new truck had vanished from its parking spot. Where did it go???

























































INTO the Wetlands!

Turns out in my post-lunch haze I parked in neutral, and neglected to apply the E-brake!

Parked on a very gentle slope, the runner simply rolled forward, and plowed down the hill 30 or 40' into the tall grasses and reeds below! (iphone camera lens seriously forshortened the perspective)

My old ranger, or any of the other cars in the lot for that matter woulda been up the creek without a paddle, but I climbed on down, saddled up, put her in L4, and was out in under a minute no worse for the wear much to the amazement of my friend

I know half you guys got way better stories when it comes to mudding and rock crawling adventures, but for the work parking lot, I thought it was worth a share....

Please feel free to post further "unintentional off-roading" stories and pics here!

 

you are very lucky that's all that happened

 

I did something similar the other day. After making some adjustments to my shifters, I put the tranny in park but left both transfer cases in neutral and went in the house. A few minutes later I looked out the window to see my 4Runner rolling backwards down the driveway toward the street. By the time I got out there, it had already rolled over the chain link fence of the guy across the street and laid it out flat! Fortunately, the guy wasn't even concerned and let me slide with just standing it back up. Side note: Lo/Lo works great for standing up fence posts!

 

I want to know just what it was you ate for lunch so I can put up signs to avoid said food.

Just be glad the water was not deep enough to get into the engine and rest of the drive train

 

"brownies"

 

Carne Asada Burrito with black beans insteada refried and Guacamole added on

And lucky for me, the "wetlands" were practically bone-dry yesterday. It's been hot up here, and rain has been minimal, which was to my benefit obviously!

 

That too funny.. Luck you didnt hit anything else!

 

haha i know this is an old thread but i was looking through the older 4runner stuff tonight
(i have a third gen now) and recognized the username. my old truck! glad to hear that's all that happened that was one tough truck though.

 

love that story! thats pretty awesome that you got it out, and got the pic to prove it. my only accidental offroading story so far is pretty lame, involves my first time mudding too. was just after sun rise when myself and the chick I was hanging out with finally left the hot tub, and being bored and having nothing yet to do, decided to just drive around until we thought of something, well 10min later we were driving past a bare crop field that was being irrigated and I decided that it'd be fun to go splash through the water puddle about 100 yards out on the dirt road at the edge of the field. So I turned off the county road and gunned it, was probably doing about 30 when the gears in my head started turning and it occurred to me that water meant mud and this wasn't hard packed clay but rather loose aerated soil : realized this was a really bad idea and started to slow down but it was too late, slammed into the mud and the next 10yds I was simultaneously trying to turn on my window wipers in hopes of being able to see anything again while also trying to keep the ass end from sliding out as it was trying so eagerly to do. finally stopped almost axle deep in mud; half an hour, 10' and 1 5:30am phone call to try to get help later, I put it into 4wd for the first time and over the next hour drove through about 1/4mile more mud, next day took it in still covered in mud and got it smogged

 

Wait...so you waited half an hour to try 4wd?

 

yea I know, but after a long night totally without sleep and not having ever used 4wd before, plus wearing sandals didn't really make jumping into the mud sound very appealing.