Took the '03 out Saturday to Hungry Valley OHVA, here in SoCal.
They have a 4x4 obstacle course with water and mud crossings and hill climbs. My G/F and I decided to go way back into the mountains. On the way there we hit many trails and hill climbs. The V8 pulled the Runner up the hills with no problem in regular drive w/ the center diff. locked. The only problem I encountered was on some of the trails there are some pretty good sized whoops. These are definetly fun on the quad, but it took some serious negotiating to get over some of the whoops, and the wide cracks in the trail from erosion. I bottomed out a couple of times on the whoops and defintely hit the transfer case skid plate more than a handful of times. It was defintely fun and worth beating the rig up a bit. The '03 is defenitely capable of handling the rough stuff, but we need more ground clearance.

When are we getting a lift?
My 2 cents.

Serge