jreiter
New member
Just spent a day at the Oceano sand dunes. I had a chance to play around with the various settings on my Trail edition, and they definitely have a noticeable effect.
At first, I had the Multi-Terrain selector set to the first setting (sand/snow). I noticed that the truck was a bit sluggish going through the sand, and it wouldn't really do much when I tried to get on the gas. Initially I was attributing this to the heavy weight of the 4runner versus my old 1999 Tacoma. (The 4runner weighs over 1000 pounds more than the old Taco.) Also, when driving laterally along a dune with an incline (not up or down the dune, but along the width of it), the truck wants to slide down the side of the dune. That's pretty normal especially in a vehicle this heavy, but the various traction control systems sure do hate it. The systems were grinding and clunking trying to keep the truck from sliding, but they just couldn't get it under control.
After a while, I decided to turn off TRAC and VSC, which also requires that you turn off the Multi-Terrain setting. Once I did that, the truck was a whole new beast. It was much faster, responded better, and was generally a whole lot more fun to drive in the sand. The control systems stopped their incessant grinding noises, and giving the truck gas actually made it go faster.
Anyway, just thought I'd post about it here. I haven't seen many posts about running on dunes, so I figured some of you might find it of interest.
Here's a photo near the beach, where it's a lot safer to stop and take photos. Less risk of a sandrail flying through the air over a peak and landing on you.
At first, I had the Multi-Terrain selector set to the first setting (sand/snow). I noticed that the truck was a bit sluggish going through the sand, and it wouldn't really do much when I tried to get on the gas. Initially I was attributing this to the heavy weight of the 4runner versus my old 1999 Tacoma. (The 4runner weighs over 1000 pounds more than the old Taco.) Also, when driving laterally along a dune with an incline (not up or down the dune, but along the width of it), the truck wants to slide down the side of the dune. That's pretty normal especially in a vehicle this heavy, but the various traction control systems sure do hate it. The systems were grinding and clunking trying to keep the truck from sliding, but they just couldn't get it under control.
After a while, I decided to turn off TRAC and VSC, which also requires that you turn off the Multi-Terrain setting. Once I did that, the truck was a whole new beast. It was much faster, responded better, and was generally a whole lot more fun to drive in the sand. The control systems stopped their incessant grinding noises, and giving the truck gas actually made it go faster.
Anyway, just thought I'd post about it here. I haven't seen many posts about running on dunes, so I figured some of you might find it of interest.
Here's a photo near the beach, where it's a lot safer to stop and take photos. Less risk of a sandrail flying through the air over a peak and landing on you.
