Dust inside the tailgate, new 2015 Trail

[mcarey86]

Only thing I find annoying is that I love driving with the rear window down, which in turn makes the inside of my car look like your rear hatch.

I feel like I'm in there every other day with a swiffer cleaning up dust.

 

[noisebeam]

This was quite an annoyance on my first camp trip with hundreds of miles on dirt roads - a fine red poofy dust common in Arizona, in this case in the strip. It built up a thick layer over the rear window and especially thick at the lower seal.

The main issue is I had packed assuming I could use the rear window to access stuff during travel, but if I opened the window it would pull the dust into the seal and dump more into the truck. It also made campside messy as there is frequent access to rear.

My next trip I brought a brush with me to sweep of the back before opening. That was better. We avoided opening the rear window too.

I have the dust poof too when shutting the rear and a constant trickle of red water from the lower seep holes in the door if I rinse the truck.

 

[4RnR Grl]

Only thing I find annoying is that I love driving with the rear window down, which in turn makes the inside of my car look like your rear hatch.

I feel like I'm in there every other day with a swiffer cleaning up dust.

I keep a swiffer in the door pocket. Kind of embarrassing when it falls out on the trail though. :dance:

 

[noisebeam]

This pic shows the red dust build up from my first camp trip.

 

[DesertCanyons]

Back spoiler and Bristlecone Pines

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like I will be wearing my dusty tailgate as a badge of courage and sign of the adventures I've had.

I always thought the rear top spoiler was unnecessary on a semi-square-back SUV. It's going to have a vortex or backdraft no matter what you do. The only function I see for the rear spoiler is to house the rear window wiper and shade the back window. Otherwise it might be better without the spoiler or with a downturned wind blade like some of the earlier 4Runners have. I was surprised to see the dust wasn't even moved by a 4 hour drive back on highway 395 from Big Pine, near Bishop to Los Angeles. :bored:

The White Mountains were great to see. There's a 4x4 route up from Bishop (4000 feet asl) to the top of the ridge at around 11,500 feet. I'd like to go back and follow that route up a rugged canyon, called Silver Canyon, IIRC.

Here's a photo of one of the Bristlecone Pines. This one reached it's peak a few hundred years ago, lost the soil cover over it's shallow roots due to normal erosion and died as a result. The Bristlecone have a long lifespan, up to 4000 years, and go through various stages of growth, pine nut seed generation, partial regrowth as live tree surrounds deadwood and eventual death. They stand for many years before they collapse. With climate change they are moving upwards in elevation over many generations of new trees. The wood is an unusually tight pack grain that made me want to build a table top from a slab cut. To the casual observer, we don't see these changes within our lifetimes but scientists have measured the changes by other means, including tree rings.

 

[Bilbo]

I went camping in the White Mountains over Labor Day weekend. We camped at 8000 feet and drove up into the ancient Bristlecone Pines at 10,000 and 12,000 feet asl. The last 12 miles was over a dirt road where I tested all the new 4 wheel drive functions. Woohoo! The dirt road left fine dust all over the back of the truck. The dirt didn't blow off the back in 300 miles of highway at 75 mph returning. Clearly, there is a back draft or vortex behind the truck - no surprise there. Now, after washing the whole car under, over and sideways with a power washer at the coin op, I still have dust coming out of the tailgate. There was a lot more at first but still I get a little residual on the tailgate whenever I rinse off the back and sometimes just shutting the tailgate makes dust fall out. At first it seemed to be coming out of the rubber seal at the bottom of the back window. Anyone ever experience that before?

This is also a way to show you my new MGM T4R Trail Edition at 12,000 feet and in the campground at sunrise.

Nice photos of the White Mountains - one of CA's best-kept secrets. Free camping, dispersed and at the campground. Few people. A good site for astronomy. And a nice day hike up to White Mountain Peak at 14,252' - CA's third highest.

Congratulations on the new rig. Your dust problem sounds about right. Frustrating, but normal.

 

[1000MPH]

You need a trailer tail

This should do it.

 

[Bevo]

This should do it.

Holy S***! That's one big-a** pic.

 

[noisebeam]

Aside from being messy when camping, I don't mind the dust aesthetically, but I do know it will greatly increase wear of door parts as well as hazing of power window.
Also the seeps at the bottom of the door were so clogged with dust I've had to open them up a few times to let the water drain.

 

[noisebeam]

Result of post camp rinse down. Most is from the underside of course. This is after 400mi of freeway driving including thru a torrential downpour.

 

[noisebeam]

This is the back after I brush off the dirt (so I could get in rear to get hiking gear)

 

[msp]

No. The dust and dirt come from the bottom of the 4Runner as it passes over the dirt road, not from the clean air passing over the top. Regardless of how you modify the top of the vehicle the dirt is going to be sucked up from the bottom. If you want to prevent the dust and dirt from the back of the tail gate you need to modify the bottom. Specifically you need to LOWER the rear bumper, which causes other obvious problems. Conversely you could mount a full length "mud flap" from your rear bumper that almost touches the ground. That is the only mod that will prevent this common phenomenon.

This also seems to be the case with snow. We finally got about a foot of snow and the tailgate keeps getting caked. Seems to be worse on the Limited than my previous Trail. Search works...when you know what to look for!

 

[BenSD]

When washing your 4runner, try to get some water between the rubber seal and the rear glass. I don't use a pressure washer for this, just a hose with a sprayer on the end. The water will get into the rear lift gate, then out the drain holes on the bottom and wash the dust out. This is how it's designed to work. You'll see some "chocolate milk" come out of the drain holes (there are 3) for a few seconds, then you'll see clean water and the dust is gone.

Also, I learned that it's helpful if you have a battery powered leaf blower and use that to get rid of the water drips hanging from the rear wiper and spoiler. Otherwise, you'll end up with all sorts of water drops on the rear window as soon as you drive away. The leaf blower is also great for the front end which has a million places for the water drops to hide.

 

[BenSD]

I wouldn't brush the back off! You'll scratch the crap out of your paint by even touching the painted areas that are covered in abrasive dust. I don't touch a thing in the field. Wait till you get home, then give it a good wash, otherwise you'll have crappy looking swirl mark covered paint in no time. If you want to clear the rear window, just use the rear wiper, it does a good job.

 

[Chsbrgr]

Usually I'll spray down the tailgate area with compressed air when I air up the tires upon returning to pavement. Sometimes at camp too. A few seconds of air will make a big difference.

 

[e60ral]

I wonder if a small vortex generator like what is put on the Mitsu EVO IX would help at all? It could be mounted atop the rear deflector hickamagig that I can't recall the name of now...

If keeping dust off the car was the goal, you would actually want to induce laminar flow across the back, but that increases drag and would increase front end lift at speed, etc... so it's not practical

 

[Mistaken]

As an aside.... that looks terrible on the new EVO! My hubby has an EVO X and it looks much nicer without that cheese grater up there. lol!

So true. I had a EvoX before I got the GT500, and that is one mod that never crossed my mind.

For the pics or it didn't happen crowd...

Its not an Evo without the vortex gen! :lmao:

But all those ETS parts sure look good under the hood. Those guys are awesome.