For Those of You Who Take (or going to) the 5th Gen 4Runner Off Road

[MeBe4running]

Dude...somebody told you wrong

You have to deliberately turn off the side curtain airbags via the switch. This can be done while in 4LO, 4HI, 2HI, etc.

you know why.... because a lawyer designed this truck :jk:

 

[MeBe4running]

Scanny is quite right and I wanted to re-visit the slope idea and driving across a slope. Here is a video of a mower driving up 30 degree slope and also walking up and down said slope. Anyone want to take their 4Runner across this? How Steep is 30 Degrees? - YouTube yeah me either.

That video made me laugh!

 

[adam2562]

A good mod is to actually swap the momentary switch for an on-off switch, since every time you turn the ignition off it turns back on. At least if you do a lot of off-road driving, then walk some, then drive some, etc.

I'll do that to my Tundra along with the ADD override.

what does overriding the ADD do? my friend may get a tacoma and apparently some models have that ADD also (possibly if you don't get the TRD edition w/ a locker)

 

[adam2562]

i've always wanted to know, at what degree would the airbags deploy.. i'm going to eventually get an inclinometer. it would be useful to know once i have it

 

[1engineer]

i've always wanted to know, at what degree would the airbags deploy.. i'm going to eventually get an inclinometer. it would be useful to know once i have it

It's not only the angle of the vehicle but also the dynamic lateral forces and velocity. For example, you might go across a hillside on a 15% slope at 10 mph just fine, until a front wheel dropped into a small hole that instantly took the angle to 25%. That rate of change, coupled with the velocity of the transitional forces could, or could not, activate the side curtains. What I'm trying to say (and not doing a very good job) is it's not only the angle but how fast you transition to that angle. Not only that, but in the instance of a side impact, there might not be an angle change at all, only a lateral acceleration change.
Bottom line is its quite a bit more complex than an inclinometer can measure. It's a bunch of "if then" statements.

 

[eddiebx]

Again, would there be something about the big, bright RSCA OFF on the dash that you wouldn't notice? Really? :jaw drop:



Cliff's notes on the "Cliff" notes: A simple switch might work. Or you can dream up something like an RC circuit and a relay or solid-state relay.

(You know, a capacitor, resistor, and relay type thing. Given the state of grammar in this country this may also have been cut from recent public education. :boxer: )

Forgive me, I am having a terrible week at expressing myself. What I have been trying to say all this time was, if I just left the switch stock, I would probably forget to deactivate it each time I turn the vehicle off and back on, hence why I think your idea of a cut off switch is a great idea. I was not criticizing your idea and saying that people might forget to turn it off. Also, I get your point that there's a nice and bright orange dash light, I saw plenty of it playing around with it last night.

If you think a simple switch might work, can you please post exactly how to accomplish this? I tried out what I thought you meant by a "simple switch" and it does not seem to work. If you already had a way in mind, I would love to hear it

 

[adam2562]

It's not only the angle of the vehicle but also the dynamic lateral forces and velocity. For example, you might go across a hillside on a 15% slope at 10 mph just fine, until a front wheel dropped into a small hole that instantly took the angle to 25%. That rate of change, coupled with the velocity of the transitional forces could, or could not, activate the side curtains. What I'm trying to say (and not doing a very good job) is it's not only the angle but how fast you transition to that angle. Not only that, but in the instance of a side impact, there might not be an angle change at all, only a lateral acceleration change.
Bottom line is its quite a bit more complex than an inclinometer can measure. It's a bunch of "if then" statements.

as a matter of fact i completely understood what you were trying to prove.. its essentially the forces of how fast you get to 15degrees or from 15-25degrees.. even if they have it set to deploy at 30degrees.. with a big force(change) in degree it could also activate it based on those figures... :thumb:

 

[homeyclaus]

as a matter of fact i completely understood what you were trying to prove.. its essentially the forces of how fast you get to 15degrees or from 15-25degrees.. even if they have it set to deploy at 30degrees.. with a big force(change) in degree it could also activate it based on those figures... :thumb:

Grade 10 taught me: sin 30 degrees = .5

Translation: On a 30 degree slope, 50% of gravity's force is directed horizontally. As in, a ball rolling down a 30 degree slope will accelerate at 50% of its free fall acceleration.

Effect on a 4Runner:

1. If your tires hold you sideways on a 30 degree slope, it won't take much for you to roll it over given its center of gravity.

2. The vehicle rollover sensor and gyroscopes are aware of this, and will deploy the curtain air bags using a formula that likely works like this: floorboard angle (which is where the sensor change) * rate of angle change * sudden acceleration > some factor = fire air bag.

It means you can drive at a 30 degree angle all day long, as long as that angle doesn't change much at the same time you get a lateral force bump.

It's a bunch of "if then" statements.

I write a lot of those.

 

[homeyclaus]

Forgive me, I am having a terrible week at expressing myself. What I have been trying to say all this time was, if I just left the switch stock, I would probably forget to deactivate it each time I turn the vehicle off and back on, hence why I think your idea of a cut off switch is a great idea. I was not criticizing your idea and saying that people might forget to turn it off. Also, I get your point that there's a nice and bright orange dash light, I saw plenty of it playing around with it last night.

Understood now. I was having an ESL moment myself there.

If you think a simple switch might work, can you please post exactly how to accomplish this? I tried out what I thought you meant by a "simple switch" and it does not seem to work. If you already had a way in mind, I would love to hear it

A simple switch is like an on/off switch, like your party mode button.

If the ECU has issues with the button being held down "forever" then one needs to design a resistor-capacitor circuit that holds a relay (solid-state or otherwise, possibly just a transistor will work) closed for the 5 seconds needed to send the signal, and then shut off again, and do so every time until the simple switch, above, is opened again.

 

[eddiebx]

A simple switch is like an on/off switch, like your party mode button.

If the ECU has issues with the button being held down "forever" then one needs to design a resistor-capacitor circuit that holds a relay (solid-state or otherwise, possibly just a transistor will work) closed for the 5 seconds needed to send the signal, and then shut off again, and do so every time until the simple switch, above, is opened again.

That's actually a very effective and simple way to do the disconnect! One thing though, how would you go about interrupting the ground signal momentarily so that the ECU starts off not seeing the ground? (This is another genuine question incase you decide go ESL on me again :wave

What I tried was holding down the RSCA switch before turning the vehicle on, and then releasing the button after the vehicle was started and running. This did not seem not seem to want to deactivate it, hence why I think we might need an off-on-off sequence, so to speak.

 

[homeyclaus]

That's actually a very effective and simple way to do the disconnect! One thing though, how would you go about interrupting the ground signal momentarily so that the ECU starts off not seeing the ground? (This is another genuine question incase you decide go ESL on me again :wave

What I tried was holding down the RSCA switch before turning the vehicle on, and then releasing the button after the vehicle was started and running. This did not seem not seem to want to deactivate it, hence why I think we might need an off-on-off sequence, so to speak.

A resistor to control the charging of the capacitor that activates the relay would cause a delay. Now we'd need a dual contact relay with it.

You're going to make me draw this, aren't you...