I just picked up a TRD Pro about a month ago and it was the first vehicle Ive owned with Crawl Control. Myself, like a lot of people, took one look at that dial and said "yea, I wont be needing that" since Ive been offroading my whole life and feel like I can handle situations without the need of electronic assists.
So I had to do a trip to central California for work and on the way I decided to do my first off road adventure stopping at Jawbone Canyon to hit some dirt trails. All was well, used 4 lo and drove up some cool roads and checked this place out for the first time for a couple of hours.
Next I decided it would be a great idea to hit the small sand dune outside of Olancha and test this pig in the sand. I drove out there and was having a great time since the sand is so smooth and soft. Ive always liked how can haul ass on a dirtbike over sand dunes in Pismo and Glamis.
Im cruising up the side of a dune and start to dig in even in 4 lo with the traction control turned off. This 4runner is heavy and eventually came to a stop buried up the side of the dune and no matter how I feathered the gas the tires just spun. When I opened the door to get out I had to push sand out of the way, I was stuck DEEP.
Now Ive got the frame pancaked in the sand, no grip from my brand new tires, and im stuck bad. Real bad. Worse than that famous crawl control Tacoma video we have all seen. About this time im panicking a little thinking Im going to have to dig this pig out by hand or call for help. I climbed back in after about 10 minutes trying to rock it back and forth slowly and asking myself what the hell I was doing out there alone in the first place. I took a look at the crawl control dial without any hope it would actually do anything.
I turned it to the lo setting and sat there thinking about how dumb it was to even try and low and behold the damn car started digging itself out of that hole slowly, very slowly. After about 10 minutes of what seemed like very small adjustments to power each wheel the 4runner was back on hard dirt and i could not believe what had just happened. Im still blown away.
Lessons learned
1-DO NOT go off roading unless you are prepared to get stuck and call for help
2-If you are looking for a 4runner and are on the fence about buying a SR5 or spending more for a TRD Off-Road or above and you off road-do it. Crawl Control can save your ass wether you like to admit it or not. I thought I never would.
This pic doesnt look like much and I wish I had the brain power to take a pic of it stuck and a video of it working itself out, but I was seriously tripping.
Please post if you have had any Crawl Control "experiences"
So I had to do a trip to central California for work and on the way I decided to do my first off road adventure stopping at Jawbone Canyon to hit some dirt trails. All was well, used 4 lo and drove up some cool roads and checked this place out for the first time for a couple of hours.
Next I decided it would be a great idea to hit the small sand dune outside of Olancha and test this pig in the sand. I drove out there and was having a great time since the sand is so smooth and soft. Ive always liked how can haul ass on a dirtbike over sand dunes in Pismo and Glamis.
Im cruising up the side of a dune and start to dig in even in 4 lo with the traction control turned off. This 4runner is heavy and eventually came to a stop buried up the side of the dune and no matter how I feathered the gas the tires just spun. When I opened the door to get out I had to push sand out of the way, I was stuck DEEP.
Now Ive got the frame pancaked in the sand, no grip from my brand new tires, and im stuck bad. Real bad. Worse than that famous crawl control Tacoma video we have all seen. About this time im panicking a little thinking Im going to have to dig this pig out by hand or call for help. I climbed back in after about 10 minutes trying to rock it back and forth slowly and asking myself what the hell I was doing out there alone in the first place. I took a look at the crawl control dial without any hope it would actually do anything.
I turned it to the lo setting and sat there thinking about how dumb it was to even try and low and behold the damn car started digging itself out of that hole slowly, very slowly. After about 10 minutes of what seemed like very small adjustments to power each wheel the 4runner was back on hard dirt and i could not believe what had just happened. Im still blown away.
Lessons learned
1-DO NOT go off roading unless you are prepared to get stuck and call for help
2-If you are looking for a 4runner and are on the fence about buying a SR5 or spending more for a TRD Off-Road or above and you off road-do it. Crawl Control can save your ass wether you like to admit it or not. I thought I never would.
This pic doesnt look like much and I wish I had the brain power to take a pic of it stuck and a video of it working itself out, but I was seriously tripping.
Please post if you have had any Crawl Control "experiences"
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