Thanks for posting, [MENTION=118321]Jetboy[/MENTION]. I know I have a bit more respect and appreciation for the brand/vehicle/platform after reading this report as well as looking back at the original run that the Toyota folks did back in 2009 before the 5th gen debuted (articles: Rubicon Fails to Rattle 4Runner | Toyota DriverSeat ; 2010 Toyota 4Runner Rubicon Trail First Drive ). Curious what, if any, of the electronic gizmos you found useful during your traverse? Rear locker is a given but what about MTS, Crawl Control, A-TRAC, etc?
Rubicon Trip Report - AND Minimalist Rear Bumper Protection (Bolt On)
- Thread starter Jetboy
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Thanks for posting, [MENTION=118321]Jetboy[/MENTION]. I know I have a bit more respect and appreciation for the brand/vehicle/platform after reading this report as well as looking back at the original run that the Toyota folks did back in 2009 before the 5th gen debuted (articles: Rubicon Fails to Rattle 4Runner | Toyota DriverSeat ; 2010 Toyota 4Runner Rubicon Trail First Drive ). Curious what, if any, of the electronic gizmos you found useful during your traverse? Rear locker is a given but what about MTS, Crawl Control, A-TRAC, etc?
Jetboy
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I generally used MTS and the rear locker. There are a number of areas where tight steering is important and you may want traction without having the rear locker engaged. I have not found much difference between MTS and ATRAC. I generally just use MTS in "rock" mode.
I have never previously found crawl control to have any value other than for trail fatigue on moderate trails. - basically just for comfort. I think it's awesome in sand from what I've seen. However I did have two scenarios where it worked when a MTS would not. On the climb out of Cadillac hill there were two sets of steep, wet, slipper climbs. With the rear locker engaged and MTS on rock mode I was not able to climb without slipping sideways into a large rock. I tried 3 times and it's a VERY tight squeeze without getting the rear end into the fender/door on the rocks. No locker and only MTS was a no-go. I wouldn't slip but couldn't climb either. So I gave crawl control a shot on it's slowest speed. It worked perfectly. Not sure why other than that it is basically a max aggressiveness on ATRAC/MTS. It was able to very slowly slip each tire separately and I'm guessing wipe the mud off without letting two tires on either axle slip together and slide sideways on the rocks.
I've tried it rock crawling in Moab, but never had success as an alternative to normal driving. In this case though - it worked. Not sure why, but it did.
So I guess I kinda used all of them some. Without ATRAC/MTS it would have been very difficult to do with only the rear locker. I'm not sure I could have made it out of Cadillac hill without a winch. Also KDSS was nice to have on some of the off camber hills. It does a great job of body stability in the rocks. I can't compare side by side, but compared to an 80 series it was much more stable - but also much lower suspension, so I'm not sure how comparable they really are.
This is the obstacle.
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007Tacoma
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Jetboy
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A few people have asked about the rear bumper protector I built a few years ago and for some better pics of it. I had it off last night to de-rust and re-paint again. I hope these pics help give an idea of what it is and how it works. Basically just bolts into the rear location a receiver hitch would attach if you wanted a class 2 like the GX460 has. I used a couple spacer blocks to get a better fitment around the bumper you can see. A production version would of course eliminate those.
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