Off-road questions

Played with the taco in some half-frozen silt yesterday.
Had a few questions.

1. Is everyone’s tcase very whiny in low range (i assume normal, but checking for peace of mind)

2. Anyone else have issues getting the rear locker to engage? I know it only will in low range, i was trying to at a complete stop, rolling, clutch in, clutch out, in neutral, in gear, it just wasnt wanting to kick in. Luckily i had the ATS as a back-up to get me out of a precarious predicament when it dug in on a side-hill and got stuck

3. Anyone else have the traction control get so pissed off in 4hi climbing a sandy hill that it actually stalls out the truck? (After shaking so violently as to throw my wrapped-around beads off the shift lever haha) Manual transmission - I assume this is normal as well, just thought it was comical

To not sound so negative, the truck did great, i love how softly it handled the whoops - https://youtu.be/ADRtQrjeSxQ - nicest ride in a pickup i’ve ever had hands-down - and i appreciated the width of the truck as i was able to avoid the majority of sticks trying to ruin my paint.
It is odd off-roading a vehicle i actually care about though, taking things slowly instead of wide open all the time.

 

You may need to do a slow S turn in order to get the locker to engage. I was told on TW and I have found in my own experience to disregard the owners manual and engage the locker at a very slow speed (less than 5mph) as it helps to get it to engage. As for the tcase whining a bit, every truck that I've ever driven in 4lo whined just a bit.

 

Anything uphill offroad you should be in 4LO. I tried 4HI once and it was zero power going uphill and smoked the clutch too. I also figured that it's better to drop the clutch than to feather it like you would on the streets.

 

If you would have hit the whoops 20mph faster you would have ran through it like a motocross bike

 

yeah if you have a manual trans, you want to be in 4lo when climbing hills or you can kiss your clutch goodbye in no time. It's easy to lose momentum and power going uphill in 4hi, unless you start with a lot of momentum but that isn't always smart or possible.

The TRD e-locker is notorious for taking some time to engage, everything needs to line up for it to lock in place and sometimes that takes a minute of driving, other times you get lucky and it locks in right away. Depending on the trail I'll usually leave mine locked if I'm in 4lo for an extended period of time, so I don't have to worry about it not locking when I need it to. Although you don't really want to keep it locked if you're making a lot of turns, it'll eat up your tires depending on the terrain.

 

I guess i'm just used to having an automatic, and /not/ having traction control. This hill wasn't crazy steep so I didn't think i'd need 4lo. I think if i'd turned traction control off, it at least would have spun the tires instead of stalling out

And good to know on the e-locker, thanks guys

What does that mean? flying? (in regards to motorcross bike) I was going a bit faster than I probably should have to make it a better video

 

rolling and make a turn or s bend if you're on a tight trail to get your locker to engage. splines need to line up to lock and that wont happen driving straight or not moving.

 

Sometimes going faster over rough terrain can feel less rough than going real slow, but I wouldn't do that on stock or stock-like suspension...a mid travel or long travel setup is more ideal for that.

 

20 mph faster would have made for a better video

 

haha a better video for sure... as it endos

And kind of odd on the locker - means it won't be likely to help if you're already stuck and want to kick it in.... as I was....
And I say odd based on my experience with Ford e-lockers and Chevy Gov-lockers

 

If you're stuck and need a locker it means one wheel is free spinning. The free spinning wheel will allow the splines to align and the diff to lock and power will then go to the high traction wheel and now you're unstuck

 

Yup, this.

 

Or you have 3 wheels spinning and a front one with traction doing nothing.

 

^ isn’t that what ATS is for?

 

Whining is normal

Locker can be a bit temperamental. I find turning a little or letting one wheel spin slightly helps. It's just trying to line up the pins etc that lock it so the differential has to turn.

Use 4lo when doing Hills

 

I don't know. What's ATS? I got stuck in a snow drift and had 3 wheels spinning. Maybe crawl control would have worked but I forgot to try.

 

I usually attempt to lock the rear at a dead stop. If I am unable to, I'll let it roll forward or back a little to line things up.

 

If you ever get stuck , ( lose traction) you can do this trick and works very well !!

When you notice your tires are spinning and losing forward momentum stop then either pull your E brake out 3-5 clicks or light steady pressure on your brake pedal . Doing this will allow the power going into the differential to be equally distributed and make the axle think it has a locker

Also if you're geared low 4.88 or higher numerically gear ratios and using low range starting off in 2nd gear helps limit wheel spin

 

Putting pressure on the break pedal cuts throttle on the third gen. Safety feature since they had the run away cars a few years back. Also we have a Trac that does this for you automatically and puts the break on just the free spinning wheel.

 

ATS is for manual transmissions only, it’s an aggressive traction control system designed to minimize wheel speed differences side to side. Works in low range only, i think. Automatics get crawl control and multi-terrain select, which do the same thing, with more advanced options