Odd traction control behavior and electronic nannies

Hi and sorry for the lack of an introductory post. Ive been lurking for a few months now and I am just so lazy and slow at the interwebz that i never got around to making an account

Anyway, I have a '21 Sr5 and have noticed the TC kicking in during situations where it really hurts the momentum i am trying to keep. Shutting it off does not seem to make a huge difference. Still seems pretty intrusive. There's a beach here with the texture of the sand is very coarse and almost like micro pebbles, with a lot of seaweed sort of mixed and matted in. Hard to explain but walking on it almost feels like a sponge. Its a really difficult stretch to drive on. From one end to the other is about two miles, and the first time i went I was bogging and kind of creeping through questioning my choice, when i got a bit of traction i basically floored it, and all the sudden it kicked down and started responding to what i was trying to do and i made it the last mile going like 30-40 mph

It was really weird, it was acting like a dog and took a few minutes before it changed like someone flipped a light switch

Fast forward to today, I was with my father-in-law on the same section of beach. I warned him about it and he said no big deal. he has a '17 limited with 285/60/18 terragrippers.

Surprisingly he seemed to have it much worse than me and about a mile his transmission temp light came on

Again online, same dog like behavior traction on or off I could have it floored in first gear And it wouldn't go over 3000 RPM. When they finally decided to turn their truck around I got behind them. He aired down to 20 I kept 32ish Since I like to use airing down as my crutch for when things are going really wrong, Which was happening for them. Let them get a good head start and they were about a quarter mile up. Just had it in regular drive this time with the traction control on and this time once I start getting a tiny bit of momentum I pretty much rolled into the throttle and it kicked down And let me fly along again around 40 miles an hour.

I can't figure out for the life of me what's going on but it's like the truck wants to drive like a slug for the first five or 10 minutes and then after that it realizes I'm not messing around.

I come from a Land Rover background and I'm used to electronic intervention of all sorts. There's definitely some heavy-handed traction control and throttle limiting at play but for some reason after a while it's like it stops and just let you drive how you want

Any ideas?

thanks in advance

-Chris

 

Did you shut it off completely? You have to hold down the button completely for a good while until it turns off. Otherwise it’ll still nanny you.

 

I've noticed the same on my 2020 sr5 when on a hill of slick mud. With it on or off not a lot of difference except a lit led on the dash rather than flashing. Even with tc on i can still chirp the tires when starting off abruptly on pavement.

 

Didn't know that, but the led on the dash stays on fully displaying its off.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-traction-control-modes-explained.530695/

Check out this thread, might explain it a bit better.

 

Thanks for the replies folks! I thought the TC was fully disabled but iirc i may have been in drive with my foot off the brake so its possible there was some minute tire movement that kept it from happening

That chart linked above is very useful since google search still often brings me to 2nd gen threads i need to wade through even if i search 3rd gen

Whats odd is that it seemed to take on a totally different characteristic after a few minutes of slugging along. It is almost like some sort of adaptive TC that finally realized i wasn't going to let up

It is strange because both times the exact same thing happened

Im on 265/70/17 Falken Rubitreks and my Father in law on 285/60/18 terragrapplers, we were surprised i was having a much easier time than he was but he is on E rated so perhaps my softer sidewalls helped a bit. Oddly enough my disco never had a traction issue but the engine temps were the cause for concern and i found myself stopping around the same spot when the coolant temp shot past 240...

to add insult to (almost) injury there was a group parked on the beach we were struggling through with a highlander hybrid, a subaru forester on mud terrains, and a nissan armada. I have to familiarize myself with this trucks characteristics a bit better. The rovers were basically idiot proof off road but terribly unreliable so i can appreciate this thing being so mechanically sound, airing down won't get a car that won't start off the beach. Also these tires are brand new so a bit too prone to digging perhaps. At one point I had 3 Discos, and the one with the bald highway terrains always ate the others alive on the deep stuff