Clutch question for those who send it harder than I do

I took my '21 OR out into a State Forest to try to get to a small stream for fishing. There is a road that leads there that is on some maps but not others. It starts nice, then got really muddy and rutted, and eventually I got to a point near the bottom of a very steep rocky hill where I could not get through and could not turn around.

I had to back out, but even in 4low I had to keep the rpms up and ride the clutch hard. I bet you could have smelled it in the next county. Also, I got close to stalling and it made a clicking sound that can be best described as the noise an old wooden Rollercoaster makes as it pulls you to the top of the first hill.

My question is this: obviously besides avoiding that situation entirely, is that something that is detrimental to the truck or is that just a part of offroading? I'm very familiar with manual motorcycles and fwd economy cars, but nothing 4wd. The truck drives fine, so I'm not worried about today, I'm just curious if that's a normal thing to do and if everyone just accepts the premature clutch wear.

It's my daily and I dont do much technical offroading so a regear is not going to happen any time soon.

 

If you are smelling clutch it is detrimental. Needs to be minimized. At times it is the only choice. Sounds like this was one of those times.

 

I ran into that from time to time in my last Taco. After 120k miles I never had any clutch issues.

 

Reverse is poorly geared in these 6MT trucks. You burnt the clutch a bit but it’s nothing to worry about. Wouldn’t want to make a habit of it though.

Check out the 2 Lo Mod:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2lo-plug-play-harness-discussion.592035/

 

OP states he was in 4low so the 2low mod wouldn’t of helped.
OP did you have all traction aids off? Sometimes the only other option to keep from burning the clutch up is to keep the tire speed up.

Were you locked?


I did it pretty bad once trying to get up an absolutely massive ledge. I was worried about it at the time but after many many miles off-road since then it’s of zero concern anymore. Was it good for it? Definitely not, but its in the past and not worth worrying about. I would choose to winch before doing it again though.

 

Exactly what I wanted to hear

 

I agree, reverse is way too fast. I did have it in 4lo in this situation, but that 2lo mod looks great for backing up trailers

 

I was not locked but had VSC on. I had my General Grabber Arctics on and I wanted to avoid spinning those on all the loose, sharp rocks. Looking back, tire wear is probably preferable to clutch wear. I drive trucks frequently, and I drove manual cars frequently, but manual 4x4s are not something I'm familiar with

 

I've gotten my clutch hot a few times playing in the rocks. I've just recently replaced it because it would slip since the addition of a supercharger. But with that the flywheel looked like new still (only about 18,000 miles on the truck). Picture is the flywheel after hitting it by hand with a scotch bright pad. Surprisingly there were no hot spots and even the clutch disk looked like new. So unless you're having issues with it slipping during normal driving, go on about your day without worry.