Wisconsin Tacomas and bad financial advice

My older brother wasn't big on sharing either...
I made do anyhow.

 

Having 5 brothers we did share somethings. I still wonder just how my parents made it work financially.

 

Life was easier and far cheaper back in those days.
Hand pumping the water, kerosene lanterns, huge gardens, outhouses. Good times growing up!
Hell, on occasion, the stagecoach driver would let me drive for a spell.

 

You couldn't keep us kids in the house. Summer or Winter.
Mom always had to yell for us to come eat supper.

 

I might have to pull the plug on these raptor lights.
The Ford thing and T.W. ridicule doesn't bother me.
Today I saw them on an Outback and a Suburban.
That's a bit disturbing.

 

Wait, that can't be true. I thought you were the cabin boy for Columbus when discovered the America's.

 

That was my dad!







I actually do have an ancestor that was on the Mayflower

 

Yes, it’s completely useless as it comes set up from the factory. By completey useless, I mean that the parking brake can’t even hold the vehicle in neutral on a very slight incline. I’ve even had a master tech (not Scott) tell me they all don’t work. Granted, he was on his lunch break, and he was waved down by the service advisor who was trying to get rid of me, but I digress.

It is possible to set them up so they actually work very well. It required some adjustment of the cable lengths under the interior center console, and aggressively setting the starwheel to where it still kind of rubbing for the first few miles. They been working great with just one small star wheel adjustment after I initially set it to perfection about maybe 30,000 miles ago.

Mine will hold the vehicle still even when I put it in drive and raise rpm to about 1500rpm. So it will definitely hold on a hill by itself. It can even lock up the rears while on moving.

I don’t have the cool pull handle, but I suppose it’s possible to use the parking brake to manage momentum in ledges or pop-up type situations off road. Maybe even putting a few clicks on it before climbing something sketchy? Or I could learn how to use my gas pedal better lol.

 

I had that exact one! Front wheel was flatspotted, because even back then I had issues the whole braking thing

To be fair, the driveway where I grew up needed 4wd to climb when wet, and it dumped straight onto a busy through road.

 

I was cheated. Big Wheels were after I was 'too old'.

 

Are you ever too old for a Big Wheels? LOL.

 

True. These days the Big Wheels go on the truck and are much more expensive. (Someone here might argue that mine still aren't big enough... [35s baby!])

 

Well it didn't stay clean long.
No brakes necessary today.
Send it!

 

We would take our 'lil brothers and sisters tricycles and turn the frames upside down, way before Big Wheels were invented. They did look like a big wheel, but we couldn't do any stunts with the hard rubber tires. I was too big to have a one when they came out in the early '70's, but I sure wanted one.

 

I've heard, and my personal experience agrees that the parking brake in the 3rd gen Taco actually ratchets on and requires the service brake (brake pedal) to be pressed to release it.
Makes it useless for hooning in corners in snow. I have not tried it off road. Note for the next Tigerton trip!

Upside of left foot braking to fool the diffs is it works globally no matter which wheels are spinning.
Downside of left foot braking to fool the diffs is it works globally no matter which wheels are spinning.

That is the beauty of a system like ATRAC it will brake each wheel individually. The downside of ATRAC or similar is it requires wheel spin to get the system to engage. That can dig out the trail or otherwise damage it.

https://youtu.be/uZTxOJH10tE?si=2OyQaWLCCUlXCrHG&t=932
This is a good example. Also having 4lo gearing makes a huge difference. I cringe when I see videos of someone trying to take a Subaru off road on a challenging trail.

Edit: Of course right after I post this Youtube suggests a better video.

https://youtu.be/4uM-BiJPl2I?si=rA9aeUKe9D2CbDQb

 

Great info and explanations.
Thanks.
I wasn't aware the MTS disengaged after a certain speed.
The video after that answered my crawl control on the rock bridge thought.
https://youtu.be/c2vSxwxUpsM?si=Y9Es_pFleDf40Zlp

 

I'm pretty sure I had the button pressed on mine, and even after releasing it the back wheels were dragging. First time I actually stopped and got out to see whet was the matter. I thought maybe the drums had iced up or something. Really killed the fun.