For all my sport guys....

Didn't know that, thank you. Not that I back uphill much for firewood, but might be nice if in a jam in some other situ.
Duane

 

Adding a winch is a higher priority than locker on my mods list.

 

I find ATRAC to be disappointing. Way back in early 2000's my brother had a 4Runner with ATRAC and it seemed way more aggressive than the current ATRAC in my 2019. Mine allows too much wheel spins before it steps in. Earlier ATRAC stepped in much sooner. Did Toyota make ATRAC less aggressive in recent years??

 

I'm not sure on any changes over the years. My 2006 Tacoma did not have ATRAC. My 2000 4runner did not have ATRAC. Both did have rear lockers which were plenty for most of my offroading. My 2012 has ATRAC and it is a noticeable improvement over simply having the rear locker. I can't speak to the 2019s or any other models, just from my personal experience. Though, I don't doubt that Toyota has tweaked it over the years to fir the various applications.

 

It’d be cool if the Sport came with more for the money, maybe a different tune, true dual exhaust, something. As it stands Sport vs OR is basically just paying for aesthetics vs paying for features. If you like the looks of the Sport that’s what you should get, it’s more than capable of doing 95% of what most people will do with it. If the aesthetics of the Sport don’t speak to you, get an OR. It is undeniably a better value.

 

Really? There should be a little delay, I mean it has to sense the wheel spinning and make the corrections. I personally like ATRAC and it has really shined going up uneven switch backs turns with my tires leaving the ground. Maybe your brother had ATRAC off and just the locker engaged . How much of a "delay" or spinning are you experiencing? Could it have been on a section of a trail that your other wheels had traction issues that the system was figuring out where to put the power? Or do you experience it with every ATRAC activation?

 

Experienced lots of front (and rear) wheel spins with ATRAC engaged on Texas Black Gap trail.. my forward progress was stopped until rear locker got engaged. Then again on snowy Colorado mountain trails.. lots of front wheel spins before brake was applied. I recalled his 4Runner had way less wheel spin before engagement, thus my question regarding Toyota making ATRAC less aggressive in recent years.

 

With MTS (available only for those with the AT) you can adjust the amount of wheel spin. In "rock" mode it spins very little... in snow mode it spins a lot more.

 

I have a manual so no such mode. I have read of 2nd gen's 1/4 wheel turn before ATRAC braked. I can tell you that 3rd gen ATRAC in a manual definitely isn't that aggressive.

 

Weird. I'm not aware of the required wheel spin to engage ATRAC on 2nd gens. And I can't tell you my specific wheel turn before ATRAC kicks in because I'm driving. But I have no outrageous delay in my manual concerning ATRAC.

 

Possibly? It's always been a bit 'lazy' compared to others such as jeep's BLD:

Current SR/SR5/Sport(?)

Jeep BLD:


I've always been curious if there's a difference between the amount of slip allowed before brake/e-diff intervenes in 3rd Gens with A-TRAC vs without.

 

The "virgin Tacoma" vs. the "Chad 4WD Justy with a missing door"

 

Another thing to note... ATRAC trucks don't have the hydraulic booster. I believe they just rely on vacuum, which can't apply as much pressure, and that pressure is tied to engine speed. The hydraulic system is on OR and Pro models with MTS/Crawl control and provides a lot more brake force down in the low speed/RPM range.

So it's possible ATRAC might be engaging the traction control, but if you are at very low speed/RPM, theres not enough vacuum pressure to get enough brake force on the slipping wheel(s).

 

Oh that's interesting! I'd thought that ALL OR trucks have brake boosters for ATRAC! This might explain the excessive wheel spinning/revving before ATRAC kicks in.

 

Sorry that was my bad, you are correct.. all OR models have the hydraulic booster, including those with manual transmissions.

Your problem may just be that ATRAC isn't adjustable on the MT tacomas. On the AT models, you get MTS which allows you to adjust the wheel slip... ATRAC likely uses a middle/average slip setting.

 

This 1000%.