Inclines and low oil pressure

On a number of occasions the low oil pressure alert has come on after my taco had been stationary on a incline for a period of time. In most cases I have simply moved it off the incline, but in one case that was not a good option. I was on trail narrower than the truck with a cliff going down on one side and cliff going up on the other side. I never looked at the inclinometer, but I estimate the truck was tilted 20 degrees. I couldn’t get off the incline quickly and shutting the engine off meant I would be stranded. I’m curious often others experience these situations and how they react to them. How concerned should I be about the low pressure warning? It seems really bad and if so it’s a design flaw that I might want to fix.

 

There's a big thread on this somewhere on here, basically you are not alone..it's a well known issue with the 3rd gens and steep inclines

 

I’ve read through parts of the smoking threads but I didn’t see discussion that directly addressed my questions. For example, I don’t think an oil catch can is a solution because it doesn’t address the oil starvation issue.

Also, I doubt it’s a 3rd gen only thing. I think it’s a wet sump vs dry sump thing. However I’ve not encountered it before probably because my previous 2 wheel drive trucks couldn’t get into so much trouble.

 

I've been on plenty of incredibly steep inclines in the mountain trails out here and never had it happen on mine, not saying it couldn't but it given the testimonies on here it seems to be far more common with the newer trucks.

I seem to remember talk about installing a catch can being a possible solution to it

 

A catch can doesn’t seem to address my concern. I’m less worried about burning oil and more worried about oil starvation.

The apparent older vs 3rd gen difference could be due to oil system differences or oil pressure sensor differences. It’s hard to tell.

In the end, I mostly concerned with hearing from others that experience it and what they do about it. Avoid situations where the truck is on an incline for extended periods of time or gas it?

 

you could overfill it by a quart or maybe drop the pan and try to get the oil pickup deeper down somehow.

 

One note... when I have experienced this, the truck has been on an incline for an extended period of time while idling or close to idling. I haven’t paid attention to whether giving it more throttle clears up the problem.

 

Just happened to me. Stopped on incline downhill to clear road. Got back in and gave me the warning. Immediately shut it down and checked everything then spent time looking up issue.