2021 TRD OR 4x4 Crawl Mode Question

My Tacoma is new with about 1700 miles. Until today I had not tested the crawl control mode. I was on a gravel road and put the truck in 4 Low. Then I turned on Crawl Control at 2nd speed level. Increases to level 4 and went forward about 30 yards. A loud crunching sound started from the front end, so I stopped and turned off crawl control. 4 low driving forward worked no problem. Test crawl control 2 more times and poping and crunching sounds continued. Stopped and drove in just 4 low for 500 yards until pavement and went to 2wd. Any thoughts on what is wrong? I read the manual and I don’t think I did anything wrong. It seemed like the gears in Crawl Control didn’t like the grave surface. Plan on taking back to dealership unless anyone has any other ideas. This is my first and only experience with Crawl Control.

 

Crawl control is noisy. That said, people have been experiencing problems with CRAWL on the 2021 models (2020 I think also?).

Might want to read thru this thread for some info:https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/crawl-control-not-working.657481/page-24

 

Thank you for your feedback. To me it didn’t sound good. It didn’t make any noises for the first 20 yards or so and then it started. Sounded the 4x4 gears were locking up as it I was driving on pavement and it couldn’t slip. Don’t plan on too much off road activities, but certainly want it to be able to do what it’s supposed to do.

 

It sounds like normal noisiness from that system.

Also gravel may not have been enough slip for it to work properly. Never had crawl control or similar systems but I have always avoided engaging 4lo on gravel or hard packed dirt/sand

 

Normal. There are no "crawl control gears". Crawl control applies throttle and individual wheel brakes based on the control strategy. It's noisy.

 

I had the same thoughts when I tried it for the first time as well. In my experience it uses the brakes and throttle to mitigate wheel slip. I tried it recently on a very steep sandy incline and it wouldn’t crawl up the hill, but me controlling the throttle in 4lo did the trick.