3rd Gen Traction Control Modes Explained

If you want to truly understand what the purpose of the rear locker is, try taking your Taco on a real hard core off road trail. I regularly take my (now Highly modified) '20 TRD Pro on the Rubicon Trail, one of the most difficult and famous off road rock crawling trails in the U.S. When you are crawling slick rock, you will very much appreciate that mechanical locker and wish that Toyota offered a mechanical front locker option.

I am saving my pennies for an ARB front air locker, but honestly the CC works surprisingly well in combination with the mechanical rear locker. My friends with the Jeeps always said that I wouldn't be able to do the trail with IFS, and would need a solid axle. They now admit that the Taco really articulates very well, close to if not equal to their solid axles. In fact the first time I took it out to Rubicon Springs from the Tahoe side, I actually made it out and back stock except for 33" tires and rock rails. (See my profile picture, taken on that trail) The only damage other than some pinstriping, was the rear plastic bumper corner that I caught coming down on a rock.

After installing high rise front & rear steel bumpers with up-armor side protection, full steel skids nose to tail, rock rails, 35" BFG KM3's, Heavy duty leaf springs, Decked bed drawer system and multiple weld on upgrades it is a true beast off road. I personally love rock crawling now, it's the most fun you can have under 5 mph! The main difference between our Tacomas and Jeeps etc. is that our trucks just keep running, are reliable, and actually hold their value... Unlike ALL the others. If you are concerned about gas mileage though, these are Not the truck for you...

 

This thread is priceless but I still can’t make my mind up if I want to put my air locker in the front or the rear of my truck.

 

I presume you don't have the Off Road TRD, so no factory rear locker?
You add a locker to the rear, always, if you are doing just one axle. It would be a rare event to even need a front locker. When you climb a steep uneven or rocky grade, the condition that would most often need a locker, the center of gravity shifts back, putting more weight on the rear.

 

Correct I don’t have factory lockers and I agree with your post completely, stumbled on some YouTube videos debating the question and it seemed to be the consensus that if you have a lsd in the rear put the locker in the front (that’s how I found this thread, trying to figure out if my sr5 had lsd) but I’m going to do the rear. I am a huge fan of the stock 4x4 system, especially with the help of the control mapping in this thread. I may have been motivated to purchase the locker when it was announced that the 22 sr5 trail edition was getting a locker and that just didn’t sit well with me considering they left the e-locker out of the 21 trail model. But it will be a welcomed improvement to my rig.

 

You have an ABS activated Auto-LSD. Even if we had a mechanical LSD, you'd still want the locker in back with the LSD up front.

That said, our vacuum boosted TRAC system does really well off road with wheels in the air. The only problem that I have encountered is in a technical area where our system takes more throttle and wheel speed to activate than A-TRAC / MTS does. In those cases, I adjust my line versus goosing it.


About the 2022 Trail Edition, I'm curious what braking system is in there and if the diff is still 8.0in or if they tossed in the 8.75in diff.

 

My understanding is the 8.75 is needed to fit the e locker, so wouldn’t the 22 trail have the 8.75 if it has the factory e-locker?

 

Hard to say. That is why I am wondering.

My best guess is that @Jeff Lange would know this, if anyone does. It is certainly a weird mix of parts already. If I were Toyota, it would have just been easier to make the 2022 TE out of an OR to start with.

 

While TRAC and Auto LSD do help, and I am a fan, neither one can compare to a locked differential. Your biggest assist otherwise is lowering the air pressure and it can be a total rescue to most any stuck or steep obstacle.

 

I just came across this thread and good lord....... it is a damn goldmine.
I was planning on making a thread about this soon and asking all of the questions that this thread answers..... TW...... You are simply the best.

 

We've only been at it for five years or so.

 

I think it’s a safe bet to say the Trail will have the 8.75” diff if it’s getting a locker.

Jeff

 

Any web developers here? I started to throw all of this information into a little html file using Bootstrap and some tables and menus, but I'm a little rusty and don't have the bandwidth to learn and fiddle around with it.

Sure all of the info is right here in this thread but it could be organized and formatted a little bit better on a dedicated web page.

Some ideas:

• Put all of this info into a very, very basic but cleaning looking webpage. Keep it simple
• Give full credit to everyone here who contributed, especially OP. Make it obvious that the website owner is simply maintaining the site
• Have links linking back to this thread and give props to TW
• Provide examples, along with videos, as to when you would use certain modes
• Let user choose their year, make, model, and trim and it'll show them the modes available to them
• Add the button pictures, describe what the lights mean, etc.
• Expand on basically everything
• Etc.

Meh I dunno.... Just a thought. It would take a pro web developer just a few hours to throw up a little site. It won't need anything fancy like user accounts, a database, forms, etc. Just basically display information and some menus and links and images.

Maybe http://www.toyotatractioncontrolmodes.com

P. S. Some info can also be scraped from here: https://www.tundras.com/threads/traction-control-everything-you-want-to-know.21697/

 

Folks with the Pro & Off Road should be testing these functions out approx. once a month to keep things lubed. (rear locker, Crawl control, 4hi, etc..)

Any Taco model with 4x4 should do the same. On a hard rainy day, is always a good time to throw it into 4hi.

 

Excellent advice... Use the 4WD (Hi and Lo), even if briefly. The ADD (Automatic Disconnecting Differential) needs some love. The Rear Locker as well, just to keep things 'lubed'. A-TRAC, MTS, CRAWL are all electric devices that use the ABS brakes so they are not things that need to be 'lubed' like the transfer case, ADD, and locker motor.

My 2010 Off Road 4x4 Tacoma with 131,000 miles, still functions in all modes. That is even when I forget to use the 4WD monthly, as advised!

 

Just got thru reading this excellent thread. Not sure if this pic changes or agrees with the findings? The PDF docs in the first post show VSC & TRAC to be off with MTS engaged. Took me a little while to read the whole thread. I may just be confused. Lol. The pic came from my 2021 owner's manual. I have the TRD Off Road AT. Thoughts?

 

Technically what’s happening when MTS(or CRAWL or ATRAC on an MT) is engaged is the TRAC/VSC systems run a different program designed for off-road traction. It’s all the same set of sensors and computers using the ABS system to vector torque around and find traction, except instead of working to reduce wheel spin and prevent slides it’s working to find the most traction. So basically the torque vectoring is much more aggressive and it stops cutting throttle if there’s wheelspin

So normal TRAC/VSC programs are still not engaged, but that system is doing something else. I guess that’s some weird quirky error message that happens if you try to press the traction control off button while using one of the off road traction modes.

 

Hmmm, let me try to explain what Toyota means... Keep in mind, much of their written instructions have not translated well into English!

MTS (like A-TRAC) is a Low Range feature to get you through, up, and over most anything. MTS is the new "active traction control" or A-TRAC (it is adjustable A-TRAC for different terrain conditions).

So, if MTS is on, you can't turn A-TRAC off (otherwise MTS would be off, also). Now, in my truck, VSC goes off in low range... so since you can't turn it on, you couldn't turn it off! That's the only way I can explain the manual wording.

What do you think?

 

As a software engineer by trade I’m pretty positive what’s happening is the that you’re locked out of trying to defeat traction control and vsc if in MTS or ATRAC or whatever because all of the hardware that makes VSC work is very much active just with different programming. So whether you pressed the traction button in an attempt to turn it off or on it’s contradictory to what you’ve already told it to do.

 

Both answers are helpful & make sense (unlike the manual). Thank you!!

 

Yep, says it right here. Just found it. Thanks guys.