Crawl Control Question Coming From A New Toyota Owner.

Hey Guys!

So I recently purchased a brand new Toyota Tacoma TRD Offroad.. I've worked my butt off for several years and I have finally achieved a goal I've strived for so long! I absolutely love the truck. I'm still under a 1000 miles and I've just been really gentle to the truck, took it off roading a couple days just to ease in the 4H, and 4L (nothin crazy, just simple straight loose gravel dirt roads). I never engaged the crawl or mts features at that time... so here comes my paranoia question, I let my brother test drive the vehicle yesterday and we took it again on a dirt road. Without even asking my permission he stops my truck and engages the 4L and switches my crawl control on... keep in mind we were not at all in a tough 4 wheel situation where my wheels were already slipping.. just a flat dirt road.. as I'm telling him no he goes 5 feet till he stops my truck.. I wanna say during that time I feel and here my cv's making a sort of harsh noise. After I made him put my truck out of 4 wheel nothing was noticable, so I'm assuming it wasn't a big deal.. so my question toyota owners, is this something I should worry about? I'm hoping this didnt affect my diffs or anything.. love my brother to pieces he's just a big kid that sometimes doesnt listen, but this is the last time he's driving my truck hahaha.

 

CC makes a lot of weird noises, it's fine.

 

If you'd been trying to do donuts on dry pavement, then paranoia would be appropriate.

 

Don’t sweat it, if a problem persists then maybe listen to where it’s coming from. My truck makes strange noises when it’s parked in the driveway and the ignition is off so it’s most likely normal.

 

What you heard was probably the ABS, it makes some deathly noises to engage the brakes independently.. Which is crawl control.
I think you’re good!

 

Welcome to The Forum!

 

It's fine, the trucks are loud when using the nannies in 4wd.

 

Those are just crawl control sounds, nothing to do with your axles. Your brother's just trying to have some fun, not that there is anything fun about crawl control.. I could walk faster.

 

Time to get a new brother ...

 

Your crawl control and CV’s were not the issue, and they will be OK. But you had a larger problem sitting next to you. Hope that one works out, you’ll regret it if left to be a long term one.

Welcome...and you thought you’d only get free truck advice here, didn’t you?

 

I appreciate the question, and the responses. The day I bought the truck I was quick to try out the crawl control on my neighbors steep gravel driveway. There were definitely some noises- but it sounds like that's to be expected.

I would tag a question on to the OP's, which is what sort of scenarios have people actually encountered the need to use this feature? As well as the multi-terrain select? Or are most of us just using 4 H and 4 L?

The backcountry up here in Northern AZ will give me lots of chances to test this stuff out, hopefully I'll get to answer my own question, but curious what other OR owners have found-

 

It's important to realize that "crawl control" is actually a feature on top of a feature, which is ATRAC. ATRAC works on the front axle to reduce wheel spin by using the brake on the spinning side, sending power (theoretically) to the side with grip. Crawl control comes on top of that with a cruise-control like feature to maintain a certain speed. For you auto folks, Mult Terrain select allows you to choose how much wheel spin you'd like.

For the manual, we just use gears and the clutch.

And yes, using a computer controlled brake system to prevent wheel spin is highly effective, if noisy and slow.

 

This might help too:

https://www.tacomahq.com/4641/inside-tacoma-differentials/

 

CC climbing is almost silent. Descending with CC makes noise through the ABS system which is normal.

 

I am by no means an expert in off roading. I wouldn't even rate myself as NOOB. But about 5 weeks ago, I was on a dirt road between Chino Valley and Jerome, AZ and I had the opportunity to take a turn on a road that looked a little more technical than a dirt road, but soon thereafter it became a tight one lane road with quite a bit of exposure. Oddly enough, still on the GPS, so it is a road traveled enough to warrant that. Well, at one point the trail contained quite a few bowling ball sized rocks and an unclear line, no more than 100 feet long. I was alone and decided at that spot I would use CC. I engaged it and set it at the 4th setting and just went for it and I loved it for that. I didn't have to stress about trying to two foot the pedals, I could focus on a line rather than feathering the throttle enough and it worked perfect. It showed me that the truck is very capable stock. I was very pleased with it for that. I haven't had the chance to use the MTS, but the CC is great for what it is. It helps me, an inexperienced ninny get through something I could have probably done without incident, without worrying about breaking my ride. I am sure there are other applications for it, but I have rapidly realized that I will never have the balls to drive this truck where it is capable. At least not until it is paid off.

 

Yeah, crawl control kinds sounds like a team of jackhammers on each wheel... or maybe what I imagine it sounds like from the inside when your truck is transforming into a giant robot.

edit: no, it sounds like an old wooden rollercoaster as it's ratcheting up the first giant hill.

 

Sadly he's the only one I got LOL it's okay tho his spot is in the passenger seat from now on

 

I read into this article.. really informative thankyou!

 

Sounds good. Not at all lol, I can take some flak. My problem will be in the passenger seat for now on

 

Thanks for curing my paranoia! Appreciate all the responses.