Crawl Control

I am waiting delivery on my new Off-Road TRD and I have a couple questions on the crawl control. I notice in all the videos demonstrating how fantastic it, it is always staged with the truck stuck in sand going uphill, and it always free itself by backing down-hill. This repeated staging makes me suspicious. Does it work as well doing something different? How well does it work unsticking itself in snow? In going forward, uphill in sand?

 

I tried it going up a sand hill that I got it stuck in driving up normally. It was climbing it. Would have taken all day to reach the top but it was moving lol

 

Was driving around up near Flagstaff AZ last winter in the snow, pulled off side of road to let lady take a pee break. Classic bad idea...the snow was hiding a runoff ditch. Passenger side of the truck was buried up to the rocker panels in slush/snow/mud. I was in my little beater 4x4 ranger with duratracs. It is a very capable little rig; I put it in 4-lo and was able to move forward and backward but couldn't get enough traction to lift me up out of the ditch. Luckily a rancher was driving by in a dodge 2500 4x4 and I always have my tow strap handy. He had me out in less than 2 minutes. Can't help but wonder how Crawl Control would have worked in that situation.

 

crawl control is just an AID. its intended to assist in sticky situations but by no means is it a miracle tool. if you compared a truck with crawl control to a truck without it all other things being equal...no amount of human control of the throttle/brakes/4x4 could un-stick a truck buried to the axles in sand. the crawl control is able to build up sand under the tires slowly to dig it out. its near impossible to do that with your foot on the gas. its amazing how many people expect this tool to transform your truck into a hovercraft that can lift itself out of anything. in my opinion, better to have one than to not. just like a rear locker (for anyone that bought the sport model and intends on taking it off road)

 

Not expecting that, just wondering what I should expect. But it is what Toyota Marketing people would like to lead you to believe.

 

So when you put the Off Road models into 4-Low it is just open diffs until you turn on Crawl Control. Or even in regular 4-Low is there some sort of TRAC helping?

 

Anyone out there with good knowledge of the 2016 traction controls should do a good stickie thread like this one for the older models.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/traction-controls-2009-2014.310726/

 

Is this something that you guys can see yourself using?

I kind of see it like the clutch over ride button. Something I would use 2 times in the time frame I own the truck.

But I do think it's really cool and great technology. I also wonder how well it will work in snow or that wet clay mud like in GA.

 

I have been messing around with it some. On the lower settings it bucks a lot as it doesn't ease in the throttle or the brakes. I haven't been in anything that would really make use of it as a traction aid as atrac has been enough for all the conditions I have been in thus far. I did use it to control a crossing of a creek bed that I scraped my hitch on when I did it manually and cc took it slow enough even on the sudden change in pitch there was no scraping. I look forward to seeing how it does in the snow this winter but I will still have my recovery gear on hand for when I find it's limit...

 

About three hours after I posted this I got myself really stuck in the mud. I dropped both front wheels into a deep soupy rut. The back wheels were on grass and probably would have had enough grip had the front wheels not needed to climb straight up about 8". I tried crawl control on its own and it didn't seem like it was going to do it. I tried a come along winch and the angles weren't right to the tree that I could reach. I ended up putting the truck in reverse and getting out, reaching in the window and putting it on the lowest setting for crawl control, and working the come along together with crawl control and that got me out. I had to run around to hop in and shut it off before it hit the tree I was winching to but overall it was a successful strategy that I wouldn't have been able to do without a second person or crawl control.

 

It works even on flat ground.. Though I'm sure it's useful, it's not going to work for every situation.. And it is the same system that is used on the Land Cruiser and LX, just that they've had it longer..

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literally nobody has ever said that before.

 

I tried mine out this weekend. It impressed me. I climbed a dirt/gravel hill using the CC and the only thing I could see was blue sky, it was ridiculously steep. It truly puts the power to the wheels with the most traction and removes power from the wheels that try to break free and spin. Then I tried regular 4 LO with Diff lock and climbed the same hill. Same result, no spin. Both were impressive considering the angle but I could see some uses in the future for the CC.

 

Here is, IMHO, an impressive CC demo from Mike330R:


And here is me climbing up a rocky/gravelly incline out here in Vegas:

As a 4wd beginner, I find CC quite fun to engage. But I've yet to have it dig me out of a bad situation.