Good Friday Offroading

Did my first pretty serious bit of offroading last week with a buddy from work. Its been raining on and off for a week and a half here in the midwest so we knew it could be sketchy.

While wheeling I noticed a couple of things:

He was in a seriously powerful Nissan Titan XD Pro-4x Diesel with an emissions delete. He's got power for days. One of the major complaints about the 3rd gen is lack of power, but I've got to say, having a truck that literally weighs half what his does was really great. While both trucks try to upshift whenever possible to maintain fuel efficiency, his truck was hunting all over for gears. I noticed that my Taco was doing surprisingly well picking the appropriate gear for the job. I didn't get stuck once. He got bogged down a few times and could not power his way out of certain situations. The Tacoma just rolled right over anything I pointed it at.

This whole experience really opened my eyes to the trucks capability and I think I detected a hint of jealousy after a few successful runs.

Bottom-line: big ass diesel trucks are cool and the third gen is proving itself to me to be pretty capable. I'll put up with annoying shiftpoints on the highway if it keeps from getting stuck in the mud offroad.

 

It’s great to hear stories like yours in regards to the 3rd Gen TRAC system. Cool beans.

 

Just curious, why would you guys let the transmission constantly be looking for a gear offroad instead of putting it in manual mode to select the right gear?

 

just out of curiosity, have you had all of the TSB "ECU reflash" done? I had same gear hunting issues until the TSBs

 

To be honest, I never needed to go manual. It worked just fine in auto. I didn't even need to mess with the ECT button. As long as I had speed I climbed every incline just fine. Didn't need to manually down shift for downhill stuff either. Plenty of control.

 

I pressed my local dealer to do it and they said it "didn't apply to my VIN". Now that I'm out of warranty, I haven't been in to fight for it. I'd be curious to try it.

 

honestly, it was a game changer. I'd look into it to verify that it doesn't apply.

 

If I go back in I'll be sure to have the TSB printed out in hand.