2wd or 4wd? (1 Viewer)

[soh299]

Hey guys, would like to know if you guys usually drive in 2wd or 4wd when on normal Tarmac road? When I say 2wd, I mean the button which shuts off vsc in the lc200. Is vsc really important when on normal road?

I tried it and felt that the car was lighter and accelerates much faster. However I find that it loses bait of grip on the rear wheel. Share your experience on this!

P/s: what does the ahc do in the lc200 anyway? I find it pretty useless except for lowering and lifting the vehicle when it is not moving. ( it moves back to normal when the vehicle starts to move.)

 

[JBHorne]

Huh? There is no way to run the LC in 2wd mode. It is a full-time 4wd vehicle.

The VSC button serves 2 functions, VSC and TRC (hold for 3 seconds).

VSC has nothing to do with traction. Even so, a 6000lb 4wd vehicle has no shortage of traction even with TRC disabled. If you turn off VSC, you shouldn't experience ANY difference unless you were hammering corners on a dirt road.

Unless you were on a loose gravel dirt road, you would never experience slippage of the rear wheels. If you did, you would get an indicator and 3 beeps that VSC kicked in. In addition, you would feel the petals rebound on you as the vehicle took over control.

As for AHC on the LC200, it's not available in the US. AHC allows you to adjust the stiffness of the suspension from comfort to normal to sport. In comfort, the suspension is softer for daily driving. In sport, it's stiffer for hammering into corners. As for the height, it depends on if you are in 4hi or 4lo. In 4hi, you can adjust it, however at 50mph it will lower. In 4lo, you can raise it all the way and it should stay.

 

[soh299]

Thx for ur useful information, JBHorne.

In that case, do u recommend turning vsc off if I'm driving mostly on Tarmac road? In the lc200, we do need to turn it off each time the engine starts, is that right?

As for the ahc, should I be using 4h or 4lo when driving on normal roads?

 

[JBHorne]

Thx for ur useful information, JBHorne.

In that case, do u recommend turning vsc off if I'm driving mostly on Tarmac road? In the lc200, we do need to turn it off each time the engine starts, is that right?

As for the ahc, should I be using 4h or 4lo when driving on normal roads?

Turning VSC off is dangerous. With VSC off, if you had to perform an evasive manuver, you'd potentially roll. VSC is a very good thing! I only turn it off if I'm driving on a beech and need wheel spin to keep moving.

You couldn't possibly drive the vehicle in 4LO on roadways. Top speed is 30mph in 6th gear @ 6500rpm. It would be screaming at even 20mph!

Unless you are on a beech, crawling through a snow bank with 2+ ft of snow, or offroading (not just a graded dirt road, but serious "offroad") you will never use 4LO.

 

[soh299]

LOL at Top speed is 30mph in 6th gear @ 6500rpm. I guess I'm still a little too inexperience on it. Guess I shall leave everything as it is now.

Btw, do u mind explaining what's body roll? And does installing anti roll bar in the lc200 solves the problem? As far as I know, body roll is the swaying of the vehicle when making turns or going over uneven road.

 

[JBHorne]

LOL at Top speed is 30mph in 6th gear @ 6500rpm. I guess I'm still a little too inexperience on it. Guess I shall leave everything as it is now.

Btw, do u mind explaining what's body roll? And does installing anti roll bar in the lc200 solves the problem? As far as I know, body roll is the swaying of the vehicle when making turns or going over uneven road.

The LC does not need an anti-roll bar (sway bar), which is usually a torsion spring that controls body roll. Body roll occurs when the vehicle weight shifts from left to right. On SUVs with high center of gravity, as the vehicle enters a turn or evasive maneuver the body has the tendency to compress one side of the suspension while the other is loosened. Without a torsion spring or some other anti-roll mechanism, the vehicle would experience great amounts of sway, offsetting the CG possibly to the point of a rollover.

However, anti-roll bars also prevent the vehicle from articulating, so a balance of anti-roll bar stiffness is critical to the function of the vehicle. As the LC200 is designed to both be a phenomenal road mannered vehicle as well as an offroad splendor, Toyota engineers developed the KDSS system, which is a cross-linked fully mechanical hydraulic stabilizer system. When the vehicle is on level ground, the hydraulic pressure at all four corners is equal, thus the KDSS cylinders are all stiff. When one wheel drops, such as when offroading, the hydraulic pressure in the system also drops, which allows the cylinders to flex. These cylinders are placed inline of the stabilizer bars from left to right, thus creating a stiff anti-roll bar when wheels are level and soft when the wheels are uneven, effectively disconnecting the sway bars to allow for increased articulation.