Damnit!

[JBHorne]

I'm out of town in Albuquerque and went wheeling. Well it rained and then snowed and we were buried in deep mud. Lucky the LC got through it, but I have a few issues.

The Crawl control does jack s***. I hate it. It's pointless. Whenever I get stuck, I think "oh, I'll just flip this switch and watch the magic." Well guess what: do you know what happens when your tread is PACKED with mud and you are ON mud and snow??? You have ZERO traction. The key to this is spinning the tires and flinging the mud off of them. But no....the LC is "too smart" for this and doesn't let you hammer down when it has no traction. I heard more beeping today than I care to stand. Electronic systems do not always know best.

And when I enabled crawl control while climbing slippery slate??? Nothing. It moved the tires 1" and gave up. Seriously, it stopped trying after spinning the tire maybe 1". Pathetic.

And did you know you cannot disable the traction control system? Only the VSC can be disabled when in 4LOW.

So after struggling with the system when all I wanted was for the tires to at least TRY and get going again, it wouldn't. I had to pump the accelerator to get out and overcome the "smart" systems.

Honestly, the computers are getting in the way more than they are helping. Sometimes you just gotta step on it!!!

Oh, and I threw out my power steering somehow. Over 5mph its fine, but I can't turn the wheel under 5mph. I have no clue how that happened. This was a level 1 trail that's pretty flat. Think forest service road. Not difficult at all.

My GPS is still not tracking correctly. A road GPS does not belong in an off-road vehicle. If I even get NEAR a highway, it jumps to it. When you are wheeling back and forth across forest roads, the last thing you want is for the GPS to "lock on" to the nearest street. My breadcrumbs would jump 100 feet at points and have no clue where I actually was.

Afterwards, the GPS system decided to reset itself and put me back in the East Coast and loose all my previous piss-on-a-tree marks.

And now when I travel above 50mph the car starts vibrating like crazy. Really? Already????

I expect better...........

UPDATE: In order to disable BOTH TRC and VSC in 4LOW, you must lock the CD and then HOLD THE TRC button for 3 seconds. (Thanks to mo.africa)

 

[bulldog-yota]

The 200 has a center diff lock??

Did you lock the center diff? It normally disables a lot of the fancy electronics and allows you to hammer down if you like.

 

[JBHorne]

The 200 has a center diff lock??

Did you lock the center diff? It normally disables a lot of the fancy electronics and allows you to hammer down if you like.

Of course

It was MUD.

 

[dtt255]

Wow...sounds like a hell of a ride.

Obviously something is not right.

Stupid questions but the vibration could be from mud stil stuck in the tread, or even stuck to the INSIDE of the tire near the brake area etc. You might want to pull the tires off and clean the inside of any mud. This has happened to me a few times.

I understand what you are saying about the GPS, but from Toyota's perspective who knows if the Aussie version has alot of the off road trails marked. They don't expect us US owners to do anything offroad.

I wonder if with all the force you were using trying to get out, you pulled a hose lose or something for your power steering. Is the fluid still in the chamber? Is it full?

 

[JBHorne]

Wow...sounds like a hell of a ride.

Obviously something is not right.

Stupid questions but the vibration could be from mud stil stuck in the tread, or even stuck to the INSIDE of the tire near the brake area etc. You might want to pull the tires off and clean the inside of any mud. This has happened to me a few times.

I understand what you are saying about the GPS, but from Toyota's perspective who knows if the Aussie version has alot of the off road trails marked. They don't expect us US owners to do anything offroad.

I wonder if with all the force you were using trying to get out, you pulled a hose lose or something for your power steering. Is the fluid still in the chamber? Is it full?

The car is COVERED in mud. I will take a pic

The vibration could possibly be from mud on the inside of the wheel. I spun all the mud off the tread already. This isn't my main concern as wheel balance is an easy fix (usually). Above 80mph, it goes away. At 60-75 its worst.

I did check the power steering fluid. Thank you toyota for putting it in such an obvious location (no, thats not sarcastic -- it really is sitting all by itself on the front left).

I am heading out again today, but tomorrow before I leave I'm going to powerwash the hell out of everything.

And to think I wasn't even planning on going mudding!

Thanks for the suggestions

BTW -- Could mud cause the powersteering to fail? Keep in mind at higher speed about 15mph its fine. It's just extreamly stiff and grinds if you try to turn the wheel below 5mph. Trying to reverse into a parking space is impossible. Forget about parrallel parking!

 

[Range Cruiser]

Whenever I get stuck, I think "oh, I'll just flip this switch and watch the magic." Well guess what: do you know what happens when your tread is PACKED with mud and you are ON mud and snow??? You have ZERO traction. The key to this is spinning the tires and flinging the mud off of them.

Whoa, I am feeling you, especially since today I was out and about in the mud too. I didn't try Crawl mode, since the mud was not deep enough to get stuck, but it was sticky enough to make me think that clogging the stock Yokohamas is going to be a disadvantage even with electronic wizardry.

We were yawing at some points, enough to activate the VSC (this was all in 4H), and another driver chickened out at a steep incline with wet grass on both sides, and we turned around at that point. I on the other hand would have tried to persuade the LC up the incline, to see how it would have handled it. So no wheelspin and Crawl test on this outing alas!

It seems a tire upgrade is in order, or even better, a full offroad wheel and tire set for the spring and winter time when it is wet and muddy.

So what I have gained from JBHorne is this: Crawl control on stock(?) tires in mud, bad. VSC too helpful, bad.

On a side note, ever see a 6X6 truck in action off road? It is very cool! I got the impression it would go anywhere, except where its size and weight would be a liability. I may have to continue and expand this thought with photos on a more appropriate forum.

 

[mo.africa]

Inorder to disable VSC you have to engage centre diff lock then depress the VSC button for 3 seconds.(the VSC warning light shoud then come on).I'm curious to know if this was done?As this should in theory disable traction control and allow the wheels to spin freely.

 

[chimyz]

I'm pretty sure crawl control was built for negotiating slow obstacles (like rock crawling, steep uphill or downhill) and not mud. I've been stuck in mud (with stock wheels) and crawl control didn't do anything. If there is no grip on any of the wheels, no amount of electronics, gagetry or diff locks will help...the only thing is to upgrade to tires that won't get you into that situation.

Crawl control has it's place, but it's not deep mud.

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

I'm pretty sure crawl control was built for negotiating slow obstacles (like rock crawling, steep uphill or downhill) and not mud. I've been stuck in mud (with stock wheels) and crawl control didn't do anything. If there is no grip on any of the wheels, no amount of electronics, gagetry or diff locks will help...the only thing is to upgrade to tires that won't get you into that situation.

Crawl control has it's place, but it's not deep mud.

100% right on.

And if you wanted to spin wheels, all you need to do is lock the CDL and go for it. The 200 is dual-mode like the 100 was.

Light throttle...it'll crawl through the rocks while controlling the wheel spin

Use too much gas...no help in the rocks but it'll spin the mud/crap/snow/sand out of the wheels and let to fly. You want to red line the thing in 4-LO...it'll do it. Of course we all know how badly mud can disable us to 0 MPH.

 

[fcfred]

where are the pics?!

otherwise it sounds like you're in need of some lockers and Muddies, just like most other cruisers. (except those darn 80 guys)

 

[JBHorne]

where are the pics?!

otherwise it sounds like you're in need of some lockers and Muddies, just like most other cruisers. (except those darn 80 guys)

The problem with pictures (as I'm sure you all know) is that the most extreme photos are always the most inopportune time to open the doors and get out, lol.

I'm not going to open my door when my door is halfway up in mud. To wash my car a bit I tried driving into a large puddle about 1 foot deep, but it didn't do much. Just made it dirtier. So I had some fun in it. Nothing like hitting a puddle with speed off the highway!

I have some after glamor shots that I will post when I return home.

 

[fcfred]

Oh, and I threw out my power steering somehow. Over 5mph its fine, but I can't turn the wheel under 5mph. I have no clue how that happened.

double check your serpentine belt. if it's broken or missing you need to fix it asap.

though i assume you would have a warning light on.

 

[JBHorne]

double check your serpentine belt. if it's broken or missing you need to fix it asap.

though i assume you would have a warning light on.

Nope, but thanks. it's tight.

Going to the dealer soon anyways for my 5K service.

 

[dtt255]

are where are the pictures?!?!?!?!

Did you check all the control arms for and everything else for caked on mud that could be causing steering issues?

 

[Atticus]

I've never driven a 200, but I've got to think that using the crawl function in that scenario was just driver error. It's meant for when you want to "crawl." Shotts is right: just put it in 4 LO and hit the gas and it should spin those wheels.

 

[JBHorne]

Shotts is right: just put it in 4 LO and hit the gas and it should spin those wheels.

In 4LO, if any tire starts to spin, the PCM will cut power to all wheels. So if you gun it, it will spike to redline and then the ABS will kick in and attempt to regain traction. Remember this thing has limited-slips with a whole host of electronics to control slippage via brakes.

I want to try mo.africa's idea with the CD locked and HOLDING the VSC for 3 seconds. This isn't in the manual, but might allow you to hammer down to redline like shotts said even if wheels are loosing traction.

Inorder to disable VSC you have to engage centre diff lock then depress the VSC button for 3 seconds.(the VSC warning light shoud then come on).I'm curious to know if this was done?As this should in theory disable traction control and allow the wheels to spin freely.

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

In 4LO, if any tire starts to spin, the PCM will cut power to all wheels. So if you gun it, it will spike to redline and then the ABS will kick in and attempt to regain traction. Remember this thing has limited-slips with a whole host of electronics to control slippage via brakes.

I want to try mo.africa's idea with the CD locked and HOLDING the VSC for 3 seconds. This isn't in the manual, but might allow you to hammer down to redline like shotts said even if wheels are loosing traction.

Gotta be a way. They couldn't have programmed this like a Sequoia! Gotta be a mode where you can hit the gas and the wheels fly 24/7 and the mud/sand flings out like mad. Gotta be a mode.

 

[chimyz]

Gotta be something wrong? The one time I was stuck, I had all 4 wheels spinning trying to free myself. I never had any cut out or anything. I even remember my buddy telling me to cool it at one point because all it was doing was digging me in further.

Unfortunately I don't remember what I had on or off, but I'm pretty sure I was in 4lo with diff lock on and VSC off.

 

[Jonty]

You need some mud-terrain tires!

 

[ShottsUZJ100]

Gotta be something wrong? The one time I was stuck, I had all 4 wheels spinning trying to free myself. I never had any cut out or anything. I even remember my buddy telling me to cool it at one point because all it was doing was digging me in further.

Unfortunately I don't remember what I had on or off, but I'm pretty sure I was in 4lo with diff lock on and VSC off.

Good! Nothing wrong then. The system will and needs to let you spin those suckers!