Mishap at Moab

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Exactly...that's why I don't fault him. ATs stall with a lot of vehicles on a steep grade (like the gate). They just aren't made for it because who drives on a vertical wall? The right answer is the two foot drive. Hold the brake with your left foot, keep the RPMs up to where the truck stays put. That is your baseline. Using two feet, don't change the braking and use the throttle as your go and stop juice, never dropping below the rpms you figured out to keep the truck at 0 mph. It is a skill that takes practice.
 
I'm late to this party but this is sounding more and more like a main electrical fault. a power cut on a main link would cut power to the injectors and brake booster pump at the same time. the fact that it started back up and drove out makes me think lose terminal or short. I've had a long time struggle with similar problems in my 80, though with a vacuum booster not the brakes, that was related to a bad main engine harness i finally but the bullet on. it always happened under load up step climbs as the engine rocked back on its mounts.

if the ignition was still on the battery should have still provided brake boost unless it was severed electrically.
 
NGA-FJC above is correct, rolling backwards while the trans is in drive will stall the engine. It will handle a little bit but a lot will stop the engine. The brakes should have stopped the truck even with the engine off.
 
Whiskerz said:
NGA-FJC above is correct, rolling backwards while the trans is in drive will stall the engine. It will handle a little bit but a lot will stop the engine. The brakes should have stopped the truck even with the engine off.
Click to expand...
It is STEEP. Unpowered brakes won't stop you. Ebrake won't stop you. I can completely see how this happened and talked with the driver at FJ Summit. He had a slip, brake, panic moment, pulled ebrake, etc. He did everything right except the use of the engine to maintain RPMs and position. It sucks, but it happens. I am glad everyone is ok and they are sorting out the rigs now.
 
Does a 100 use a button like a 200 or does it still have keys ?
 
I saw the video, and having never driven Hell's Revenge, I can only imagine how steep that must be for that to happen.

That being said: A++ for the driver on keeping the truck right side up. I imagine there's quite a bit of luck involved but he was behind the wheel so credit is due.

To the guy who said Manuals all the way: Unless you're EXTREMELY skilled, the chances of stalling the manual are infinitely higher. It is a very, very rare thing for the auto trans to stall the engine. That was a fluke. There's no benefit to a manual in this situation, IMO, in these situations, autos have the advantage. I suppose that if it were a manual GX (Dont know if these exist, but for sake of argument) he wouldve lost his brakes anyway. Full disclosure: I too prefer manuals (and drive them daily).

What I can't understand is, as soon as the driver waiting to climb saw the vehicle go down, why didnt he reverse? I dont remember seeing another vehicle behind him. He had a good 8 seconds to do so...

In any case, glad everyone's OK. Bummer for the cars, they looked like they were given much love, but they can be replaced.
 
Driver of the parked GX was in the passenger of the GX going up.
 
Just curious, for those that say the brakes (with engine stalled) should have stopped the GX.. have you personally drove up hells gate then stalled...then stopped the car while it rolled back? Asking for a friend, as we are curious if its been done before with success.
 
I drove up it...didn't stall. Was two foot driving.
 
I think a lot of people forget that most doing the more hardcore wheeling with autos also have a lot more low range gearing than a GX.

What is the factory low range, 2.5 to 1? My old buggy had an auto but I ran dual Toyota mini truck tcases so was over 4 to 1 with the factory gears in both. My Samurai is a 5 speed but also has toy duals with a 4.7 to 1 gear set in the rear case so lots of options to work with (2.28 x 4.7 and 1st gear you can get out and slowly walk besides the truck)
 
I'm really confused and concerned with this particular GX470 failure. I'm a Toyota fan due to their reliability, but I'm questioning the design of the brakes on the GX470 based on what's being said in this thread.

I can deal with the engine stalling and losing power at this steep incline. Maybe it happens to many brands and models of offroad vehicles, but I seem to Google more instances on Toyotas stalling than other brands. Regardless, engine stalls happen at these ridiculous grades. I can accept this.

What I'm having trouble accepting is the brake failure. Either the brakes failed due to the loss of electrical power (going into limp mode) or the brakes were poorly designed to handle the weight of a GX470 at steep inclines. If the brakes failed, then there's no solution to fixing the brakes...only a workaround to become an expert at two foot driving. If the brakes are underpowered, then can the brakes be upgraded?

The bottom line is that I won't be doing these steep climbs myself since I'm not a hardcore rock crawler. However, sometimes exploring areas you get to difficult situations and I need to know the mechanical limitations of the platform.
 
More Toyotas involved in things like this could also be an indicator that more Toyotas are used in these environments. Whether or not there is an underlying design flaw is to be determined. But the two foot driving is the easiest workaround to it happening to you.

You could upgrade to a bigger brake with more clamping force, but would they work in a dead stick scenario?
 
HomersCanyonero said:
I'm really confused and concerned with this particular GX470 failure. I'm a Toyota fan due to their reliability, but I'm questioning the design of the brakes on the GX470 based on what's being said in this thread.

I can deal with the engine stalling and losing power at this steep incline. Maybe it happens to many brands and models of offroad vehicles, but I seem to Google more instances on Toyotas stalling than other brands. Regardless, engine stalls happen at these ridiculous grades. I can accept this.

What I'm having trouble accepting is the brake failure. Either the brakes failed due to the loss of electrical power (going into limp mode) or the brakes were poorly designed to handle the weight of a GX470 at steep inclines. If the brakes failed, then there's no solution to fixing the brakes...only a workaround to become an expert at two foot driving. If the brakes are underpowered, then can the brakes be upgraded?

The bottom line is that I won't be doing these steep climbs myself since I'm not a hardcore rock crawler. However, sometimes exploring areas you get to difficult situations and I need to know the mechanical limitations of the platform.
Click to expand...
If it helps I have been doing stuff like this in a GX for 10 years now. Never had any dead stick issues. If I find out there is a mode of failure that caused this vs a simple stall I will make sure to post.
 
Isn't using the left foot brake with constant throttle the method for making the center diff lock work correctly?
 
It makes atrac work better. CDL locked is a switch
 
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