We finally got ourselves some snow and ice so I was able to get out and see how my vehicle performed while taking the wife to work. FWIW, I'm still running some stock-sized Michelins until I get around to swapping my suspension and going up to a larger tire in the spring.
On the whole I have to say I am impressed! The wheelbase feels perfect, so is the weight distribution. I say that because when the back feels a bit loose in a turn if you feather the skinny pedal it pulls the nose around and life is good. It feels like it all works together to keep you going in a situation when there is just very little traction, and you would have to be driving like a maniac or intentionally trying to skid around uncontrollably.
Of course, that little bit of skidding I encountered when making sharp turns also had me looking for a way to kill the VSC without shifting into low range. Before moving back down to TN I was living in upstate NY so I can drive in snow, I've driven in ridiculous amounts of snow. I felt that the VSC kicked in far too soon and it was fighting me. I'll try to give an example, hopefully my description is fitting!
Imagine you come to a 4-way-stop. You make a right turn, and the street quickly transitions from level to a rather steep hill. You need to give it some throttle so you can have momentum to help get you up the hill. The problem I ran into was that I would lose a little bit of traction making the turn, but I was nowhere even remotely close to being out of control, and VSC would cut in killing power along with any hope of making it up the hill. I made it up this same hill in the same conditions over the years in various vehicles, but they either lacked traction control or had a way to manually shut it off.
The other issues I ran into was with my wipers. I think I may need a new rear arm, it has a new blade but wouldn't keep the top of the window clean. This allowed ice to build up, and I had to stop and clean it off if I wanted to see out the back. I guess the spring doesn't exert enough pressure on the tip of the blade, and I am not aware of any way to adjust the tension. I also had ice buildup on the windshield up around the rear-view mirror, the only way I found to prevent it was to run the defroster wide open. That meant your feet were frozen and your upper body was on fire. I saw a Russian guy on YouTube complaining about the heat in a Prado, now I understand what he was on about!
Like I said, on the whole I was really impressed with the performance, it just needs some tweaks and I will be very happy.
On the whole I have to say I am impressed! The wheelbase feels perfect, so is the weight distribution. I say that because when the back feels a bit loose in a turn if you feather the skinny pedal it pulls the nose around and life is good. It feels like it all works together to keep you going in a situation when there is just very little traction, and you would have to be driving like a maniac or intentionally trying to skid around uncontrollably.
Of course, that little bit of skidding I encountered when making sharp turns also had me looking for a way to kill the VSC without shifting into low range. Before moving back down to TN I was living in upstate NY so I can drive in snow, I've driven in ridiculous amounts of snow. I felt that the VSC kicked in far too soon and it was fighting me. I'll try to give an example, hopefully my description is fitting!
Imagine you come to a 4-way-stop. You make a right turn, and the street quickly transitions from level to a rather steep hill. You need to give it some throttle so you can have momentum to help get you up the hill. The problem I ran into was that I would lose a little bit of traction making the turn, but I was nowhere even remotely close to being out of control, and VSC would cut in killing power along with any hope of making it up the hill. I made it up this same hill in the same conditions over the years in various vehicles, but they either lacked traction control or had a way to manually shut it off.
The other issues I ran into was with my wipers. I think I may need a new rear arm, it has a new blade but wouldn't keep the top of the window clean. This allowed ice to build up, and I had to stop and clean it off if I wanted to see out the back. I guess the spring doesn't exert enough pressure on the tip of the blade, and I am not aware of any way to adjust the tension. I also had ice buildup on the windshield up around the rear-view mirror, the only way I found to prevent it was to run the defroster wide open. That meant your feet were frozen and your upper body was on fire. I saw a Russian guy on YouTube complaining about the heat in a Prado, now I understand what he was on about!
Like I said, on the whole I was really impressed with the performance, it just needs some tweaks and I will be very happy.
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