Centre Diff Lock in Sand

[Symo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Symo]

I'd like to just add that under all circumstances that I used S-mode, picked 2nd for the hard slog in soft sand, but routinely upshifted to 3rd when it smoothed out, then back to second. I have some GoPro footage of the trip so might do a trip report this weekend and link my post to coincide with what I was saying.

On the hard sand I found 4th plenty to cruise at 80km, locked up torque converter, crossing the island on Waralee Rd I sat in 2nd the entire trip, speeds never went much over 40kmh, plenty of torque to pull through anything. Not too many revs either, the car did it easy, not much right foot.

[Jaymboze Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jaymboze]

Hi all,
Took the Prado on its first sand drive over the weekend to Stockton Beach.
Have been there several times before with the old Pathfinder, but this was the Prado's first trip.
I could not believe how well this thing goes on the sand, and climbing soft sand in the dunes was a piece of cake. Had the centre diff locked and S4 in the auto and away you go.
Used hi range for the drive in and then into Lo range for the dunes, and the car was virtually unstoppable.
Very easy to drive and more than enough power to climb into the soft dunes.
Can't wait to get back to Fraser at the end of the year...

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Gotta love the V6 in the sand. Just plant the foot and go. Plenty of power and willing to rev.... I love my V6 in general but in the sand shits all over my old 1KZ....cheers Steve

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Gotta love the V6 in the sand. Just plant the foot and go. Plenty of power and willing to rev.... I love my V6 in general but in the sand shits all over my old 1KZ....cheers Steve

I hope you wash it off.

[Jaymboze Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jaymboze]

Yeah the power of the V6 is really obvious in the sand. I though the diesel was good but the V6 is just awesome.
The best thing is that you don't need to push the engine hard at all to keep up a steady pace in the soft stuff.
200kw is really hard to beat when you need a bit of extra power like beach driving.
Heading back there again in a few weeks with a friend who has a 120 diesel...can't wait...

[Symo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Symo]

Centre Diff Lock in Sand

shits all over my old 1KZ....cheers Steve

So does the 1KD

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

LOL MJ, and yeah Symo massive difference between 1KZ and D4D. My 1kz was auto and was gutless in the sand (in general actually). To me they weren't geared properly in the auto (which mine was) in manual firm totally different to drive. But can't beat the auto in sand, just brilliant in my opinion. Not sure is ever go back to a manual in any form these days. Autos so well advanced.... Cheers Steve

[AK7 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AK7]

Ive just gotten back from Fraser. Stock standard 150 series and it definitely had enough grunt in H4 S2 mode to get moving in all circumstances. We clocked up 600KM from tip to tail and lots of stuff in between. The softest we had was along Manaman Beach (Ngkala Rocks to the north tip). The hill up to Toby's Gap Airstrip was a bit of fun too Without the centre diff locked, the car would fish-tail a little bit. With the centre diff locked, the fish tail was eliminated. This was at ~50-60KM/h according to the speedo. Throughout the whole trip I never saw the auto trans temp light, but I was downshifting in S mode too bump the revs up just over 2000RPM when the going got tough. I just made damn sure to idle for a couple of minutes at the end of each drive to let the turbo cool down - something a lot of drivers over there didn't seem to be conscious of.

I got bogged northbound on the South Ngkala Rocks bypass in H4 S2 with both VSC and TRC turned off. I was also using 2ND STRT to lock it into second gear. Tyres at 20 PSI. Bottomed out and lost traction. Partly driver error and partly ground clearance issue. Should have tried to get out of the ruts when I first thought about it, but my gonads took control and said "yeah dude, keep going, you're plouging through it!"... Half a second later, momentum gone.

I'm confident in saying that L4 in 4th would not have helped one iota. The D4D Auto lurches on the first two gear changes and would definitely lurch into 4th gear with the pedal to the carpet. I think that's much more likely get you stuck than the H4 VSC/TRC power drop (but I'm happy to be proven wrong). I'm also confident in saying that a certain popular maximim traction product is worth it's weight in gold. If you're gonna get some, having more than two of them makes for very light work. Don't bother with using them as a shovel. Use a real shovel. I did find a use for L4 in a few places on Fraser Island. The road out of McKenzies Jetty, the coffee rock section at the south end of the South Ngkala Rocks bypass and Yidney Rocks on high tide.

Symo, I suspect we arrived just as you left. The inland tracks were fairly easy going for the first few days we were there, but on the last day they became very soft with deep ruts and gnarly undulations. It definitely changes from one day to the next. That said, I agree that bog standard H4 in D mode will get you everywhere you need to go inland. Scandinavian Flick to get out of the ruts when you need to move for oncoming traffic So many people go full lock left/right and just plough forward wondering why it won't turn. For future reference when tent becomes bathtub, the Prado fits a double lilo quite well A modern day shaggin' wagon

[Symo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Symo]

Sounds about right, the 100mm of rain the night before you got there turned all the soft stuff to concrete.

Prior to that it was dry and soft. But the beach was still terrible, with a wet gutter up the middle, roller coaster low tide area, and deep washouts up the top meant lose lose.

Didn't.t notice the fish tailing once the trailer is off. But I was running lower pressure, not sure if that makes a difference.

Agree, L4 just not designed for high speed sand driving, shits me A-Trac is limited to this mode. But i get some people need it from time to time on flat ground, otherwise it's meant for the mud pits and mountain ruts.

[AK7 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AK7]

Didn't.t notice the fish tailing once the trailer is off. But I was running lower pressure, not sure if that makes a difference.

Did you go up past Ngkala? The fish tailing was more obvious at speed and only occurred in the sand up there. Maybe tyre pressures would help, but the centre diff did the trick.

I was told that if you can move the ground with your foot then lock the centre diff.

+1

[geoffmc1 Member Find all posts View Profile Close geoffmc1]

Agree, L4 just not designed for high speed sand driving, shits me A-Trac is limited to this mode. But i get some people need it from time to time on flat ground, otherwise it's meant for the mud pits and mountain ruts.

Symo,
Does then Prado have A-trac and if so, does it only work in low range, along with the diff lock?

Surely someone here is able to get the A-trac and locker working in high range, by making the ecu think it's in low range via a switch. A similar mod was done on my NT pajero, allowing the traction control to work with the rear factory locker engaged. It was a matter of interrupting feed from the rear locker into the ecu.

How great would it be to have the rear locker available in high range.

Cheers
Geoff

[Symo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Symo]

Symo,
Does then Prado have A-trac and if so, does it only work in low range, along with the diff lock?

Surely someone here is able to get the A-trac and locker working in high range, by making the ecu think it's in low range via a switch. A similar mod was done on my NT pajero, allowing the traction control to work with the rear factory locker engaged. It was a matter of interrupting feed from the rear locker into the ecu.

How great would it be to have the rear locker available in high range.

Cheers
Geoff

Correct, the user manual is pretty vague as it is split into two books, the general manual, and the off-road manual.

This is from the User Manual:


It refers to TRC and and A-Trac as separate systems, but suspect they are the same. Basically TRC works with VSC, and you can turn off TRC but not VSC unless both are off in H4. In L4 VSC is disabled and TRC is left on, but its now called A-Trac. It would be good to have this option in H4.

This is from the Off-Road manual:



Not much explanation here either, when you are at a standstill and cross a rut, the VSC ever going to activate, that's about controlling slides and swerve at speed, rolling forward and crossing a rut should only trigger the TRC, but TRC in H4 or L4 has to be basically the same. It would just be nice to remove the VSC from the equation by choice.

The centre diff lock has no bearing on this, I completed a technical off road drive in L4 with centre diff unlocked because I didn't realise I left it open. Made no difference as the car obviously made the trip fine.

Your referring to the rear locker which is a separate mod albeit a good one, not part of the discussion here. Also not available on most models.