DEEP SAND HACK: Toyota Crawl Control - Copied in Tremor

Yeah, I was about that deep. Maybe 2 inches less, and crawled out in about 4-5 minutes. How'd those ramps work? I have a set also but havne't used them
Gosh, as crazy as it sounds I wish I could go back to being stuck and try this technique. I tried using the boards along with a shovel to dig myself out, but I gave up because it got dark after about 30 min. I decided to walk to the highway and hitchhike to town. The next morning I paid a repair place about $130 to pick me up, drive me out, and then winch me over the dune I was stuck on. I stuck the boards under 2 tires, but couldn’t get any traction or movement at all. Perhaps I placed them at too steep of an angle or not far enough under the tires. This was my first time to ever drive in sand, so I had no clue what I was doing. Either way, I shaved down the bumps on the end of each board when the tires spun. That’s when I gave up and walked. I had no cell service, so the last thing I wanted was too be stuck in the wilderness later into the night and miss a possible ride by a nice person on the highway.
 
Gosh, as crazy as it sounds I wish I could go back to being stuck and try this technique. I tried using the boards along with a shovel to dig myself out, but I gave up because it got dark after about 30 min. I decided to walk to the highway and hitchhike to town. The next morning I paid a repair place about $130 to pick me up, drive me out, and then winch me over the dune I was stuck on. I stuck the boards under 2 tires, but couldn’t get any traction or movement at all. Perhaps I placed them at too steep of an angle or not far enough under the tires. This was my first time to ever drive in sand, so I had no clue what I was doing. Either way, I shaved down the bumps on the end of each board when the tires spun. That’s when I gave up and walked. I had no cell service, so the last thing I wanted was too be stuck in the wilderness later into the night and miss a possible ride by a nice person on the highway.
Yeah, valid. If I'm going to the beach I take a shovel, ramps and air down (eh not always). But I have the warn winch and arb onboard so things are more convenient.
 
Page 253 of the 2022 owner's manual I downloaded off Ford's website says:

Trail Control---Information Messages

Message: "Set Trail Control to 1 MPH to Aid in Getting Unstuck in Sand"

Details: "Displays when the system detects you may be stuck in sand and recommends using trail control on to the lowest set speed. Doing this could slowly pull sand under the tires to free the vehicle."
 
Page 253 of the 2022 owner's manual I downloaded off Ford's website says:

Trail Control---Information Messages

Message: "Set Trail Control to 1 MPH to Aid in Getting Unstuck in Sand"

Details: "Displays when the system detects you may be stuck in sand and recommends using trail control on to the lowest set speed. Doing this could slowly pull sand under the tires to free the vehicle."
Good find!
 
If you haven't seen toyota's crawl control, it's absolutely ridiculous. It blew my mind watching the videos of these tacomas burried to the frames crawl right out.



I saw a video of an australian guy in a mazda basically copy it by spinning his wheels really slowly.

I was curious if I could do the same thing in the tremor..

So I went to Ocean Shores, WA and got my truck burried to the diffs in soft ddune sand. To be clear, I was totally stuck and was already in 4L and locked.

All I did was literally spin my tires as slowly as I could. 1 rotation every 10 seconds probably.

What happens is the sand is scooped from the turning direction, but the tires are spinning so slowly that it isn't "thrown" out like you're spinning your wheels. This sand starts to accumulate below the tires and the vehicle literally starts elevating and moving forward slowly.

I had 20 people on the beach looking at me like "there's the idiot who took his diesel in the soft sand" have their mouths fall open when they watched me crawl out.



Separate issue in this exercise:
... I did, however, have something odd happen. I when i was trying to spin my wheels really slowly I noticed something throttling my power back. I had the following settings: traction control off (via dash button), 4L, locked rear. I was just barely up to my diff in sand. I was literally pushing my gas pedal all the way to the floor and nothing was happening, no revving, no actual response from the truck--my driveline was clear and I should have had sufficient torque, but nonethless didn't even feel the engine working. This happened in forward and reverse. When I toggled 4H/4L and toggled my traction control I got power back. But, I'm assuming I was doing something wrong here and this is a known issue. This also happened to me in the snow last winter. What's causing this?? My buddy mentioned that his ford van does this when the bumpers detect things that are two close, ie.., when parking, but I don't think anything was that high and I didn't see any indicators. I'll post in a separate thread also to see if anyone has any ideas...
Someplace on the forum there is mention of this and the fact that putting some pressure on the brake, “not hard”, causes everything to act as normal without cutting back on the throttle. Video and all, someone from AZ, they referred to the Toyota vid as well. Sorry I can’t remember what thread.
 
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