2015 TRD Pro using A-TRAC on Hell's Revenge

99Discovery

Adventurer
So my cousin who owns the TRD Pro fires me a text saying "Hey, I was in Moab and took some footage on Hell's Revenge that clearly shows how A-TRAC works, maybe you could use it?"

Sure enough, the short clip was perfect. Now, I know everyone reading this post ALREADY knows the fundamentals of Traction Control; however, it's one thing to explain that to your newbie buddy, or your spouse. You can talk about wheel speed sensor inputs being used to independently modulate each wheel to transfer torque until you are blue in the teeth and it's tough for them to understand.

So I decided to fab up this video to help. It's not perfect, but hopefully it gives you some material to show that friend/significant other/co-worker what to look for and a foundation for future discussions.

Anyway, enjoy.

Comments are always appreciated.

 

chmura

Adventurer
Awesome narration indeed!

I used Atrac last weekend in my 2009 4runner and it worked wonderfully! I would still prefer a mechanical front locker, but atrac does well on no severe off roading.
 

99Discovery

Adventurer
Thanks guys!

In my dreams, I hope to one day own an FJ cruiser with manual tranny, locker and A-Trac and my wife with a lifted 200-series. But in reality, all I can do is just drool over my cousin's rig.

In any event, he's offered to film some more modifications and we hope to do a review of his build (he's done the lift/tires and some armor already), but it's built pretty much to be daily driven as it's his wife's ride. He owns a very nicely built XJ for his trail rig.
 

lathamb

Observer
I've been impressed with the performance of ATRAC on my 07 4Runner. Not as good as a locker, but it has gotten me basically everywhere I wanted to go, and through some obstacles that I didn't think I would get through
 

99Discovery

Adventurer
Very cool video. I would still take a passive mechanical system over this any day though.

I agree, something like a Torsen based system like True-Tracs should be fine and much more reliable, without sacrificing torque when the ABS system pulses. But if you are spending that kind of money it's hard to justify not going full-on locker unless you are worried about the stresses in your axles.

In my experience, passive clutch-type limited slips wear out waaaay too fast. Having owned both, I'd take traction control over a traditional limited slip any day because of this.

But back to the Torsen style.......in the Land Rover Camp it is common practice to combine Traction Control with a True-Trac in the front (we have pretty weak axles on the D2 and you'll eventually snap them if you go ARB locker and don't upgrade the axle shafts (expensive)).

With traction control AND a passive mechanical system, it allegedly works very, very, well. The traction control helps lock in the passive system quickly and you don't lose as much momentum. Think of it as an "automatic" brake modulation trick, where you'd use your brakes to activate the clutches of a limited slip. So I think off-roaders need to change the traditional mentality of a mechanical system "over" traction control, and instead consider a mechanical system "with" traction control.

I can't personally vouch for how good of a system that is compared to a pure locker....I'm waiting for my spider gears to strip out before I put the $$ into re-gearing my disco 2 with 4.10s and True-Tracs. In the meantime, the traction control (which is really quite crude compared to the modern A-TRAC) is excellent in and of itself.
 

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