TRD Pro 6th Gen - First Snow Driving Impressions

[zgreen]

Hey all. I live up in NW Montana and we finally got our first snow in the valley! Just a few inches of pretty wet stuff, but it is here. I have had a chance to drive the Pro in regular 2 wheel drive, as well as 4 Hi and for reference, I have the stock Toyo's that came with it and the temp was right about 32 F.

Overall, it seems pretty capable in 2 wheel drive through the heavy wet stuff. It slipped a bit here and there, but the traction control kicked in and seemed to correct things. In 4 Hi, it was a beast, as to be expected. Happy overall and looking forward to the real winter to get here with super cold temps, ice and lots of snow.

Now a couple of the negatives, which I think were to be expected as well... The front end of this thing attracts snow like no other. With only a few inches of wet snow, all of the sensors were covered and the systems tied to them stopped working. The radar sensor was completely encased in snow, as were the proximity/parking sensors. Also, the skid plate just held onto the wet snow as well. See pics below...

Now for me, living in a snowy place where it snows for a majority of the year, this will be a pain in the ass for sure. But, we'll see how it goes! I am lucky in that I have radiant heat in my garage, so as soon as I pull in, everything starts to melt off.

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[127.0.0.1]

wet sticky snow sticks to everything, not unique to the 4runner.

if I want no complaints from my rav4 I have to step out and clean
the crap off [whichever sensor I care about]. same with 4runner

all sensors on all vehicles are affected

dry snow won't accumulate*, you'll only need to deal with wet snow

*unless you go snowbank smashin then you might need to clean it

 

[Nodak]

yeah first warm snow fall its expected to screw up the sensors. same thing as spring thaw.

but luckily once the temps stay below 30F for the season it shouldnt be an issue unless you get heavy snow fall.

my 14 4R had the same issue, at least there was an easy button to turn off the sensors when that happened. not sure i even looked to see if the new 4R has a quick shut off button like my 2014 parking sensor shutoff button.

 

[Dead Horse]

Curious...Never had a vehicle with LED headlights before, and it doesn't snow a ton here in OK...How bad does the buildup get on the headlights in this scenario, since they don't get hot? Wouldn't it block them completely at night?

 

[Wagzilla]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Nodak]

Curious...Never had a vehicle with LED headlights before, and it doesn't snow a ton here in OK...How bad does the buildup get on the headlights in this scenario, since they don't get hot? Wouldn't it block them completely at night?

headlight dont put out as much heat as the old halogens but they do heat up in the center of the led housing.

thats the least of your worries, its the forward facing camera, and parking sensors.

the biggest issue i had was melting snow/ice falling/sliding down and covering the sensors front/back. the slow sliding effect would set off the sensors and then about 5-10 secs later the snow/ice would clear itself from the sensors.

 

[zgreen]

yeah first warm snow fall its expected to screw up the sensors. same thing as spring thaw.

but luckily once the temps stay below 30F for the season it shouldnt be an issue unless you get heavy snow fall.

my 14 4R had the same issue, at least there was an easy button to turn off the sensors when that happened. not sure i even looked to see if the new 4R has a quick shut off button like my 2014 parking sensor shutoff button.

Hey JR. Thanks for the reply. My previous vehicle was a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee High Altitude and I almost never had any issues with sensors, unless it was a crazy blizzard and deep snow. The Jeep's radar was behind a plexiglass bubble, which I think helped the wet snow slide off and not stick as easy. Everything on the Pro is just flat and faces the elements. First world problems! I wonder why they don't build in a low wattage heating element in at least the radar to help with and maybe the other sensors as well?

 

[zgreen]

Curious...Never had a vehicle with LED headlights before, and it doesn't snow a ton here in OK...How bad does the buildup get on the headlights in this scenario, since they don't get hot? Wouldn't it block them completely at night?

Hey Dead Horse. It wasn't dark enough to notice and will definitely check next time. But, from the pics, it didn't look like anything was sticking to the lights. I also have XPEL PPF on them, so maybe that will help a bit as well.

 

[Nodak]

any hydrophobic coating will help with snow/ice build ups to shed easier.

just be careful on painted parts that they dont dis-color. plastic headlights/tail lights are ok, camera lens are ok but ill advised for stuff like rain-x

i know it turns my rubber wipers hard after about a year of use of rain-x

 

[zgreen]

any hydrophobic coating will help with snow/ice build ups to shed easier.

just be careful on painted parts that they dont dis-color. plastic headlights/tail lights are ok, camera lens are ok but ill advised for stuff like rain-x

i know it turns my rubber wipers hard after about a year of use of rain-x

I have a full XPEL Stealth wrap and Ceramic coating. Not much else to do!

 

[talmadge]

Not much accumulation here yet but enough to have a little fun. Our snow is pretty dry.

 

[EL616]

No snow here but I did a long interstate drive in some decently heavy rain the other day. Multiple times the assisted cruise control freaked out and the dash said it was unavailable.

Much worse, a few times it didn't turn off or give an error message -- it just straight failed to detect a car in front of me. Once it tried to accelerate right into the back of a car and would have rear ended it if I hadn't braked myself.

ACC has been flawless for me on sunny days but this was a serious eye opener -- definitely something to be aware of. I assume you guys in snowy mountains aren't using ACC at interstate speed in snow storms, but just FYI.

 

[Nodak]

yeah its normal not to use acc in winter during snow fall in the snow states. normal cruise control i use but never acc.

and its just not the detection aspect, its the braking and speeding up that can be issues, it can break traction on the rear wheels way to easy if it ramps up speed to fast or brakes on slick road surface.

 

[zgreen]

Not much accumulation here yet but enough to have a little fun. Our snow is pretty dry.

Beautiful!

 

[zgreen]

No snow here but I did a long interstate drive in some decently heavy rain the other day. Multiple times the assisted cruise control freaked out and the dash said it was unavailable.

Much worse, a few times it didn't turn off or give an error message -- it just straight failed to detect a car in front of me. Once it tried to accelerate right into the back of a car and would have rear ended it if I hadn't braked myself.

ACC has been flawless for me on sunny days but this was a serious eye opener -- definitely something to be aware of. I assume you guys in snowy mountains aren't using ACC at interstate speed in snow storms, but just FYI.

That's happened to me a few times in heavy rain as well. That didn't happen to me at all with the Jeep system...

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