Crawl Control is this normal??

[Marvy]

Hi all,

I have just been test driving a LC200 GX 2013 at the dealer. After the road test, we took the vehicle to the dirt car park out the back to "test" the offroad features. Vehicle want into L4 fine but when I switched on the "Crawl Control" on a mild uphill dirt slope. The vehicle started move forward and shudder. It seemed like the brakes were being applied on and off rapidly and the take off was anything but smooth. Speed on the dial was set to the slowest setting.

My question is - is this a malfunction of the system or is this normal? I was expecting the vehicle to creep forward slowly and maintain that speed up the slope.

Second question for bonus marks - what would be the correct procedure to test this feature on a dealer test drive. Is these something I did wrong or did I get the procedure wrong?

Thanks in Advance,
Tony.

 

[GeekOKent]

What did the dealer have to say about this?

 

[hamba]

Hi

Crawl control uses the brakes to slow down the truck so what you experienced is classed as normal.
I've found that placing it in the fastest mode when starting off reduces the shudder and then lower the speed as required. This only works when going up a hill, if you are going downhill it will keep making a racket as it applies the brakes. I've got a Prado 150 with it and it scared the bejesus out of me the first time I tried it out.

 

[Gasmanjc]

Its normal as hamba has stated. My 150 has it also. Its a little unnerving at first.

 

[Marvy]

OK thanks for the info. I found a video of someone else doing a demo of the crawl assist and it made the same noise. Thanks everybody for your help.

 

[Marvy]

We both had no idea. This is a dealer that is selling on behalf of another person so they didn't know the car all that well but they were happy for me to have it checked over by an inspection company to make sure it was OK. Seems that the way they work, they get paid the same no matter what price they car sell for so they don't gain anything by lying about it. I will have it checked over by a vehicle inspector but they often don't have the specific knowledge that you guys have. Thanks.

What did the dealer have to say about this?

 

[Marvy]

I've found that placing it in the fastest mode when starting off reduces the shudder and then lower the speed as required.

Good to know. Of course I started it at the lowest speed being conservative. It did seems to even out as it got going.

Thanks.