2019 Toyota 4Runner Off-Roading Features Explained

Truck and SUV shoppers have certain criteria on their lists when researching their next purchase. If you plan on using yours for towing or camping or overlanding, often you will want to ensure your truck is equipped to handle the demands you and your travels will put on it.

The 2019 Toyota 4Runner (and previous year 4Runners, of course, as well) is perfectly built to take on the toughest of tasks. Armed with a series of important off-roading systems, the 4Runner can help you prevent loss of traction, help regain traction when you have lost it, and maintain control over a wide range of driving surface and terrain.

4Runner Locking Rear Differential

Having locking rear differential is one of the most important systems for owners looking to hit those roads less traveled. Or is it off those roads? Either way, locking rear differential is extremely important to have.

This system locks both rear wheels together on the same rear axle so they turn at the same rate and speed. This allows both wheels to perform the same amount of work at the same time, which helps tremendously with maintaining traction and control of the vehicle. Especially on those uneven less-traveled paths and trails.

Crawl Control Helps 2019 4Runner through tough stretches

The best way to think of crawl control is as a low-speed cruise control. Drivers operate their Toyota 4Runner in 4-Lo at slow speeds when trying to navigate obstacles such as thick loose sand, mud pits or deep snow. This is also a system useful to Tacoma drivers as well.

You control the speed (low-to-medium-to-high) with an easy-to-use knob, based on the conditions you are driving in. The vehicle takes over acceleration and braking so that you can focus on steering until you have passed your challenging terrain or tough conditions.

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4Runner Multi-terrain Select provides traction over a variety of surfaces

Rolling your truck or SUV over different types of terrain can often lead to loss of traction. Multi-terrain select allows you to choose your own settings to provide the best possible traction possible. Choose from mud/sand/dirt, looks rock, mogul or rock. The all-new 2019 Toyota RAV4 has this multi-terrain select as well. Congrats RAV4 owners. You will love this.

A-TRAC for the win

Active traction control, or A-TRAC, helps drivers when one or more of your wheels are slipping and losing traction. Your truck’s active traction control system sends additional torque to the wheel of your Toyota 4Runner that has the most traction, allowing it to not rely as much on the wheel with no traction because it’s traveling through rain or snow.

Traction Control Off Button Helps Toyota 4Runner

Traction control is a system in cars, trucks and SUV’s designed to prevent wheel slippage and maintain contact and traction with the road.

When your vehicle’s traction control senses one or more wheels are slipping, it applies both more brake pressure to those specific wheels and reduces engine throttle simultaneously. This helps maintain traction to avoid negative consequences.

There may be certain situations, however, when you want to turn off traction control. For example, if you are stuck in mud or snow and cannot move your car, you may need to rock it back and forth by switching from reverse to drive a few times to get yourself out. Traction control is not designed to let you do this. Simply push the traction control off button, and you can hopefully get your car out.

Oh and also, turning traction control off is necessary for those times when you want to do donuts in a snowy parking lot. Yes, this is the perfect time to turn it off.

What 4WD features do you feel are most important for how and where you will be driving? Do you plan on being in the market for a new vehicle in the next couple years, and will this criteria be important to you in your research?

Thanks for reading everyone. See you next story.

Jeff Teague is a Toyota news reporter at Torque News. You can reach Jeff on Facebook and Instagram. Twitter @toyotajeff1 and tweet him tips for new stories. Jeff also shares Toyota news videos on his Youtube Channel at "Toyotajeff in Raleigh."