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I took my new 2.8 Prado for its first visit to Moreton Island for 5 days over the Easter break and thought I would give a quick report on how I personally felt it performed.
Firstly the power – very impressed at how well the Prado performed in soft sand, it seemed to have a surprising amount of power on tap and never really felt like it was laboring or struggling. The engine is very quiet and revs smoothly, the auto held the right gear and changed when required. Over 20+ years of beach driving and owning 4wd’s I found the Prado was leaps ahead in this area.
The Prado is the first 4wd I’ve owned with electronic 4x4 engagement so it took a bit to get used to. I conducted several tests in 4x4 low/high, center lock on/off and found that Prado performed much better with the center locked on the soft sand. It seemed to spin wheels less and got across the soft with less effort. Low range was very low, like rock crawling low and found it was not required at all as 4H with the center locked combined with the power it seemed unstoppable for the terrain on Moreton. Almost goes without saying that for soft sand driving it's a must to disengage the TC and ESC, this got a bit frustrating at times having to hold down the button after each start up (it quickly lets you know if you’ve forgotten as soon as you hit some soft sand..).
The last time I was on Moreton in my PB Challenger I found a hill that had some nice articulations and step ups that went on for about 200-300m. My Challenger got up it on the 3rd attempt with the rear locked, my father who was with us in his D-Max (with lift, a/t tyres) actually didn’t get up at all after several attempts. I was again very impressed as the Prado crawled up first time and hardly spun a wheel!
The only issue I had on one occasion towards the end of the trip was when I went to engage the center diff while under low speed acceleration to head up through the cutting. It made a strange noise, like a mechanical clicking (similar to an 20 year old Corolla with stuffed CV joints on full lock), I also had the steering turned slightly less than full lock. I quickly ceased acceleration and straightened the wheels, the center engaged and it seemed all good from then and didn’t occur again. Assume this was my fault for the reasons mentioned, however if someone can confirm I’d be interested to hear?
Also very impressed with the suspension (Dobinson/Bilstein) over the heavy corrugations across the island. Even the wife commented on how smooth if felt!
From the time I left the house (20km to the ferry), to the time I returned it averaged 12.5 L/100km which I am happy with considering the amount of beach driving and camping gear I had on board. All in all very impressed with the new Prado, it exceeded my expectations.
Cheers
Luke.
Firstly the power – very impressed at how well the Prado performed in soft sand, it seemed to have a surprising amount of power on tap and never really felt like it was laboring or struggling. The engine is very quiet and revs smoothly, the auto held the right gear and changed when required. Over 20+ years of beach driving and owning 4wd’s I found the Prado was leaps ahead in this area.
The Prado is the first 4wd I’ve owned with electronic 4x4 engagement so it took a bit to get used to. I conducted several tests in 4x4 low/high, center lock on/off and found that Prado performed much better with the center locked on the soft sand. It seemed to spin wheels less and got across the soft with less effort. Low range was very low, like rock crawling low and found it was not required at all as 4H with the center locked combined with the power it seemed unstoppable for the terrain on Moreton. Almost goes without saying that for soft sand driving it's a must to disengage the TC and ESC, this got a bit frustrating at times having to hold down the button after each start up (it quickly lets you know if you’ve forgotten as soon as you hit some soft sand..).
The last time I was on Moreton in my PB Challenger I found a hill that had some nice articulations and step ups that went on for about 200-300m. My Challenger got up it on the 3rd attempt with the rear locked, my father who was with us in his D-Max (with lift, a/t tyres) actually didn’t get up at all after several attempts. I was again very impressed as the Prado crawled up first time and hardly spun a wheel!
The only issue I had on one occasion towards the end of the trip was when I went to engage the center diff while under low speed acceleration to head up through the cutting. It made a strange noise, like a mechanical clicking (similar to an 20 year old Corolla with stuffed CV joints on full lock), I also had the steering turned slightly less than full lock. I quickly ceased acceleration and straightened the wheels, the center engaged and it seemed all good from then and didn’t occur again. Assume this was my fault for the reasons mentioned, however if someone can confirm I’d be interested to hear?
Also very impressed with the suspension (Dobinson/Bilstein) over the heavy corrugations across the island. Even the wife commented on how smooth if felt!
From the time I left the house (20km to the ferry), to the time I returned it averaged 12.5 L/100km which I am happy with considering the amount of beach driving and camping gear I had on board. All in all very impressed with the new Prado, it exceeded my expectations.
Cheers
Luke.
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