2021 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road vs Sequoia Mountain Adventure

Today I'm driving the 2021 Toyota 4Runner TRD Off-Road. I have the 2021 Toyota Sequoia Nightshade Special Edition. And we're going to drive them into the mountains on this episode of Driving Sports TV. Good morning Carlina, how are you doing today? Hey Ryan, I'm doing just fine. We're going to jump on the freeway here and we're going to be heading out today to Evergreen Lookout. I have no idea if we'll make it. The weather forecast is kind of hit or miss on the snow and ice. So we'll see what we see. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully we make it out to our destination. But overall I'm excited to, you know, do a little check in these rigs. Now this is the first time for you in the show where you are on your own in a rig. Do you think you're up for it? I think I am. Thanks for finally upgrading me. I appreciate that. Well, you know, I do believe you just went through, what was it, Dirt Fish Rally School? Yeah, I did. And it was absolutely like the funnest thing I've ever done. I want to go back. I would do it every day if I could. OK, well, you know the rule. No power slides in the Sequoia unless, of course, we're doing it on camera. And then it's a maybe. Copy that. So let's go ahead and reset our trip MPG so we can get calculation on which one of these is more economical. Well, it looks like I don't have that option. Seriously? Like how old is the software in that thing? I guess from the Stone Ages. OK, so what are you reporting? What kind of MPGs and what they're based on? Right now it's looking like 13.3. I'm currently at 78 miles to the gallon, but that's just because I've been rolling downhill since I reset. So we'll check in again later and see how MPGs are doing based on the caveat of yours is not exactly, you know, apples and apples here. So today we are replicating the trip that we did in the Forerunner Trail Edition with the Jeep. But this time we have the Sequoia. And this time there's probably not going to be snow on the ground for the first half of the trip. However, we had another weather system move in last night and there were some winds. So it'll be interesting to see what condition Beckler Road is in. Now, our goal is to make it as far in as Jack Pass. How are you with snow driving? I'd say I'm pretty good. You've been putting me to the test lately. OK, well, one thing to keep in mind here is that both of these vehicles have all seasons on them. Neither one is really designed well for snow. So it may be a little trickier than usual, than like the times that we've had snow tires and stuff like that. So we'll see how this goes. Do you have any off-road toys like crawl control or multi-terrain selects or anything like that? Yeah, it looks like I really don't have anything in that realm to help me out. One big advantage you of course have is that Torsen limited slip differential in the middle. That is something that is like handed down from the Land Cruiser. So you have a little bit of Land Cruiser DNA in that, if not much. How about yours? Does it have that as well? No. OK, we've been rolling on the freeway and freeway pool along with your... 14.8. Yeah, I'm at 19.1. Thank you very much. How are you liking that V8 now? OK, well here is our turn for Beckler River Road. And that's going to take us into the mountains towards Jack Pass and on. I don't know how much you guys can see. Looks like you can go camping so I might have to come back out here later in the summer or wintertime, you never know. We pulled off the road so we could get a little bit better feeling as to what are the differences here. Now first off, obviously, size, right? Massive difference. Yeah. This thing is under 100 cubic feet in the back, like 95 or something like that. That was 120 cubic feet. I think you could probably park a Yugo into the back of that thing. But how is it to drive? Because it's huge. You know, I thought I was going to be bothered by how large it was, but it's not that bad. I think once you're behind the wheel, you start going and it's not a problem. I mean, it does feel like you're driving a truck, but, you know, without the looks of the truck. I mean, it's great, but it's just a lot. Yeah, right. Yeah. But it does have some of the tech that gives you like driving aids, right? Yeah, it has the blind spot warning, which is super helpful. I can't even get that on a 4Runner. Like if I wanted it, not even an option. Because you have to be. I don't really want it. But if I did, no go. Fair enough. Yeah. Now, what do you think about looks, though? Between these two, we got angry samurai and we have metal cheeseburger. I'm not the biggest fan of how this looks. I am in love with this. It just looks sleek, sexy, fun. Like you can take it off-roading, which you can all the time. And it's just mom car, not mom car. The V8 engine. Do you love it? I do. Yeah. It's too bad they're going away, though. Like everything is getting turbo sixes now. Like nothing has V8s anymore. Don't take it away from me. You have Ford with their Explorer. They went from a V8 to the EcoBoost 6. Doesn't have the same sound. Doesn't have the same feel. It is more economical because economy on this thing is brutal. You're just going to be spending money. What was your gauge showing? 14.8 was what I was getting. On the highway. That is hideous. Yeah. OK, well, let's take a look in the back and see what kind of space we have here. It is huge. Yeah, it's massive. So if you're camping with this, you don't even need to pitch a tent because you can just live in this thing, basically. Just recline all the seats and you're good to go. And I do like that it flips up in the back because that way, when you're sitting on the deck back here, you're covered from snow and stuff when you're putting your skis on. That's cool. That's a lot of space. Let me show you what I have over here. One reason I like the 4Runner and why I bought this one is because of the way that it uses space. I can put two 1510 Pelicans next to a backpack and a tripod broad and it all fits. Most of the compact crossovers and even some of the midsize, you can't really do that. And then also, if I need more space, the second row folds down perfectly flat. This is like the perfect size for me. And again, we have the deck you can sit on. We have the covering. It's really great. And of course, 5,000 pounds of towing capacity. There you go. I know you have like 7,100 pounds on that one. You can't beat me. If you need a bigger boat, you need a bigger rig. Yeah. Okay, now let's look at the interior of yours. Yeah. How about that? That's pretty bad. That's kind of disappointing for the price range. It really is. You would think that they would have like designed it maybe in the 2000s. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you want a basic thing, it's really handy. You don't have to go like thumbing through everything a million, you know, and getting lost in everything in order to find a simple task. Right. So it is pretty straightforward. It's easy to use. Yeah, you can. It's just, oh man, it kind of reminds me of a minivan from early 2000, basically. You're not lying. No, it's pretty awful. Which is funny because the 4Runner, I think is so awesome. Even though it's still basic, they do basic right on this one. Let's take a look. Yep. It was redesigned a few years ago, so it's been updated. They also moved to the new 8-inch infotainment system, which is, I mean, it's so small because it's such a big vehicle with such a little screen. But I just, you know, it just feels great. Now, the funny thing to me was that the TRD Offroad doesn't come with mud mats. It's the Offroad. It should have mud mats. So yeah, I did spend an extra $160 and I bought the official Toyota mud mats because they fit perfect. Yeah. So there's that. I was really expecting there to be snow here, but I think as we head deeper into the mountains, that we'll get something a little bit more interesting. Let's go ahead and saddle up and we'll head out and we'll see what we get. Okay, this is where the pavement ends and the real adventure begins. So I'm going to keep it in too high for right now because there's honestly no reason for me to switch. If everything's been dry, maybe a little moist, really no big deal. Although right there, it looks like, yeah, that's snow. As we're heading now into a labyrinth of trail roads, I'm going to go ahead and turn on a feature that's on the navigation here called Route Trace. What that does is it'll drop breadcrumbs along the way so I can always find my way out. That's one of the benefits of getting the built-in navigation system instead of something that's dependent on cellular networks. Because, of course, the maps are all downloaded to the car. If you haven't already, you might want to switch into four high on yours. So four high, of course, will allow her to have grip both in the dry as well as in the slippery stuff because she has that torsion differential in the middle. You might be shocked to learn that your vehicle has more ground clearance than mine by about 0.5 of an inch. You still got maybe three, four inches or so. I get the feeling that we are eventually going to find the actual ground clearance on these vehicles. Oh, this is lovely. So far, this is very easy, though. There is a lot of snow under us, but, you know, it's mostly still gravel here and there, enough to give us full traction. And yet we are going to upgrade this with ATs eventually. But first, you know, when competing against other vehicles like this, I think we're going to use the stock tires because that's more fair. If we put ATs on this, we would have to put it on that. And manufacturers don't let us change tires on their cars unless they have picked the tire. And they don't always want to do that. So because of that, very often we are going to have to stick to all seasons on these shootouts. I kind of feel like maybe I'm brushing that snow a little bit. Yeah, it looks like you are. I'm also hearing myself do the same at times. Oh, yeah, the snow is definitely looking a lot smoother after me than it does before me. So the 4Runner here, the TRD Offroad, actually all 4Runners come with basic underbody protection, which is good. Luckily, it's nice and fluffy. That's always a top itch. Under that, it's nice. Wow, we have three and a half miles to go still. That was a very long half of a mile. And you know, if we can't find a turnaround, we're backing out all the way. Well... Okay, so let's see. I bet we won't find a turnaround. Just keep it smooth and you'll be fine through that. Okay. I was kind of hoping for a turnaround because this is getting sketchy. All right, so I am in for low right now. And honestly, I'm not liking it. I'm finding there is way more slip. Obviously, traction control is off and it's not really doing me any favors. So I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to come to a stop and we're going to switch back into four high. Traction control is on. Oh yeah, instantly better. Well, that's a big one. You can't see it on the right. All right, got it. Okay, I'm going to stop here because there's a rut in the road and a huge chunk of ice in the middle of it. It's kind of hard to see from where you're at now. But just trust me on this one. So I'm going to try to go into the right-hand rut. See if I can get through this and create a new line essentially before you give it a try in your big beast. This bump here and it's hard to tell in the snow but it's a huge chunk of ice. It is going to smash against the underside. I want to be back into this lane I think now. Oh wait, or do I? Tell me if I'm going to hit this. Yes. Am I going to hit just right under the nose? Soft stuff, okay. All righty. Okay, you're fine. Keep your wheels this way. It'll eventually catch in the back. Okay. But don't stop. Keep your throttle gradual. See, now it's catching. You're fine, you're fine. Okay, good. Straighten out. You're good. Stop, stop. Okay, let's head on. Hopefully it only gets better. All right, on. I'm scraping. Back up, back up a little. And with that, I am calling it. Because this is ridiculous. The ice underneath this fluffy stuff is just too harsh. And there's too much of it. We have miles to go till the destination. And it's going to start getting dark in about an hour. And before you say, wait, they didn't air down their tires. Let me point out, traction isn't the problem. It's clearance. So with that, let's turn around. Seems like we're calling it a day here at this point. But yeah, backing down the entire mountain doesn't really seem like it's going to be an option. So we got to get crafty here. Turning around on a single track can be more challenging than it looks. As I backed up the Sequoia, I attempted to keep the wheels on the compacted snow. But sometimes the snow just has other plans as the vehicle shunted into the soft stuff. It was time to break out the recovery gear. Using a traction board as a shovel, I tried to clear the area around the Sequoia. Getting in, we tried four low and no luck. Four high, still unable to get the Sequoia free. Time to hook it up to the 4Runner and see if we can tow it out. With all four wheels on ice, the 4Runner just couldn't get the Sequoia free. It just didn't have enough grip. So I guess it's time to go back to shoveling. I noticed that there was a lot of ice shoved under the engine, possibly causing a high-centered situation. So I focused on digging up front while Carlina dug on the sides. Still no luck. We probably should have aired down the tires earlier, but we had concerns about clearance since the vehicles were already scraping against the ice. But at this point, we were just running out of options. And sunlight. Before disconnecting, we tried another tow with the 4Runner, but still, traction was an issue. If we wanted to get this Sequoia out tonight, we were going to have to dig it out. With the Sequoia in four high, another attempt was made to drive it free of the snow and ice. Here we would still have traction control, and you can see it struggling for grip. Finally, it was free. Before attempting to bring the vehicle around a second time, we cleared out some ice and snow to give it a better chance. This time, it finally worked. Time to bring around the 4Runner. With the shorter wheelbase and MTS engaged, the 4Runner had a much easier time maneuvering in these tight quarters. Still, it's always hairy doing a three-point turn on the edge of a cliff. What did we end up doing here? Well, we tried towing it out. Wasn't going to work. Ultimately, we had to use a rocking motion to free the Sequoia only after airing down the tires to about 20 psi on each corner. The issue being, of course, that we got stuck in the soft stuff, and it was just too much snow compacted under the car. Now, pulling it out would normally have worked, I think, if I had better grip, but these are just, you know, standard all-season radials, and they just didn't have the grip necessary to pull with enough force. So that didn't work. In the end, we were able to get free. It just took a little bit of work, but in the end, we're good. For Driving Sports TV, I'm Ryan Douthit. Thanks for watching. Be sure to subscribe, leave a comment, give us a thumbs up, and tell your friends about us because we do this for you. Yeah, we go into the forest and get stuck. Not on purpose, mind you. Sometimes we go with the intent of getting stuck. That was not the case today, but I hope you enjoyed it. So thanks again for watching. We'll see you again right here next week.