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Finally possessed of a Saturday without overtime, I decided to take my new 2017 GX460 on its maiden offroad trip, to test out its "dirt chops."
I live in Frederick, CO, just 30-40 miles away from loads of amazing Boulder County trails. I have maidened every other 4WD vehicle I ever bought on the Switzerland Trail - it's easy and close, with more difficult offshoots to see what it's capable of.
Switzerland Trail is rated a 3 out of 10. I wouldn't attempt it in a 1978 Oldsmobubble, but any SUV with over 6" of ground clearance, even a front-wheel-drive only, would make it if you straddle the few pieces of uneven ground or place a tire on any rough outcrop of rock. I don't have any family here in CO, and my wife won't ride offroad in anything, so I went by myself.
I entered the trail off CO State Highway 72, with the intention of exiting at Sugarloaf Mountain Road. After finishing the Trail, you can continue around the bend and go on Switzerland Trail North, which is like an 8 out of 10. With no friends, no winch, no tools, and no real way to avoid trouble, I decided to do the North trail another day.
I locked the center diff, and at one point recognized that on some of the rougher parts of the trail that 4-low was actually a better option. The trail runs largely downhill if you run it from southwest to northeast, so I found 4th gear 4-low to give you enough flexibility to slow the truck enough to go gently over some of the more pointy outcrops. 3rd and lower gears slow the truck down so deeply you can crawl over stuff with ease. 1st is a complete joke - you could pull an Abrams Main Battle Tank out of a mud pit in that gear. These may be Lexus luxury vehicles, but there's no denying the Land Cruiser Prado genes in this bizarrely-capable SUV.
Wanting to flex my 4wd muscles a bit, I got off the trail at Farewell Spur Road, a kind of a side-trail to Switzerland Trail. There, I was able to test the systems more aggressively. I even took the truck out of 4-low and out of Center Diff Lock, and climbed a nasty little wash that cut down the center of the road a couple feet deep, climbing some 40 feet in 170 or so. This finally got the tiniest bit of tire spin, which was immediately handled by the traction control. Views from the Trail are frequently... impressive.
I turned the vehicle around in a camping spot at the top of that rise, engaged DAC, and let 'er rip down the hill. I got nervous and began to engage the brake, but the DAC system beat me to it and the truck clattered down the hill, ABS furiously grabbing at the wheels to slow the truck's 2 3/4 ton weight in descent. To my joy, I discovered that all I had to worry about was picking a good line down the grade and DAC did all the work for me. Once down, I drove the last mile to the trailhead, taking the opportunity to hook up my Master Airflow 12V compressor. I bought that thing in 2016 for cheap and it's been an utter champ, taking like 5 min/tire to boost the huge Lexus tires from aired-down 20 PSI to 32 PSI. Little trick I learned there - leave the engine running. A pump that works that hard will absorb enough battery power that you won't have enough battery to start, should you shut the engine down to air up. This could be an item of concern if you are really far away from civilization. Airing back up at the trailhead. Master Airflow pump is crazily effective!
I did notice that the Michelin LTS M/S Defenders don't have any protection on their sidewalls, and I was left with scuffs that made me question the wisdom of airing down in the first place. If I had been on a rougher trail, a sidewall puncture may have increased my "life-affirming struggles" on that trip.
I had mild concerns that the suspension and 4WD system on these trucks might lend more to "mall crawling," vs. "rock crawling," but I found the suspension extraordinarily compliant and effective, and the drive system so sophisticated as to defy all expectations upon my behalf. Nevertheless, I look forward to putting in CRAWL and, ultimately, MTS per the mod list some time this Fall.
In the 27 years I have lived in Northen Colorado, I have never stopped at Boulder Falls, which is quite nice!
This is a great post. I'm excited about the off-road potential of our '23 GX. It is white, sport package (wifey request) with Captain's chairs and ML stereo.
Our SUV is in the hands of my better half currently. After 3 years, we will get her the new GX and the '23 will go to me and I will make the very light modifications to turn it into our family adventure vehicle.
At the moment, the only obstacles our GX is handling are soccer moms, parking in San Diego, school drop off and mall parking lots.
11565969[/url]]Nice. Looks like you had a great time! When and where is the next trip?
I was thinking about doing something tomorrow or Sunday, and would like to find a group to follow. There are boatloads more trails just west of Boulder. Some of them are very easy, and a few are much tougher, although I seriously doubt that will be a problem for this vehicle as it just seems to climb over everything without much concern.
I may poke around Facebook to find a crew doing something, but without help, going to harder sites is a bit more risk than I’d like to absorb two weeks into ownership of my new used truck.
Looks like you had a blast! We've been going through some misc areas here in north Idaho and even with very worn Nitto Ridge Grapplers (~43k miles on them!) this GX460 handles literally anything short of huge rock crawling like a champ. 10 degree incline sand trail made for dirt bikes and ATVs? No problem. Went up that thing like it was an escalator...in 4H no less. Going down that same incline off camber? No problem. I could not of chosen a better life vehicle than this.
08-19-23, 05:19 PM
My First Offroad Trip in the New GX460
