The wife went out of town for a long weekend away, so the only activity that came to mind when I woke up this morning was to throw the kids and dogs in her 2016 Lexus GX460 and hit some trails. Normally I would have taken the TJ, but the lid and doors are already off and the trails I've been thinking about are up over 7k where there's still a lot of snow, so it may have been a tad chilly for the little ones. Her grocery getter is purported to be an incredibly capable off-roader, so why not?
This thing is a friggin tank. It only weighs a few hundred lbs less than my full-size Silverado and it feels like it. When we got to the bottom of the fire road that takes you up to all the trail heads I put the KDSS switch in 'soft', set the ride hight to 'high', and started jamming up the mountain. It soaked up bumps and washed-out sections like it was it's job. Really, there was little difference between this climb and going down the street to the get the kids from school. Fuel mileage was probably about the same as well.
We got to a trailhead for a route we've done more than a few times in the Jeep, temp was in the high 40's and there were little rivers of snow melt everywhere. Very muddy. A couple of guys loading up some mud-covered quads gave me a rundown of what was accessible so far this season, warning of lots of deep puddles and trails that still have a foot or more of snow.
We headed into the trail and the quad riders were right; nothing but mud and snow melt. The Lexus wasn't losing a bit of traction though, and I elected to roll up the windows and close the sunroof because I just wasn't prepared to splatter mud across my wife's richly-appointed interior. We found a clearing where riders had carved a 300-foot diameter track for getting dirty, so we dove in. I attempted to get the rear end a bit loose and really fling some mud, but the Lexus wasn't having it. It stayed firmly on track and maintained a good turn-in with little to no rear wheel spin. I felt like quite the gentleman 4-wheeler.
The last thing I wanted to try was the downhill assist control. I found a steep grade between two trails, selected 4L, activate DAC and pointed downhill. The Lexus beeped incessantly just to make sure I knew of my gear selection and began to crawl downhill. It maintained around 2200 rpm and 8mph, modulating the brakes automatically to keep a constant speed. We got to the bottom of the hill without a bit of drama. Or excitement. I turned around and crawled back up with the same amount of drama.
After an hour or so we called it and went back to the trailhead. The Lexus was spattered in mud and splashed over from snowmelt. From a technical standpoint this truck was incredibly capable. Compared to the TJ (don't know why you would though) the only drawback was the approach and departure angle. I had to take it REAL slow over certain sections for fear of leaving plastic cladding on the trail, but other than that we were able to take ALL the same routes that we do with the TJ.
Since the windows were up most of the time I think the kids were bored. The thing managed the trail so well it wasn't much different than driving across a bumpy road. They kept a great attitude though, so as a reward I fired up the factory DVD player so they could watch the Lego Movie 2 on the way down the mountain. Since it was starting to warm up a bit I switched my seat from heating to cooling, pulled up a podcast from my phone, and headed back home.
It's good to know that, for whatever reason, my wife would be able to drive up and over a mountain and still maintain her soccer-mom status. I think Lexus put a lot of work into this truck despite the fact that 99.9999% of owners will never leave pavement. Kinda makes me wonder what the point is.
This thing is a friggin tank. It only weighs a few hundred lbs less than my full-size Silverado and it feels like it. When we got to the bottom of the fire road that takes you up to all the trail heads I put the KDSS switch in 'soft', set the ride hight to 'high', and started jamming up the mountain. It soaked up bumps and washed-out sections like it was it's job. Really, there was little difference between this climb and going down the street to the get the kids from school. Fuel mileage was probably about the same as well.
We got to a trailhead for a route we've done more than a few times in the Jeep, temp was in the high 40's and there were little rivers of snow melt everywhere. Very muddy. A couple of guys loading up some mud-covered quads gave me a rundown of what was accessible so far this season, warning of lots of deep puddles and trails that still have a foot or more of snow.
We headed into the trail and the quad riders were right; nothing but mud and snow melt. The Lexus wasn't losing a bit of traction though, and I elected to roll up the windows and close the sunroof because I just wasn't prepared to splatter mud across my wife's richly-appointed interior. We found a clearing where riders had carved a 300-foot diameter track for getting dirty, so we dove in. I attempted to get the rear end a bit loose and really fling some mud, but the Lexus wasn't having it. It stayed firmly on track and maintained a good turn-in with little to no rear wheel spin. I felt like quite the gentleman 4-wheeler.
The last thing I wanted to try was the downhill assist control. I found a steep grade between two trails, selected 4L, activate DAC and pointed downhill. The Lexus beeped incessantly just to make sure I knew of my gear selection and began to crawl downhill. It maintained around 2200 rpm and 8mph, modulating the brakes automatically to keep a constant speed. We got to the bottom of the hill without a bit of drama. Or excitement. I turned around and crawled back up with the same amount of drama.
After an hour or so we called it and went back to the trailhead. The Lexus was spattered in mud and splashed over from snowmelt. From a technical standpoint this truck was incredibly capable. Compared to the TJ (don't know why you would though) the only drawback was the approach and departure angle. I had to take it REAL slow over certain sections for fear of leaving plastic cladding on the trail, but other than that we were able to take ALL the same routes that we do with the TJ.
Since the windows were up most of the time I think the kids were bored. The thing managed the trail so well it wasn't much different than driving across a bumpy road. They kept a great attitude though, so as a reward I fired up the factory DVD player so they could watch the Lego Movie 2 on the way down the mountain. Since it was starting to warm up a bit I switched my seat from heating to cooling, pulled up a podcast from my phone, and headed back home.
It's good to know that, for whatever reason, my wife would be able to drive up and over a mountain and still maintain her soccer-mom status. I think Lexus put a lot of work into this truck despite the fact that 99.9999% of owners will never leave pavement. Kinda makes me wonder what the point is.
