Stabilizer Disconnect

Beninbeta

Beninbeta

Well-known member
Tim, I'm throwing you back in the 🔥 here again. With the Stabilizer Disconnect Mechanism being a $1230 option on the Tacoma TRD Off-Road, what were your thoughts on how that worked? Was it more gimmicky or something you felt would be a good addition for certain buyers? As someone who plans to build the vehicle out for overlanding, it seems like a great feature. However, vehicles have driven off-road just fine without that feature, some others have offered it as well, but it's not super common.

So did it seem useful to you and Jill? What buyer(s) would benefit from this feature? One reason I ask is because only about 32 Tacomas have been allocated with this feature so far, and it seems that some of the first that were allocated with this feature have been removed from allocation. This makes me wonder if it's worth trying to get one with that feature or not, even for an overlanding build?
 
Being a long-time four-wheeler and having manual SB disconnect on my Jeep, I would not pay extra for it. I installed and used it while rock crawling in Utah and California but that was really the only time I "needed" it. For most trails, it was unnecessary. I'm not an overlander but I'm familiar with the concept. All that gear with top-side tents and all, no way I'd be on trails that gnarly with a pretty, new truck. Granted, an awesome option to have but I wouldn't think it would be necessary. The other thing to think about, I learned the more equipped I was with lockers, SB disconnects, lifts, big tires, etc. had a direct correlation to the number of dents, paint scrapes, and terrible ride on the street I had.
 
Dusdaddy said:
Being a long-time four-wheeler and having manual SB disconnect on my Jeep, I would not pay extra for it. I installed and used it while rock crawling in Utah and California but that was really the only time I "needed" it. For most trails, it was unnecessary. I'm not an overlander but I'm familiar with the concept. All that gear with top-side tents and all, no way I'd be on trails that gnarly with a pretty, new truck. Granted, an awesome option to have but I wouldn't think it would be necessary. The other thing to think about, I learned the more equipped I was with lockers, SB disconnects, lifts, big tires, etc. had a direct correlation to the number of dents, paint scrapes, and terrible ride on the street I had.
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Thanks for the reply and opinion. I live in Colorado and it's mostly rock crawling here, even on easier trails. Our goal with overlandiing isn't to build out the craziest vehicle we can. We'll maybe upgrade to 33in tires, add some skid plates and rock rails, but that's about it in terms of craziness for a while at least. We want to be able get away from people and explore some of the wilderness America has to offer, but we want to be sure we can get where we want to go and back. Essentially, if we can get to where 75-85% of people can't that's fine. I'm not really interested in off-roading for the sake of off-roading.

I think the 10% you get with this disconnect is not quite as crazy as what you likely had on your Jeep either, but with all that weight and items, I want to have as many advantages as I can without a highly modified truck as it will be our daily driver too. So that's why it's hard for me to make a decision.

Thanks for the input!
 
Beninbeta said:
Tim, I'm throwing you back in the 🔥 here again. With the Stabilizer Disconnect Mechanism being a $1230 option on the Tacoma TRD Off-Road, what were your thoughts on how that worked? Was it more gimmicky or something you felt would be a good addition for certain buyers? As someone who plans to build the vehicle out for overlanding, it seems like a great feature. However, vehicles have driven off-road just fine without that feature, some others have offered it as well, but it's not super common.

So did it seem useful to you and Jill? What buyer(s) would benefit from this feature? One reason I ask is because only about 32 Tacomas have been allocated with this feature so far, and it seems that some of the first that were allocated with this feature have been removed from allocation. This makes me wonder if it's worth trying to get one with that feature or not, even for an overlanding build?
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Good question. I've used a stabilizer disconnect on several vehicles in the past and it isn't exactly a new idea. New for Toyota Tacoma IIRC.

The idea here, as you probably know, is to allow the front wheels more articulation on certain terrain. Basically, it allows the tires to drop down to create more traction. It is a cool feature and every automaker builds a course to show off this feature (a series of whoops with spots where the tires dangle).

I think for an overland build, it is more of a must depending, naturally, on how aggressive you are to getting into certain spots.

For example, with your videos on the Tucson, I didn't see any terrain that you'd use that feature on. The dirt trails/roads looked like they were pretty smooth and you didn't have a lot of rocks to crawl over.

Now if you do decide to venture even more off-road, you could encounter more areas with rocks to climb over or big dips in the trail that leaves a tire hanging in the air. Often, you can just power through these sections and if you get stuck, you can back out and find another way to go. Some people are ok with that. Others aren't. Others want the tires to have contact with the ground the whole time and never reverse out if that makes sense.

The challenge I have with it is the Tacoma has so many features it is hard to know which one to use where. Like where would you use crawl control vs the stabilizer disconnect? How about multi-terrain select? How about just plain 4WD?

Personally, if the Tacoma you buy comes with it, I'd count that as a bonus. If not, I won't lose sleep. People have been going off-road for a 100 years and, as long as you prepared when you get stuck, they haven't needed all these features.
 
testerdahl said:
Personally, if the Tacoma you buy comes with it, I'd count that as a bonus. If not, I won't lose sleep. People have been going off-road for a 100 years and, as long as you prepared when you get stuck, they haven't needed all these features.
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Thanks Tim, that makes sense to me and I appreciate the detailed response. We definitely plan to go beyond where the Tucson has taken us thus far, but like you said, many vehicles don't have this feature and make it just fine. We'll see what what works out!
 
NMTRUCKER said:
Back in ‘86 my wife and I took my new F250 into one of the most remote parts of Canyonlands National Park. It took a day and a half of some serious 4-wheeling to reach our destination. My truck was stock and the only extras that we brought was a highlift jack, two 5 gallon gas cans and a shovel. We spent a week in our $60 tent with 2 ice chests and a Coleman 2 burner stove and had a great time.
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There's definitely something to be said for simplicity. But at 44, sleeping on the ground isn't quite the same as it was when I was younger. Dang back!
 
NMTRUCKER said:
Back in ‘86 my wife and I took my new F250 into one of the most remote parts of Canyonlands National Park. It took a day and a half of some serious 4-wheeling to reach our destination. My truck was stock and the only extras that we brought was a highlift jack, two 5 gallon gas cans and a shovel. We spent a week in our $60 tent with 2 ice chests and a Coleman 2 burner stove and had a great time.
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He's got a point. It seems today with all the features out there; we start to feel they are a necessity not an extra. They are more of a convenience item, no different than A/C or pwr windows. Can you drive without them? Sure! But who wants to?

By all means, if it is in your budget, get it. I would. If you can, get the Trailhunter so it'll have better suspension as well. But don't be surprised when you are out there, and somebody pulls up next to your campsite in an SR5 with some inexpensive add-ons. I was passed on the trail more than once by something like a Suzuki Samurai!!
 
Dusdaddy said:
He's got a point. It seems today with all the features out there; we start to feel they are a necessity not an extra. They are more of a convenience item, no different than A/C or pwr windows. Can you drive without them? Sure! But who wants to?

By all means, if it is in your budget, get it. I would. If you can, get the Trailhunter so it'll have better suspension as well. But don't be surprised when you are out there, and somebody pulls up next to your campsite in an SR5 with some inexpensive add-ons. I was passed on the trail more than once by something like a Suzuki Samurai!!
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That's part of the reason why the truck market has exploded in recent years. They see all of the money being spent on aftermarket items and thought why do we have to lose out on all of that $$. Unfortunately, as has always been the case, when a manufacturer or dealers adds accessories they end up costing you more than double what you could have done in the aftermarket. All of the gimmicky stuff they add to new pickups isn't really needed overlanding or off-roading.

As for SDS, it's a cool feature and beyond time for one of the pickup makers to add it other than Jeep but it's not a necessity by any means. If you make out a list of items to add to a stock 4x4 that increase true off road capability and effectiveness it's pretty far down the list, especially when you factor cost.

Tires, Angles (Approach, break over, Departure,) which is where leveling kits, lifts, tire size etc. come in is what matters then recovery, lights, brakes etc.

Look at most top 10 list for first off road modifications (by off-raod publications) to consider for better off road performance and sway bar disconnect isn't on them.

I would recomment this channel https://www.youtube.com/@TinkerersAdventure/videos He's an engineer that really gets into the details of which off road stuff really works. He did a video on removing sway bars and the results were interesting.

 
Thanks I'll check that out. I agree, it's not a necessity or the first mod I would do either. What's interesting is several of the allocations with the SDM have been removed or are being held for inspections according to some on the Tacoma4g forums.

There's a good spreadsheet updated every day with new allocations and the number of Tacos with SDM has decreased over the past few days. So it might be smarter not to have that as it's something else that could have issues too.
 
So just to close the loop on this, we decided to get a Taco without SDM. According to the dealer website, it should be here 3/3-3/8. I appreciate everyone's advice here. I also went back and looked at some of the first drive videos and while there was a difference between having connected/disconnected, it was only about 2 inches if extra articulation which is helpful, but not a huge amount either. I think if it had been more llke 4-5 inches, it might have been more worth the extra $ in my mind.

Again thanks everyone!
 
Good for you, congrats! I'm sure you'll enjoy it. One note on the bedliner, not sure how Toyota does it, but my Line-X spray-in is still slick. I actually like it because I can slide heavy coolers to the back of the cab quite easily. From experiencing my son's 2023 Taco plastic bed, it's about the same. Mine is a 6ft bed so I keep a stick with a hook on the end to move stuff around.
 
If anyone is interested in a more in depth suspension and stabilizer disconnect demo, I thought this was pretty good. And I'm still ok with not having it despite the what the video shows.

 
Nice video. Shows how that Off-road is really a step above the average 4wd. A configuration the other brands just don't fill. You have basic 4wd, Trailboss/FX4/AT4/Sport, then straight to their top line ZR2/Raptor/AT4X/Pro. Toyota adds the Off-road in the middle for advanced 4wd without a huge price increase. A great base to build on. Now Ford needs to release a Ranger Tremor. That would be a great set-up and direct competition for the Taco Off-Road with some specialized 4wd components and capabilities without getting too crazy like the Raptor.
 
Dusdaddy said:
Nice video. Shows how that Off-road is really a step above the average 4wd. A configuration the other brands just don't fill. You have basic 4wd, Trailboss/FX4/AT4/Sport, then straight to their top line ZR2/Raptor/AT4X/Pro. Toyota adds the Off-road in the middle for advanced 4wd without a huge price increase. A great base to build on. Now Ford needs to release a Ranger Tremor. That would be a great set-up and direct competition for the Taco Off-Road with some specialized 4wd components and capabilities without getting too crazy like the Raptor.
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The Trailboss and AT4 are a noticeable step above the FX4, they're in line with the Tremor. They include lift, 3rd party suspension, tires, locker, protection (among others) whereas the FX4 is just improved ford susp, protection and locker.
 
Fightnfire said:
The Trailboss and AT4 are a noticeable step above the FX4, they're in line with the Tremor. They include lift, 3rd party suspension, tires, locker, protection (among others) whereas the FX4 is just improved ford susp, protection and locker.
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I don't see that at all. The TrailBoss, Elevation, AT4, and Denali are all the same in being lifted above the WT/LT/Z71 but not by much, maybe an inch? And basically, all the same dimensions as the Ranger. They have no special shocks, skid plates, suspension or any other special 4wd configurations. In other words, equivalent to a TRD Sport or Ford Ranger 4wd, a good basic 4wd. The Ranger 4wd w/FX4 does add the Trail Control which is like the Toyota Crawl Control, E-locker, and skid plates. GM does offer skid plates but no system like Trail Control. The G80 is a locker but not an electronic one.

To me, the TB is just an entry level Canyon landing below the Elevation because the Elevation comes stock with cruise. I hear so much about the TB but when you look at it closely, there really isn't much there, hence the great price. Funniest thing, they list the Denali as having the greatest ground clearance @10.5". Wonder why?
 
Dusdaddy said:
I don't see that at all. The TrailBoss, Elevation, AT4, and Denali are all the same in being lifted above the WT/LT/Z71 but not by much, maybe an inch? And basically, all the same dimensions as the Ranger. They have no special shocks, skid plates, suspension or any other special 4wd configurations. In other words, equivalent to a TRD Sport or Ford Ranger 4wd, a good basic 4wd. The Ranger 4wd w/FX4 does add the Trail Control which is like the Toyota Crawl Control, E-locker, and skid plates. GM does offer skid plates but no system like Trail Control. The G80 is a locker but not an electronic one.

To me, the TB is just an entry level Canyon landing below the Elevation because the Elevation comes stock with cruise. I hear so much about the TB but when you look at it closely, there really isn't much there, hence the great price. Funniest thing, they list the Denali as having the greatest ground clearance @10.5". Wonder why?
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I admit, I was thinking half ton. Definite differences between FX4 and TB then AT4 in the half ton realm. The Colorado TB is a pretty bare bones truck with an off-road package. The Canyon AT4 is different with many more standard features. GMC also added a lift option only available on the AT4 which brings the it's height up another inch to equal the AT4X, that package includes steps.
 
Fightnfire said:
I admit, I was thinking half ton. Definite differences between FX4 and TB then AT4 in the half ton realm. The Colorado TB is a pretty bare bones truck with an off-road package. The Canyon AT4 is different with many more standard features. GMC also added a lift option only available on the AT4 which brings the it's height up another inch to equal the AT4X, that package includes steps.
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Interesting fact: That lift kit that GMC offers will fit the Elevation-Denali and the Colorado Trailboss. Apparently, Colorado owners are ordering it through GMC to install on their Chevy's.
 
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