Good question. My gut says no, but I could be wrong.

 

If it weren't true there wouldn't be a switch to turn them off.

 

Well they are triggered by a rollover angle. From what I read online, they can be triggered fast enough where all 4 wheels are still on the ground. My advice, be careful!

 

Yes, turn off the side bags. I also have the switch and turn off the bags while I off road. They're design to go off during a roll-over and I don't know the angle by which they will deploy but why take a chance.

 

Theoretically you can set your air bags off while offroading. If you miss judge an angle or clearance and you hit something at angle upward back towards the engine in the skid plate area, this could theoretically triggerthe air bags. I have heard of VW's having an issue similar to this, people were having their airbags go off while driving down the free way after hitting a pot hole. Resulting in a totalled car just for the air bag deployment.

I guess what I am saying is you could theoretically set the air bags off while offroading, But the chance in minimal.

 

Two completely different systems. The beep is from your vehicle stability control system telling you it applied the brakes to one (or more) of the wheels to correct your skid. The "airbags off" doesn't disable the airbags, it disables the roll sensing system so that if you are at an extreme lean angle it doesn't trigger the airbags thinking you are rolling the vehicle.

Its all in your owners manual.

 

Two completely different systems. The beep is from your vehicle stability control system telling you it applied the brakes to one (or more) of the wheels to correct your skid. The "airbags off" doesn't disable the airbags, it disables the roll sensing system so that if you are at an extreme lean angle it doesn't trigger the airbags thinking you are rolling the vehicle.

Its all in your owners manual.

Thanks for the clarification. :thumbsup: Although I've been very curious about the beeps, I must admit that I have not read my owner's manual yet. Lesson Learned.:headbang:

 

i say try it out and see if it does or not-then again, it's not my truck....

 

I was told during a new customer orientation that it took angle and velocity to get them to go off. I'm sure there is an angle of no return, but what the dealer's tech told us is it needs to be the angle combined with enough rotational velocity to get the truck to roll - so it would have to hit the angle quickly vs just parking it on a side-hill or something.

 

I keep getting letters from my dealer telling me how badly they need used trucks and how much they will offer me. Now I have just one more reason to hang on to what I have.

 

I'm missing something. You can disable the vehicle stability control and airbag tilt sensor with two clearly marked buttons when you don't want them. It makes the truck safer the rest of the time when you aren't in conditions where they should be disabled. Why is not having these features a good thing?

 

Whether or not this is being done by Toyota or federal rules, I have no idea. What I do know is that they are adding more "stuff" that can go wrong. Unless I am simply not seeing it, the '09s no longer have a rear locker either, thus IMO making them less capable. How much more stuff needs to be added before we quit calling it a capable midsized truck and start calling it a passenger car with a bed?

 

A rear locker is still available with the TRD offroad package. When you switch into 4x4, vehicle stability control is automatically disabled, so there is no interaction between VSC and a locker in normal usage. If you mod your vehicle to use your rear locker in 2HI then you need to manually push the button to disable VSC.

 

A rear locker is still available with the TRD offroad package.

I stand corrected.

I am still am not in favor of adding more and more electronic stuff to the trucks. I am big believer in Murphy's Law and just don't like the thought of being stranded in the middle of nowhere due to an electronic failure without a chance in heck of being able to make a trail repair. Edit: One could argue that we are already there, but the engine ECUs have been around a long time and are pretty proven technology. Now there are all sorts of other ECUs involved.