Took the wife out to Box Canyon in Florence, Arizona in our stock LC LC along BLM 6133 Box Canyon to Mineral Mountain Road. Thursday, June 19 and 114° F / 46° C. I followed this TrailsOffroad guide. Since it hasn't rained in a while there was no water and it wasn't as green as the guide pictures, but it was still a nice ride in and out. I recommend it and will go again after it rains. We intentionally went during the week to avoid any crowds but due to the heat there was not a single other person on the trail. I was afraid we'd have to squeeze past another offroader in the tight sections. There are sufficient areas to pass in some areas, though not all! No issues with pinstriping. Along the trail there are campsites, a neat little stage coach building artifact, some petroglyphs, and optional obstacles you can navigate or bypass, including fun "Poser Rock" boulders you can attempt to park your truck on for a photo!
Note: I brought enough water for a couple days and a Garmin inReach Mini 2... just in case. Be safe!
Now for the details on the Land Cruiser performance:
Tire pressure: I used the pressure gauge on my VIAIR to air down to 20 PSI, though the vehicle reported it as 22 PSI - I'm not sure what is more accurate. Regardless airing down to ~20 PSI made for a much smoother ride. The difference is quite noticeable. At the end of the ride I aired back up to 33 PSI. I can recommend 20 PSI for the stock Michelins. We were floating along in most sections.
Temperature: I was a little concerned about the 114 degree heat but the Land Cruiser handled it without complaint. Cabin air conditioning was comfortable inside the whole trip and no issue with any engine/oil/transmission temps (though the radiator fan was running constantly). We were out there from around 10:30am to 2:30pm. No warnings about heat. The ventilated seats worked reasonably well. We were mostly in 4HI with no diffs locked and only set 4LO or locked the center diff for a couple areas. We stopped and left the vehicle running to keep the cabin cool while we looked around and no issues even though the vehicle was running for a continuous 6 hours including the trip from Phoenix and back.
Stabilizer Disconnect Mechanism (SDM): Didn't need it on this trail though I keep hearing how it improves comfort. So I tested it back to back in a few sections and I'm just not feeling it. Perhaps any potential benefit of the SDM for comfort is already achieved by airing down tires. I'm not saying SDM is not useful - it provides real benefit where increased articulation is needed. I am saying that I noticed zero increase in driving comfort over bumps. The 19 MPH limit doesn't bother me because I'm never going to need increased articulation at anything above 5 MPH.
Ground Clearance: Unless you attempt the optional obstacles, ground clearance is not an issue on the Box Canyon route. I still have the front air dams and those never touched the ground. On the other hand, the integrated (but removable) rear mud flaps did touch a couple times. It's not an issue for this trail and likely completely avoidable but I'm considering sourcing the First Edition mud flaps which appear a bit more flexible.
Cool Box: Finally found a use for the cool box! I'm not a fan but my phone was overheating the whole trip due to using it to take photos outside in the heat, running Android Auto and OnX Offroad. I ended up stashing the phone in the cool box which kept it usable.
Turning Radius: The LC250 is really perfect for this type of trail. There's a few sections that are tight and you have to slip through a couple larger boulders but the narrow body, short wheel base, and 360 cameras if equipped make it really easy to get through any of the tighter turns.
Extra notes on OnX Offroad: I'm still having a hard time with OnX Offroad. I manually created a route in OnX before leaving (so I could have the infotainment screen show me the route), but encountered more annoying issues with the paid software:
1. On Android OnX Offroad cannot route your route without internet, even with offline maps loaded and in offline mode. It will display your location on the map, but won't give any directions to stay on your route.
2. The vehicle direction (arrow) depends on how you are holding your phone and is almost never correct.
3. If you create checkpoints the checkpoints are displayed but not the names of the checkpoints on the vehicles screen map.
4. The app seems to heat up my old Galaxy S21 Ultra even if not using the wireless charger.
Note: I brought enough water for a couple days and a Garmin inReach Mini 2... just in case. Be safe!
Now for the details on the Land Cruiser performance:
Tire pressure: I used the pressure gauge on my VIAIR to air down to 20 PSI, though the vehicle reported it as 22 PSI - I'm not sure what is more accurate. Regardless airing down to ~20 PSI made for a much smoother ride. The difference is quite noticeable. At the end of the ride I aired back up to 33 PSI. I can recommend 20 PSI for the stock Michelins. We were floating along in most sections.
Temperature: I was a little concerned about the 114 degree heat but the Land Cruiser handled it without complaint. Cabin air conditioning was comfortable inside the whole trip and no issue with any engine/oil/transmission temps (though the radiator fan was running constantly). We were out there from around 10:30am to 2:30pm. No warnings about heat. The ventilated seats worked reasonably well. We were mostly in 4HI with no diffs locked and only set 4LO or locked the center diff for a couple areas. We stopped and left the vehicle running to keep the cabin cool while we looked around and no issues even though the vehicle was running for a continuous 6 hours including the trip from Phoenix and back.
Stabilizer Disconnect Mechanism (SDM): Didn't need it on this trail though I keep hearing how it improves comfort. So I tested it back to back in a few sections and I'm just not feeling it. Perhaps any potential benefit of the SDM for comfort is already achieved by airing down tires. I'm not saying SDM is not useful - it provides real benefit where increased articulation is needed. I am saying that I noticed zero increase in driving comfort over bumps. The 19 MPH limit doesn't bother me because I'm never going to need increased articulation at anything above 5 MPH.
Ground Clearance: Unless you attempt the optional obstacles, ground clearance is not an issue on the Box Canyon route. I still have the front air dams and those never touched the ground. On the other hand, the integrated (but removable) rear mud flaps did touch a couple times. It's not an issue for this trail and likely completely avoidable but I'm considering sourcing the First Edition mud flaps which appear a bit more flexible.
Cool Box: Finally found a use for the cool box! I'm not a fan but my phone was overheating the whole trip due to using it to take photos outside in the heat, running Android Auto and OnX Offroad. I ended up stashing the phone in the cool box which kept it usable.
Turning Radius: The LC250 is really perfect for this type of trail. There's a few sections that are tight and you have to slip through a couple larger boulders but the narrow body, short wheel base, and 360 cameras if equipped make it really easy to get through any of the tighter turns.
Extra notes on OnX Offroad: I'm still having a hard time with OnX Offroad. I manually created a route in OnX before leaving (so I could have the infotainment screen show me the route), but encountered more annoying issues with the paid software:
1. On Android OnX Offroad cannot route your route without internet, even with offline maps loaded and in offline mode. It will display your location on the map, but won't give any directions to stay on your route.
2. The vehicle direction (arrow) depends on how you are holding your phone and is almost never correct.
3. If you create checkpoints the checkpoints are displayed but not the names of the checkpoints on the vehicles screen map.
4. The app seems to heat up my old Galaxy S21 Ultra even if not using the wireless charger.
