2009 PRADO GRANDE - REVERSE SENSORS PICK UP HEYMAN REEECE TOWBARS

[Badman]

;) In Feb 09 I bought a brand new Prado deisel. Part of the new vehicle purchase was a standard, heavy duty, Heyman Reece towbar, installed by the dealer (or their contractor). From delivery time, the 4 head reversing sensors detected the towbar. This meant that as soon as you engaged reverse gear, the "close proximity" warning would sound a constant tone. Enough to drive you absolutely mad and especially annoying if you're reversing a long distance up a private driveway. After several attempts and months trying to adjust the sensors, the dealer said it wasn't their problem as I had ordered a non-standard towbar (i.e not the Toyota approved one). I had an opposing view. Through persistence, I discovered that Toyota knew thius was a problem with other Prado's and that they had recently released a revised (maybe new) reverse sensor computer that overcame the problem.

The new (revised) reverse computer was installed last month under warranty and appears to have fixed the problem - works perfectly and very accurate. In fact it's so accurate that one has only 50mm between the towbar and the object when it gives a constant tone....so be careful to approach the object slowly and stop at the first constant beep.

Good outcome after all but did take a fair bit of persuasion. What would be even better is if the system was designed to disengage the beeper when towing a trailer and needing to reverse it. Maybe next years version??? Cheers. Badman.

Edited February 17, 2010 by Badman