Traction Control or good driving? Discuss.

I'm pretty used to driving in wet conditions, but it was deceptively slippery in spots up there Saturday night.

I wonder how much it has to do with the fact that this early in the season there is no salt or sand being applied to the road?

 

There was def no treatment on the roads we were on!

 

Not really bad out this morning but did a little test of pushing into a turn in 2nd gear, truck did spin a little but did not slip out of line or throw off any lights or noises.

 

Width makes a huge difference as well. Car tires and SUV tires are generally narrower putting more weight/ contact patch equaling better traction. I'm not arguing but I'd be curious to try multiple vehicles with the exact same tire and size. That's the only way to know for sure how each vehicle differs.

 

I have a '13 SR5 4x4 with the LSD. So far in my first encounters with the snow / ice that the traction control does not beep when it kicks in but the light flashes on the dash. You can however hear the LSD system being activated to control the spin on the tires.

I've been playing around in some slush in 2WD and trying to spin out the tail on corners, you can get it to start but the VSC kicks in within a second and corrects it. if you combine it with counter steering the tail does not slide wide of the turn (so far).

My only problem with the VSC / Traction control is when I'm coming from a start and Im in some light ice/snow it CRAWLS which can be extremely annoying at lights or places when I need to get going quickly.

 

Tires make a big difference and not all AWD systems are the same either. So, I agree with you that the only way to get definitive results is to test multiple vehicles with the same tires etc. I would also argue that on snow/ice the driver makes a bigger difference than the tire.

In general however, I've driven multiple vehicles in the snow/ice .. as I'm sure all of you have. I've found that AWD vehicles compare favorably to 4WD vehicles in the iciest conditions around town. As soon as you add slush, or deeper snow the 4WD gets the edge.

 

You know you can turn it off right ?

 

Yes, I prefer it on for all of the other scenarios, I dont want to be having to turn it off everytime I come to a stop however.

 

Has there ever been an issue with liability when turning traction control off? I worry that the computers record that it is turned off, and in the event of an accident, that can be recovered by the insurance company.
"Well Mr. ___, of course you crashed in the snow; you turned your traction control off!!!" And they refuse to pay.

 

The thing about the ABS is you have to learn where the threshold is for when it kicks in. If you can avoid really mashing down on the brake pedal you won't get those interminable slides.


Here's a pic I took testing stopping distances with ABS enabled and disabled, slamming on the brakes. The stopping distance was about 25% longer with ABS enabled, but the truck didn't dive downhill. So it's easier to maintain control with ABS enabled, but longer stopping distances. I haven't done the ABS kill switch yet (I just pulled the fuse for this test), but I think it's a nice option to have. I just feather the brakes and pop the clutch in when I get into icy conditions (with an auto trans I put it into neutral when braking in slick conditions):

 

More likely scenario if you were to do the ABS switch mod. I wouldn't fret over switching it off. Toyota put the switch on the dash to be used. Just saying

 

Uh , there 's a button Toyota puts on there to allow you to turn it off , not worrying about that one too much

 

* FTR, I prefer to have ZERO intrusive "safety features" such as ABS or TC/VSC...

 

I'd rather slide sideways a bit when braking and get shorter stop distance than going straight into a car because I have no where else to steer.

Gotta burn that abs fuse up so I don't get any liability issues in case of an accident.

 

I only prefer to have mine completely off in snow/ice or having to do lots of tight turns. The switch mod takes care of the always lurking issue.