ABS: Good Story

Ok I hear all these bad stories about ABS. I know it has its drawbacks especially offroading and in snow but here's an ABS praise.

I was driving to work and approached an intersection where cars are suppose to yield to the lane I was in. Car didn't yield, I was going about 25-30 mph and so was the other car. He came head on veering to my left and I hit the brakes.

Tires started to screech and my truck started pulling to the left right into the other car. ABS kicked in, straightened me out and I was able to avoid the douche bag.

I probably would have been able to stop in time without ABS and avoid the accident but it proved to me that ABS does do its job sometimes. Allowed me to keep control of the truck and maintain steering.

Anyway that's alllllll

 

try em on hard packed snow!

Glad to hear you and yer truck are ok!

 

ABS is great on dry pavement and has saved me once but has more than once nearly caused wrecks on snowy roads.

 

well I live in Hawaii so snow isn't a big concern...

 

Yah sorry, I wasn't trying to be a dick. I think Zombie clearified me perfectly.

 

If you were " pulling to one side and ABS straightened you out " sounds like maybe what you actually experienced was the VSC kicking in .

Was there a beeper beeping when it kicked in ?

 

The ABS in my truck could had killed me one time. That system is flawed and needs to be checked out by the Toyota engineers.

 

Could have been the VSC but there was no beeping. happened so fast. All I know is that once the ABS kicked in, I was able to regain control of the truck.

Gooch, I knew what you meant. I agree that ABS is good on dry pavement but awful on anything slippery.

 

Not VSC if there was no beeping

 

Did you felt some pressure on pedal brake and heard some "grinding" noises? If yes, it's ABS

 

VSC creates the exact same sensation in the brake pedal

 

Threshold braking is the way to go. Your in control. Faster response than abs and don't lose control. Abs works sometimes yes. However the driver will always be able to do what it does

 

I am thinking seriously about doing the ABS kill switch mod, using only in snowy conditions tho...

 

rdd11, I agree that the driver should be first in controlling his truck. HOWEVER, after much thought about this I'm not so sure.

This last incident happened FAST. I have decent reaction times and it was impossible for me to anything other than slam on my brakes. There was no time to think about threshold braking or preventing slip, just mash my brake. You can argue that I did have time to think and I need to be a better driver, go ahead.

So my thinking now is that a truck that can do some thinking for you is a good thing. Of course there will be faults but it has its uses.

So

 

Dammit, I misplaced my "I call bullshit" pic.



Found it.

In my experience in responding to high speed nasty wrecks we've seen an awful lot of solid skid pads into the collision. Lots of people panic and lock up the brakes in a "true" emergency stop.

 

Oh well. I did drive a car with a stability control, it was called ESP. It was great but it didn't felt like ABS, it was two completely different system. I mean, ESP doesn't lock your wheels, it simply helps you to put the car where you want to go. I must say that it works very well, at least, on a Jeep Patriot, my previous car. They were making sounds indeed, when in fonction.

On a side note, did you know that ESP, VSC and alike will be mandatory for 95% cars built and sold in the USA starting from this year.

Canada created same kind of law to make it mandatory for cars that are built after September 2011.

But not ABS, they held off, especially NHTSA