4x4 driving questions/concerns

My VSC doesn't beep at me when there is wheel spin. It only beeps when it detects sliding. On an icy road I can stand on the throttle and spin the tires and all that happens is the slipping tires get the brakes applied (E-LSD, basically) and the throttle cuts out. But drift a corner a little and I get the beep-beep-beep as well as the vehicle trying to correct for the drifting.

 

Your lift won't affect VSC, the tire diameter change will. The truck can't tell how far off the ground it is.

 

Lol , is a lift for " looks " on a Sport and for function on an Offroad ?

I'm not debating that , I said VSC is fine , I would prefer to be able to turn it off though without it automatically resetting

 

F-it, I'll debate it... The factory suspension is a joke. Lift components are a much easier way to beef up the truck's suspension than trying to stay at stock height (if you don't want air bags). So I lifted so my truck 'looks' better when towing a few thousand pounds.

 

I would suggest a lift contributes to increased body roll which would in turn affect the yaw sensor

 

Hmmm... If you say so, it must be true. You guys with new newfangled electronic gizmos.

 

I engine break quite a bit in the winter. Some times tapping the brakes can lock up the tires worse than down shifting, or just down shifting to keep at a constant speed without riding the brakes. When I mentioned keeping the back end from sliding out while going straight i was doing about 30, i wouldn't say thats too fast for conditions lol. Your point on the 4wd causing the front tire to slip I think is bogus and just doesen't make sense. Is the t case "locked"? Yes? But the diff is not. So the wheel can still change speed in the turn and power can go from wheel to wheel. Now if that tire had ANY traction at all the force from the drive line i dont think would be enough to cause the tire to slip unless he was punching it. Now as far as having too much momentum that is what i think we can attribute to causing a forward slide because snow and ice are slick and just a bit too much speed and a bit too much turn of the wheel and you can lose lateral traction, not the drive line forcing your front tire to break traction.

 

Had to chime in because of all the guys bashing the 4wd isn't always better in snow comment.

That is absolutely correct. 4wd helps keep you going, and the front wheels will help you around corners... To a point. Under steer becomes an issue. if you can't maintain the speed in 2w. You probably shouldn't go that fast in 4wd around corners. When conditions warrant 4wd on the highway ill turn it in, but I slow the hell down!

If you slip in 4wd you will lose far more control than if you had been jn 2wd. Find an empty lot and test it out. Especially if you're new to 4wd.

 

There is a shred of truth to the back and pushing the front around corners when in 4wd but it requires a specific situation where the rear has traction but the front doesn't. When cornering, the rear tires take a shorter path than the front tires but, because the T-case is locked, the front end and rear end have to maintain the same speed and something has to slip. If both rear tires have good traction, it can sort of push your front end straight instead of turning. As you can see, it'd take a pretty unique instance for that to happen and I, for one, wouldn't worry about it.

 

I still don't understand the engine braking part, when you can just ease into your brakes... I down shift for engine braking on steep declines and such but on solid surfaces. I had a rear wheel drive car go sideways on my once from downshifting for engine braking in the winter once. It's just too unpredictable to know just how much braking is going to occur from downshifting. If you lock your tires up by using the brake pedal then you are pushing too hard, or are in one of those "you're fucked no matter what you do" moments, which usually result from waiting too long to start slowing down.

This I hadn't thought of and makes sense but isn't fool proof or else we wouldn't have binding occur ever. This is also hard to argue for or against since there are far too many variables in this to say just what caused someone to lose control. Turning just a bit too sharply and binding may occur, turning less sharply and the diff may compensate for the wheel speed. I just don't know where to draw the line on what is too sharp and what isn't and it will vary from vehicle to vehicle anyway.

 

I actually haven't tried turning the VSC off with the switch, forgot the switch was even there. I'll have to give it a try. I've been going into 4LO to turn it all off.

I have to say the VSC from my experience isn't too bad of a nanny, I don't even notice it. I'm sure it is chiming in to keep the back end from kicking out and that's fine with me.

 

The downshift thing can be tricky in winter. I'm not to up in the auto. Big I do know that leaving the truck in gear while breaking acts as a nice abs system as long as you don't get to stall out rpm.

 

Yeah, understeer is definitely an issue when in 4WD. Understeer is another reason I like the manual transmission. You push in the clutch, downshift and feather the clutch to counteract the understeer. With the auto trans you're scrambling to find neutral meanwhile the tranny is still pushing you forward. Simply pushing the clutch in is a wonderful thing.

 

How is understeer worse in 4WD than in 2WD ? If in 4WD and you get understeer you can feather in some throttle to pull the front in the direction of steering , in 2WD you are ploughing

 

All I said was understeer can be an issue in 4WD, and it is. You would think applying power would get you out of an understeer situation, but that is not the case all the time. And by definition there is no way you can have understeer while in 2WD.

 

My experience with giving it gas during understeer has resulted in the understeer becoming worse... I just let off the throttle in these situations.

 

understeer is understeer. doesn't matter what wheels have power.
Are you saying that rwd vehicles do not have understeer?

 

Wut

 

I concur

 

Not my experience