Totaled taco, belated story/picts...lenghty

Glad you're ok. These trucks are pretty stout in a roll over. Here's a few pics of mine. 80 mph, direct sideways roll, About 8 rolls, hit the ground 3.5 times. Initial hit was over my head. Stopped on the roof. Smashed in to about an inch from my head. I too walked away with a few scrapes and bruises.

 

Cudoos to you fabjunkie...glad you're alright too!! That is very impressive for the stoutness of our trucks, especially for a double cab...makes me feel better driving mine now!!!!!

 

You guys driving around with your VSC off are nuts! Has saved my ass many times. You cannot react nearly fast enough to stop certain types or spins. VSC CAN!

 

wth is that anyhow i dont have that on my plane jane sr5

 

If that is something you NEED, than you may need to practice driving more.

 

Glad you are ok man and good luck with the 09.

Me either man, my truck's back end breaks loose every time it rains.

 

damn.

be carefull from now on would ya

 

It has nothing to do with need it's the same thought of fuel injection sucks I would rather have a carb. It's progress and technology. Maybe you think your better with out it hope you never have to find out.

 

That was more of a shot at the guy I quoted, because I kinda felt he shit in the OP's thread.

With that being said, I don't turn mine off, but I do think I am better than it. I don't think you should rely on something to help you in a situation. I think that would be crazy to drive a vehicle and just trust that a system is going to work/and keep you straight. Its kinda like saying you are good at parking, when you have one of those cars with the parking assist.

 

do they really wrk & how the hell does it keep you straight

 

Glad to see you're okay OP! Definitely scary.

As far as the TC question, it definitely helps. I keep mine on unless I'm trying to have fun in the snow. And I'm perfectly capable of snow driving with out it I've been driving in the snow since literally my first few driving lessons. A situation like this I don't think driver skill comes into play much. At 40mph in the snow in a truck in 2wd with traction aids turned off it doesn't take much to quickly lose it.

 

Hell if I know, never had it kick in.

 

Except fuel injection increases performance of the motor, while VSC decreases the offroad performance of this truck. Sometimes you need a bit of wheelspin in certain situations, and I don't want the truck to limit my ability to control it. It has an "off" button for a reason.

 

I learned to drive way before there was any thing that remotely resembled VSC it's a tools for the masses and it works. I worked for MB when it first came out in the mid 80's and we tried to trick it and it came out on top most of the time. Yes if you drive expecting an issue you can correct usually as well but it's the unexpected that gets you. We had ice this year to write about and I got to play with my 2011 and was impressed I made it slide and let it do it's thing and believe me it was hard to do that after all the years of not having some thing like that, would I relay on it entirely? no but I really think it could get you out of a #@#$ that you may not expect.

 

As with any other tool it's important to know when the situation calls for VSC. It's really designed for on-road use, and it's good at what it does on pavement. Like you said, it's really interesting to try and break the rear end loose and see how the truck responds. It's just not useful in every situation is what I was getting at. I recently had to take a corner at speed in 6 inches of fresh snow and frozen mud like OP (emergency maneuver I guess, I wasn't trying to be reckless) and I'm pretty confident that if the VSC was turned on and cut my throttle, I would've slid right off into the boulders and brush.

On the other hand, when I first got the truck, I took it out to the sand and failed to understand the traction control systems at all. I was about 3/4 up this big hill when I heard the "beepbeepbeep" of death and the truck slowed just enough to lose all its momentum. My natural instinct (in any other truck) was to slap it in reverse and gas it out, but of course, I was shut down as the truck is beeping at me and spun just enough to get stuck. Finally engaging the locker and a couple feet of rolling up and down led to this:



The other major contributor was the rear mud flaps had been pushed up against the tires when I tried backing down the hill, so rather than digging its way down the hill it just sat there and spun out on the smooth plastic. In addition to my own stupidity for offroading a brand new truck that I didn't understand.

Now I ripped the mudflaps off, turn the VSC/TRAC off when I hit the sand, and I've rarely been stuck since (and never as bad as this pic. I think this is the worse I've ever stuck a truck. I know, I know, get a 4x4 )

....Whoah, I need to stop derailing this thread. Anyway, my point was that TRAC/VSC isn't a be all & end all solution to low-traction situations, and that it's not always better than the driver behind the wheel since it can't see or react to the environment.

 

Another reason i Love these trucks! Glad both of you are OK

 

wow, I haven't seen many of the roll over pics but every time I do I like my truck more. I can't believe how well they stand up to the roll overs.


and at least you weren't in this, you never would have stopped rolling

 

Hard to believe it's been a year already...

 

Glad your ok. Freaky stuff