Just as a thought as an engineer. The black boxes on these trucks record a lot of information. If you end up in ANY accident situation, and during discovery phase someone reads the black box and determines you deactivated stability or traction control, I would imagine the lawsuit would take note of that.

Willfully disabling a safety system is akin to removing the airbags or disabling the brakelights with a switch. Not a big deal for offroad operation, but on the highway, I wouldn't risk it. Everyone is free to do as they wish with their vehicle, just offering a different perspective.

Sure, I'm a great driver. I also have a 16 year old daughter and I have a girlfriend who only drive my truck once in a while. What happens the one time I forget to turn my manual patched in switch off to return everything to automatic? Or they expect ABS to kick in, but oops, the fuse is pulled and in the cup holder and they slide through an intersection?

Not trying to start an arguement, just thinking about it from the manufacturer's standpoint. Can't allow people to lock out a safety system because the lawsuits would soon pile up.

-Andy

 

I agree with Andy. I work in brake controls and all of the safety systems you are complaining about are government requirements for any new car sold in the US. For the record the fuse will never be separated between abs and tcs/esc because that fuse is either the valves or the power to the brake controller depending which one you pull. Each program is different but I can tell you the strategy for TC off is typically opening up your control thresh holds.

 

When ascending a hill the traction control hits my front brakes, it stops me dead I'm my tracks, looking at the 4' of snow outside my window it has aggravated me a lot to say the least. Possibly the worst f150 I have had, three excluding this one. I don't hammer up the hill btw, lucky if I hit 2k,just steady climbing pressure. Just to be sure there is no way to disconnect it with out a tuner or making my own hodgepodge switch that will cut out abs?

It is rather horrible to have traction control in snow or ice, it turns the truck limp. For those who know how to drive in 2wd. When u go forward it just hits the brakes making you look like a southerner in his first storm,

My girl drives the truck a lot, bc of that if its snowing I have her just keep it in 4wd, not good for truck but it's impossible to drive white in 2wd. Even with TC off its still pulling you away from where you want to go, the front brakes try to correct and pull you to where it thinks you were going, and it doesn't know where I want it to go

 

FYI - If you are in 2WD traction control will NEVER activate the front brakes.

Not sure if you don't know what you are talking about or if you are trying to discuss stability control? But in slow speeds and driving in a straight line its unlikely that stability control would be activating.

And once again - lets keep in mind - if you didn't exceed the ability of your truck for the given conditions then the systems would not be kicking in.

(let me spell it out - if you didn't cause the rear wheels to spin free, then traction control would not kick on).

• maybe your tires just aren't up to the challenge of driving up an icy hill?
• maybe your new truck as an open rear diff?
• maybe you are pressing a little too hard on the go pedal?

 

ABS doesn't help you stop any faster, it just helps retain the ability to steer during a panic stop. In fact in some cases it can actually hurt your stopping distance



And to the OP:
Traction Control and Stability Control both originate in the ABS control unit, but are essentially two separate programs

 

Not at all, I drive fine, has 3.73 limited slip. Yes it does hit the front brakes to try and keep me straight and fails every time. I've had 3 f150s before this with the same set up, 4.6, 3.73 lim slip, NEVER had a problem getting up the hill to my house, now with this traction control during ascension I feel the brakes engaging as soon as the smallest slip happens, I hear the abs and that slows down the truck, I can feel the brakes engage. Keep in mind this is at around 17-2k rpm, just limping it. As for tires I have good rubber.

 

If I'm in snow, there is slippage, it'll happen every time, the truck cant make it up the hill with the tiniest bit of slip. It stoppes in its tracks basically

 

Can't you disable the traction control if you are under 25 mph? Push the button!

 

Are you completly turning off the advance trac and TC? If you hold the button for something like 5 seconds its suppose to disable both ( the light will flash when disabled)

Next thing is if you are turning off all the nannies and it still does it, then turn off the trailer sway control.. On another forum someone was having the same problem as you and was recommended to turn off the trailer sway and it worked.

I HATE the damn TC and Advance trac on these trucks.. When it was stock it seemed like it actually turned off, only on certain circumstances it would kick on if i got the truck to sideways.. Now since im tuned and with everything off, if i spin the tires hard it will still kick on and the truck falls on its face, but i when its icy i can sit there and do donuts all day long. Makes no sense to me. I have MPT trying to do a revision to where the TC/advance trac isnt so damn picky.

 

Actually in the majority of conditions it will stop you faster.

Static friction is always higher than dynamic friction.
(tires that are sliding would be dynamic friction).

So you are in control, and you are stopping faster.

And for the "some cases" you mention - I assume that is when some sort of material builds up in front of the tires (snow, dirt, gravel, etc).
Newer ABS algorithms have ways of detecting that this is happening and will make proper adjustments to make use of those conditions.