It wouldn't matter... you can't shift into 4X4 at highway speeds and even so, its not like he planned on doing a quick off-road stint so he wouldn't have had time.

And Coy - no offense meant - but you indicate that you are passing semis that are doing 75 MPH so logic would indicate that you must be doing at least 75 MPH in the median.

I think in reality you had already stabbed the brakes and were moving slower, but the story as told does not quite read that way. Just a minor issue in the story-telling is all.

 

Sure you can. Isn't it like 65 MPH or something? Or maybe it's 55. At any rate, you can shift into 4x4 at highway speeds.

If he had time to turn off traction control, he had plenty of time to switch the **** into 4x4.

 

its 2wd.

 

None taken, still dont think i hit the median at 75, cause when i started accelerating to get ahead of the truck that was coming over on me i came up on a slow moving semi in the left lane, thats when i hit the brakes and had no choice but to hit the median. I remember seeing the speedometer showing 60mph when i was trying to get out of the median but have no clue what the mph ranged from.. All i know is it scared the crap out of me, and was damn lucky i was able to get the truck back on the highway.

 

 

Coy, I'm 100% with you. I can't STAND this traction control, "advanced", over ride what the driver wants to do, CRAP! I turn a corner at an incline or hit some fun stuff and my truck decides what I should be doing. When I hit the gas I want the back tires to turn, when I'm not hitting the brakes I don't want the brakes to activate. duuuh! Frustrates the hell out of me! One of the many reasons I miss my 06'...
And don't worry about the police bro. Most everyone here would begin to pass in that situation. "Let the semi hit you". Pfffff

 

Werd! It's easy to listen to a story, have time to digest it, and say what we would have done. However, when it's your *** in the seat, and your *** is on the line, and there's only a split-second to react, it's a different story. Methinks most normal people would instinctively avoid a collision if it's possible.

"Your fault, my fault, nobody's fault...I'm gonna blow your head clean off!" Love that movie!

Glad you're OK, Coy. It could've ended much worse!

 

I work in brake controls and I hate to tell you but all of these safety features that you wished werent there are government regulations. I believe in 2011 ESC was required by law for any vehicle sold in the US. If you don't want them then you will have to buy an older vehicle. I am not trying to aggravate you but just state the facts. In your defense there are times when TCS kicks in when you need power (ie if you pull over on a dusty shoulder and try to accelerate to merge back on the highway. If the vehicle sees slip on the tires it will limit the torque.) Unfortunately we have to tune for the every driver and the majority would most likely loose control of the vehicle if these safety systems werent put in place.

 

People have safely navigated vehciles for 110+ years without having onboard computers making decisions

Some of the computer stuff is neat, high speed antiskid, as well as other programs like trailer sway control, terrain. Response etc

 

I figure it's just another year or two before we have little black boxes to tell them exactly what was going on.

 

Part of owning a vehicle with advanced control systems is understanding their function and how they affect handling.

For example, I would never complain about my limited-slip axle hanging the tail out on a rainy day. It's part of the vehicle, and I should drive accordingly to avoid such situations, or change my driving habits to better take advantage of the vehicle's systems, be they mechanical or electronic.

 

...I presume you meant that to be "without" above?

That is a very debatable point. The "safely" part. And not a debate I think you actually stand a chance of winning given the accident statistics and the distinct lack of "onboard" computers (aka wetware, aka brains) most drivers have exhibited for 110+ years

Add in higher speeds and tweaked vehicles often exceeding even the grossly lax "safety" standards and it's no wonder there's carnage on the roads. Your average driver may have been reasonably safe when operating a Model T at all of about 40mph top speed, on roads with more horses than cars but that's hardly the case anymore when you have congested traffic traveling at up to 75mph or more.

While I'm an advocate of most advances in safety they aren't perfect and far too many drivers out there expect the automatic systems to get them out of trouble and actually drive with even less care and attention. "The ABS will stop me, I can go faster! The airbags will save me, I don't need a seatbelt!" etc. etc. every time a new automatic safety feature is added.

So for the record and at the risk of making more enemies than friends put me on the list of glad you're safe KingRanchCoy but I think you were lucky to come through a bad situation of your own making. Don't blame the systems for probably helping get you home alive once you got in trouble. Or at least admit that even IF they did fail to help in this specific isolated case the vast majority of the time they would save your bacon by doing what they are designed to do.

 

Yeah, and we all drove safely without seat belts and air bags, and crash structures too. Oh wait...

Yep. This ain't the 1920's any more folks. All of these systems make cars/trucks/etc. safer in 99.9% of the situations.

 

Or my favorite, "I don't need to check my tire pressure until the TPMS light comes on"

 

I'm certainly glad you're OK! I have no savvy advice to prevent future events of the mechanical nature for your truck but I have some experience with a previous family of truck drivers and a son who used to drive fulltime but now is partime due to the amount of new inexperienced drivers and some non English speaking drivers the Knights of the road kind of disappeared coupled with recent DOT driving time rules. My advice to anyone unless your driving something over 80000# keep your distance the "Law of physics" prevail.:}