oestreich84

Anyone who has ever driven on ice, snow, sand covered roads, or anything slippery, will know that abs WILL increase stopping distance. You will go straighter, but you will go a lot farther.

John Rodriguez

I didn't get the e-brake light, but the ABS light did stay on though.

Hounddog

The REAR only system wasn't true ABS.It was called RWAL.Trucks had GRABBY rear brakes as a rule and with no load had a habit of SLIDING long lenghts and all over the road years back.When cold(first stop or two in the A.M. could be down right dangerous.Then RWAL came out.We(techs and such)thought it was a godsend back then.Trucks also had DRUM brakes on the rear.

robert chilton

Years ago the federal govt mandated ABS in big rigs. The end result were more accidents for the entire time the mandated system was in place. This info came straight out of the VA state CDL drivers manual a few years back.
I had a boss with a 95 chevy that ate front rotors and pads every 12k miles. Disconnected the ABS and brake life increased along with stopping power.
ABS, front wheel drive, and auto trannys have one thing in common. They are great for people that dont want to learn how to control their vehicle. Nothing wrong with them for the average person but far from optimal for a person that knows hot to control the vehicle.

Hounddog

Think ABS is a strange on graver/sand/snow.Try TRACTION CONTROL! Floor it and won't go at ALL.

wingnut

A buddy of mine left his 3-series in my driveway while he was out of town for a few weeks one winter. It snowed and then I needed to move it to get my truck out. I couldn't find the #*&%$ button to disable the traction control so all I could get it to do was spin the tires about a quarter of a turn before the TCS kicked in and bogged down the engine . Luckily the snow melted later that day.

1sttruck

A study in progress below, trucks so far seem to benefit a lot from ABS.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/vrtc/ca/lvabs.htm

Antilock brake systems (ABS) have been introduced on many passenger car and light truck make/models in recent years. Brake experts anticipated that the introduction of ABS on passenger vehicles would reduce the number and severity of accidents.

A number of statistical analyses of accident databases have been performed during the last three years. These analyses suggest that the introduction of ABS does not seem to have reduced the number of automobile accidents where they were expected to be effective. Kahane stated that involvements in multi-vehicle crashes on wet roads were significantly reduced by 24 percent, and nonfatal crashes by 14 percent (with ABS). However, these reductions were offset by a statistically significant increase in the frequency of single-vehicle, run-off-road crashes (rollovers or impacts with fixed objects), as compared to cars without ABS. Fatal run-off-road crashes were up by 28 percent and nonfatal crashes by 19 percent. It is unknown to what extent, if any, this increase is due to ABS or other causes. It is also unknown to what extent, if any, this increase is due to drivers incorrect usage of ABS or incorrect responses by drivers to their ABS.

In comparison, some benefits were observed for light vehicles other than automobiles (pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, and vans), equipped with two-wheel ABS instead of the four-wheel ABS used on most automobiles. Two-wheel ABS has been effective in reducing the risk of nonfatal run-off-road crashes for almost every type of light truck. Nonfatal rollovers were reduced by 30 to 40 percent. Side impacts with fixed objects were reduced by 15 to 30 percent. Frontal impacts with fixed objects were reduced by 5 to 20 percent.

In general, ABS appears to be a very promising safety device when evaluated on a test track. Under many pavement conditions, ABS allows the driver to stop a vehicle more rapidly while maintaining steering control, even during extreme panic braking. Therefore, NHTSA wishes to, as rapidly as possible, determine why the real world performance for existing, production ABS is not producing the anticipated effectiveness that has been suggested under test track conditions

RVT223

Well I am curious enough to go and try it now. My Nissan Titan had kick *** brakes, now granted that is a much lighter truck, but the braking sytem is far more refined. That particular truck on dry pavement would not activate ABS at all. On slick surfaces the ABS would kick in on occasion. Of course that truck had four wheel sensors and proportioning valves to compensate front to rear braking forces. My guess is that there are still people out there that are still modulating pedal force and not allowing ABS to activate..."what is the weird noise and pulse". Granted ABS does not work at slow speeds (below approx 3mph) and there are times (such as off road) that one wants to be able to completely lock the brakes. What ABS does do is enable a driver to make large control inputs while braking hard. It is not possible to steer a vehicle around an obstacle when the steering wheels are locked. And in a lot of cases it is better to steer around an obstacle vs. trying to acheive a full stop. Additionally on wet or slick surfaces a skidding wheel is not offering much braking. Gravel, sand or rock have much more bite than a roadway with a thin film of liquid on them. But then again that is a matter of driver training. By the way if you want to hear something that will make your heart warm listen to the ATIS at your local airport...braking action nil...that always makes me happy when landing...thank God for reverse thrust.

1sttruck

ABS will work better with tires that provide better traction. My stock Michelins are pretty humble, and the OEM BFGs get worse reviews.

Scotty

After some freezing rain and lots of snow I again encountered the ABS lack of control.
I hit the brakes a long ways from the light and within a few seconds the pedal was buzzing, I let off and applied again...not hard and again the buzz...so I kept my foot on the pedal and proceeded to roll right into the intersection!
This sucks! I had to back up about 15 ft. Talk about lookin dumb and feeling useless.
I will remove the fuse for further testing tomorrow.

Scotty

John Rodriguez

Good luck Scotty! Yesterday it drizzled slightly, the kind of rain that wets the road just enough for the powdered rubber to float to the surface and make it super slick, but not enough to wash the roads clean. I did some more testing (of course ) and besides a grin on my face for drifting around corners trail braking and tearing up my tires I did manage to get in some minor tech. Right on the threshold for sliding or not, the truck feels solid. Hell, grinding to a stop feels solid in this truck. Go pull the plug and go to a secluded / blocked off road. IT DOES REQUIRE YOU TO RELEARN HOW TO BRAKE. Even when you don't think ABS is working, I think it somehow is (at low pressures, is that possible? so you can't really feel it) at moderate pedal inputs. Go play around, it takes a few minutes to get used to it.

Hounddog

Hey WE did same thing when 4 wheel abs came out.Found black top roads with wet pinestraw in the middle and would slam on brakes etc.Sure stopped shorter and straighter then STANDARD brakes.WE couldn't get the GRIN off our faces.

roadranger

Just this morning coming in to work. In center lane of 3 lanes of traffic, light ahead turns red. Hit brakes, all OK until right front wheel goes over a depressed manhole cover. ABS kicks in and I JUST miss rear ending the guy in front of me.

ABS may be good for steering out of a problem, but it's NO good at all when you're in traffic and you HAVE to stay in your lane.

and...what good is being able to steer when the ABS has you sliding right out into the intersection you're trying to stop at?

JMO

RustyJC

A number of years ago I had an individual make a left turn directly in front of me at a snowy intersection in Ohio. I was driving my Volvo 850GLT which had 3 channel anti-lock brakes (the rears were on a common circuit, like our trucks). With anti-lock brakes, I was able to stab the brakes and steer around this vehicle to the left (even so, I couldn't believe I'd missed him - it couldn't have been more than an inch or two.) Without anti-lock brakes, I would almost certainly have t-boned him under those adverse conditions.

Yes, there might be conditions where ABS brakes are detrimental, but there are also conditions where they're a potential life-saver.

Rusty

Jc9995

Apperently some of you are forgetting that ABS DOES NOT activate until it actually sees tires slippage. It does absolutly NOTHING until then. pulling the fuse only improves the feel yoru "brain" is interpretting. I use the word brain loosely for some. This is rediculous!
If you are a control freak, and need to feel like your a better driver than anybody else on the planet, OR want to do this OFF ROAD, yank the fuse. If your responsible and have other drivers safety in mind above your own super inflated ego, then leave it in. I'm dissapointed to say the least.
One last comment, While I agree that ABS isnt perfect, and have had the same issues some have had with long stops, I beleive the overall benefit FAR outweighs the downside of an occasional long stop. Besides, the fact that you much more likely to survive a rear end accident versus a roll over. $0.02