[armoody]

Did a little unofficial "skidpad" testing after night skiiing in Alpental's lot 4. Packed snow and ice. Absolutely outstanding what the VDC is doing. Turning a large arc ( maybe 100ft radius) in 2WD you can feel all the bits working, holding the arc, VDC off and instant wheel spin and sideways (well that was the fun part). Of course 4wd goves you better traction, but the VDC still makes quite a difference as well, less traction wise but more control wise of course.
Bottom line, don't ever turn VDC off, unless you purposely want to do some doughnuts! (or maybe launch quicker in the right conditions)

 

[SE Off Road1]

Bottom line, don't ever turn VDC off, unless you purposely want to do some doughnuts! (or maybe launch quicker in the right conditions)

Not always the case. At times VDC can work against you. Take for example you are traveling very slow and approaching a turn on a very slippery road, off road driving, or even ice. You brake as you approach and find you’re not slowing rapidly enough and may hit something directly in front of you. In this case with a 4x4 you would naturally turn hard in the direction you intended to go while simultaneously accelerating and the front end will move “pull” in the direction of the turn avoiding the object. With VDC on you will most likely strike the object because the truck will sense slipping tires and kill directional power to them. You are right in most cases VDC should be left on, in some cases especially off road or slow snow and ice maneuvers VDC can work against you.

If you have ever done some or a lot of off road driving you will know VDC should be left off. Maybe this is what you meant by “launch quicker in the right conditions”

 

[92TripleBlack]

I hate the system in the vette. Its almost killed me 3 times and never helped.

 

[armoody]

Not always the case. At times VDC can work against you. Take for example you are traveling very slow and approaching a turn on a very slippery road, off road driving, or even ice. You brake as you approach and find you’re not slowing rapidly enough and may hit something directly in front of you. In this case with a 4x4 you would naturally turn hard in the direction you intended to go while simultaneously accelerating and the front end will move “pull” in the direction of the turn avoiding the object. With VDC on you will most likely strike the object because the truck will sense slipping tires and kill directional power to them. You are right in most cases VDC should be left on, in some cases especially off road or slow snow and ice maneuvers VDC can work against you.

If you have ever done some or a lot of off road driving you will know VDC should be left off. Maybe this is what you meant by “launch quicker in the right conditions”

Perhaps sometimes for sure. On the other hand, I don't think the VDC was necessarily preventing wheel slip 100% the other night, but preventing outright spinning, hence preventing overrotating mass (spinning out). This was keeping me on the line I was turning on packed snow and ice, which by the way is generally pretty slick around here because it's usually in the 30's.
Also, in your above mentioned scenario, there are certain vehicles (like our 95 Pathfinder) that would possibly proceed to understeer terribly and plow into what ever your were trying to accelerate away from. In that vehicle starting out slowly and adding power keeps you on line, if you try to power through it you have to wait for the mass of the rear to catch up and put it into an oversteer mode, then the 4wd lets you balance the slide with the (lack of) power.
But, as I started the reply with, definitely sometimes in your described scenario, I have had all of the above situations.

 

[Armadaof1]

Somewhere along the way the engineers in the autombile industry learned a few things in regards to vehicle dynamics. These same types of folks who, in the aviation industry, can design a jet to safely fly at supersonic speeds over terrain completely hands-off. The only fatalities they've ever had were due to pilot error - getting scared and trying to fly manually.

Same logic applies to the truck. Unless you are turning laps on the track (where the turns are predictable and so are your speeds), I can't imagine outperforming the Nissan engineers in attempting to control this truck.

I'll leave on the VDC.

 

[Ericmabrams]

VDC almost killed you?

I hate the system in the vette. Its almost killed me 3 times and never helped.

I assume you were entering into a coner to hot and the VDC or Chevrolet's equivilant caused your car to "push" instead of oversteer into the corner. However, it is not the cars fault.

After the first lesson you should have realized it caused your car to "push" instead of powerslid through a 90 degree turn.

However, when you have an armada at 35 mph slipping on some ice do you really want the rear end to come sliding past the front? I guarantee you the armada is not immune to flipping. In fact it would take very little for this large beast to topple.

I think VDC is outstanding as evidenced by the poster. If you turning off VDC on an armada and doing donuts is fun, just try it with a 350Z sometime. Make sure your girlfriend is not in the car, she'll kill you.

Make that ex girlfriend......

Keep VDC on, it can, and will save some of your lives.

Eric

 

[SilverQShip]

i think Tb was pulling into traffic and had to gun it.the tc cut his power and he almost got t-boned by a bus i think. O if you wanna see some high speed suv drift action look at my sig, now does that look composed or what? look at how little body roll there is!!

 

[Mrhavasu]

I think the vdc is awesome and it sure works well in my vette. If you need to get out of the way quick, then I would imagine you would want to keep the tires hooked up and not spin. All but the best of drivers turn quicker lap times with the system on.
Terry