I was wondering is the trac on the Xb all speed trac or just when at take off?

 

mine has kicked in at different speeds while driving in the snow.

 

ALL speeds, but after take off vsc does most of the work.

 

Yeah, VSC for vehicle stability, TRAC for traction control. . . it's kinda hard to lose traction with only 108hp, especially after launch. But in bad rain, I've had traction problems on the freeway (but I have a lead foot, and had bald tires at the time).

 

traction control is the first thing i turn off when there is snow on the ground. when you're already trying to modulate throttle to keep the wheels from spinning and move you forward, particularly when starting uphill in the snow, it's annoying as hell to have the traction control kick in when there is a tiny bit of wheel spin and make you stall since you're going easy on the throttle anyway.

not to mention- sometimes in the snow there is no alternative for good old wheelspin to get you moving where you need to go.

 

AGREED Trac control is for people who shouldnt driv ein the snow anyways. I would prefer my own know how to get me around, not a computer applying the brakes. Just my .02

 

AGREED Trac control is for people who shouldnt driv ein the snow anyways. I would prefer my own know how to get me around, not a computer applying the brakes. Just my .02

 

If the wheels are spinning,traction is being lost. Now if all you want to do is spin the tires for the fun of it that's different!

 

Traction control can react faster than you can. There are times when you may want to turn it off to get a better sense of the road surface, but for the most part it is going to be an advantage.

This is from the same "old school" that will tell you ABS is dangerous and they can modulate the brakes faster than any new fangled computer-machine can.

 

hardly the same. ABS will basically always help. traction control, on the other hand, has made me stall several times starting out up hills in the snow. whereas with ABS the best way to make it work is to mash on the brakes and let it work, the best way to start out going forward up a hill in the snow is definitely not to put it in first and floor it and let the traction control go at it. if i'm being easy on the throttle in the snow but a little wheelspin occurs regardless, the traction control is awfully good at dropping the few revs you have (1000-1500 rpm) very quickly and causing you to stall.

i don't expect you to understand. i'm sure Phoenix doesn't get much in the way of snow, but tomorrow i'm digging my car out of 8 inches of it to drive 30 miles of Pennsylvania back roads to work.

and as far as wheelspin goes, with a thin layer of slippery ice/snow mix on the ground, wheelspin helps dig in a little bit to the pavement below. if you don't think it works, come up here and try getting up some of the hills in central PA any other way.

 

sounds like some better special "snow and ice" tires like blizzaks or the equivalent are in order. Also wasn't aware that the sticks were stalling because of the trac. control. On my auto, trac control only kicks in when you apply too much throttle for the conditions. Guess you never too old to learn stuff?

 

again, how much snow do you get in tennessee? even with gislaved nordfrost II snow tires (a swedish brand often found on volvos in the winter) when there is snow and ice on the ground, the pedal certainly doesn't have to be to the floor to induce wheelspin.

on an auto, i would figure that the traction control would be more like ABS for stopping...you've got one pedal to push, and the traction control will limit you when it needs to.

on a manual, starting out, particularly up hills (at the exit from my development i have a relatively steep hill at a stop sign, where i have to turn out into traffic in the morning), it's a delicate balance of clutch and gas, and no matter what tires, traction control gets in the way, PARTICULARLY if someone is a foot from your rear bumper behind you for you to conveniently roll back into if you stall. often people with automatics just don't get the whole concept of manual transmission cars rolling backwards on hills.

 

Not much snow, but a whole lot of sleet and ice. But grew up in Detroit so have had 20 plus years of driving-playing in the snow. Also drive 60K-70K nationwide a year so I know snow. The trac switch must be for just such reasons on the sticks!

 

Only been in AZ for 6 months actually. I was in DC before that and Vermont before that, and Oregon before THAT, so I know about snow driving.

I hear where you are coming from. TRAC can be a nusiance at times, that is the reason for the switch, however I think its misguided to suggest to people that they should leave it off most of the time. IMO it helps more than it hurts, otherwise it would be a pretty useless invention. No matter how good a driver you think you are, there are circumstances where the TRAC would give you greater control than you would have otherwise.

I do agree about the specific situation you describe though.

 

my first post was specifically about when there's snow on the ground. there are definitely times when traction control will help, but i had just gotten home from driving in the snow, THAT's what was on my mind