Thread: My Disco tried to kill me again !

Originally Posted by chrisandebreg

having played after fitting the cdl I now assess the coming climb and take no chance if i think any issues will come and engage the cdl. have proved on occasion by climbing until loss of movement the engaging cdl to finish. as above any hesitation at the bottom now and it gets engaged BEFORE starting the climb. having paid to fit to a 2001 not factory fitted dont see the point in not using when able.

Off road you should be locking it all the time.

The unit is very small in comparison and running unlocked places large stresses which can cause damage in short order.

Just giving my experience. About 1 month ago i had my D2 fitted with a CDL. And i find the combo of TC and CDL very impressive. Tested the other weekend at jakem farm in SA. You can lift 2 wheels while climbing loose rutted up tracks and just keep your foot firm and steady and up it goes. Where as a mate is a hilux CDL only often had to have a few goes trying different lines.

I'm yet to experience a situation where non TC would be more of an advantage.

Even before the CDL install. i was amazed how far it would go with TC only. but if felt like it was scrabbling up the trickier stuff, but it still surprised me.

An interesting thread but the bottom line, re ABS, is that it's absolutely lethal in the bush on poor traction surfaces especially. It actually prevents you from slowing by stopping the formation of a 'wedge' of dirt/rock etc in front of the wheels whilst braking.
It's a very scary experience when your vehicle is trying to kill you by releasing the brakes when your foots driving the brake pedal into the floor. When you're towing it's even worse. Manual operation of electric brakes is a life saver in this situation.
Now if I could only disable ABS at the flick of a switch, or automatically when low or CDL is selected but retain TC the D2 would be a much safer vehicle.

Deano

Thanks for your honesty Tombie. I can see how abs would let you maintain steering offroad as you say.

I nearly went over the edge of a switch back and had the family in the car. It was very steep and loose, I had my foot hard on the brakes and it was still accelerating. Fortunately towards the switchback it levelled out a bit and we were able to get below 4kph at which point the wheels locked, and we stopped with a metre.

Also, (in the op's case) from the stuff that I've read on the slabs programing, it won't increase the rear line pressures when reversing....

Maybe abs, open center, and the lack of programing are compounding each other.

Sent from my GT-I9305T using AULRO mobile app

DeanoH this is where non proportional brake controllers come into their own...although Red Arc now has their Tow Pro that is proportional but has a fully manual off road setting.

Cheers

Originally Posted by ozscott

Yes mate. It's an important tool...much better than electric fully on fully off on d3/4.

Cheers

Not true mate, that's only when stationary, if you engage the handbrake when moving, it acts like a self applied hand brake, where it will slow you down, not fully apply.

Baz.

One thing knowone has mentioned is that on slippery down hills, rule number one is "don't apply the brakes" now this is a rule that was for non ABS equiped vehicles.

Now having said that using the brakes on a very slippery downhill in an ABS equiped vehicle, will slow you down AND allow you to steer, yes the speed is not ideal and can scare the crap out of you, but having steering control can allow you to turn away from things(like embankments)

The thing is, going backwards disorientates you, causing panic, it also gives you the impression you are going faster than you are, this can be the cause of stuffing things up, not the ABS, the other thing to realise, ABS does not engage under 8kph

I would recommend engaging HDC next time if you don't have a CDL, it works going backwards, the temptation is to put your foot on the brake, trust me, it's not a good idea

Baz.

Originally Posted by Redback

One thing knowone has mentioned is that on slippery down hills, rule number one is "don't apply the brakes" now this is a rule that was for non ABS equiped vehicles.

Now having said that using the brakes on a very slippery downhill in an ABS equiped vehicle, will slow you down AND allow you to steer, yes the speed is not ideal and can scare the crap out of you, but having steering control can allow you to turn away from things(like embankments)

The thing is, going backwards disorientates you, causing panic, it also gives you the impression you are going faster than you are, this can be the cause of stuffing things up, not the ABS, the other thing to realise, ABS does not engage under 8kph

I would recommend engaging HDC next time if you don't have a CDL, it works going backwards, the temptation is to put your foot on the brake, trust me, it's not a good idea

Baz.

Yep - I had put that in a draft of an earlier post but then deleted it because the braking downhill and losing control of steering relates to non-abs vehicles...having said that I never do it and never need to even on buttock clenching descents...

Thanks for the info about the electronic brake - I didnt know that.

Cheers