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I think you've just answered your own question. ABS actually brakes and releases (cadence braking) only it does it many times faster than the human foot can. I always practised cadence braking on drum brake equipped vehicles and force of habit has me doing the same thing with disc brakes. And my Defender is ABS equipped. In my opinion, (and that of advanced driving instructors I've dealt with) skidding wheels mean no control and longer braking distances.
STOMP!Quote:
Originally Posted by davros
I had this discussion with my (now ex-) wife when she almost totalled our Subaru into the side of some dill's ute (he pulled out in front of her). She was very proud of the fact that the car didn't skid :eek: but no, the brake pedal hadn't pulsed. Since I'd tested it out I knew exactly what the ABS did, including the thumping back through the pedal.
AFAIK, once you reach the threshold (skid) it makes no difference whether you are heavy or light on the brakes, because from then on the computer is optimising the braking response. And it will pull the vehicle up faster than you will if you lift your foot. Unfortunately, it's completely counter-intuitive to an experienced driver.
I'm trying to get my wife to come out and do some braking practice, so she'll know what to expected.( Its our first ABS equipped Vehicle) Its very unnerving the first few times.
Once had a Guy swear black and blue that when you feel the ABS pulse that you should lift off. Didn't matter what was said by me or others, he'd done a one day advance driving course, with 20 of his work mates.
Yes longer braking on hard surfaces, but not always on gravel/dirt surfaces.
below is cut and paste from the Wabco site. and is very much what I have experienced( except the "slightly longer" in my case has been "alarmingly inefficient". This is why I would like to switch the ABS off on dirt roads, because it is not always practicable to "drive slowly and with the utmost of care" Of course I am not advocating race style driving just reasonable cruise speed.
"Despite the above, you should not
expect that ABS will reduce the braking
distance under all circumstances.
The braking distance may even be
slightly longer when driving on gravel
or new snow on a slippery base (grit/
snow wedge) when in any case you
should only ever drive slowly and
with the utmost care."Driving on unconsolidated ground• Actuate the brakes carefullywhich forms).
when driving on surfaces with a
soft, deep covering such as in
deep powder snow, sand or
gravel. The braking distance may
be longer under certain circumstances.
Under such conditions,
the braking distance may be
shorter if the wheels lock up as in
a system without anti-lock brakes
(due to the wedge of material
Quote:
Originally Posted by numpty
Just like to comment how good this site is for "down to earth" experienced opinions without too much "soapboxing" (although a little is good as it keeps me on the straight and narrow - and around a few corners too!). I guess the conclusion to this thread is - as we seem to have no real results of mods to ABS systems [which sound rather risky in nature, something that really appears almost as much fun as "lets play with the airbag actuators and then run into a tree and see what happens"] - that ABS is not great in all circumstances but in the majority of high speed situations, especially on firmer roads with somewhere to steer too, it will be an advantage.
For the inexperienced I'd say leave well alone!
For the off road extrememist, I'd say have fun but don't bother calling your insurance company when it all goes-pear shaped!
Now, where's those wire cutters and a switch... :eek:
:)
Dave
PS remember to STOMP!!
In the US after when ABS was introduced in vehicles there were MANY crashes when people lifted off instead of keeping it in the carpet. With ABS you can try to get threshold braking going, but if you pass and the abs begins to actuate then you have nail it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zute
We spent a bit of time playing with the ABS on our recent trip. My mate was convinced that ABS on dirt road would automatically mean huge stopping distances. My experience was this was not automatically the case.
On hard packed dirt the car stopped like on bitumen. Just amazing. On loose dirt and corrugations the distances were longer, but you stopped straight and didn't go with the camber. Also if you happened to trail a little brake into a corner, sometimes the rears would lock and in this case the abs would just work on the rear, which would stop the back breaking out because of braking.
All in all, some positives, some negs. Overall, I was happy with it on and I wouldn't go disconnecting it and voiding my insurance!