Thread: Mandraulic Traction Control....

this came up in the thread I wont mention and since Its a trick I know of I thought since its come up elsewhere and someone is bound to ask "ok so how do I use the brakes to imitate traction control" that Id jump the gun on it


For your series type vehicles with drums all round its a bit complicated but works well...

heres how

1. work out which wheels are spinning
2. Stop the vehicle and sut it down.
3. stomp hard on the brakes and have you co-driver adjust the snail cams on the wheels that were spinning so that the snails hold the brakes on
4. restart and drive out with your feet off of the brakes.

this works just like the traction control in modern rovers but you do the application of the brakes manually and have to think about it and remeber to wind the brake cams off when you get out of the hole. tyre fires aint funny out field.

naturally you have to be in 4 wheel drive AND not totally hung up, if no wheels have any grip on the planet you aint going no where on account of several laws of physics. (say it with me, with no external influences an object in motion will stay in motion and a stationary object will stay stationary)


for the rovers with the discs all round its easy but not quite as effective as adjusting the snail cams trick but it can make the difference.

heres how

1. Disengage the CDL (counte intuitive I know but trust me here)
2. select a low range working gear (2nd/reverse is my normal pic)
3. set the hand throttle or heel/toe the brakes and accelerator
4. get it trying to drive and then pop the brakes on and off dont try to stall it jsut give it a dab till it starts to slow down
5. using the clutch as a kind of pressure release so that when you put the brakes on the engine doesnt slow down helps

This works on 2 principals

1.The the torque reaction of braking an already spining wheel transfering drive (very very briefly) to the other wheels.

2. accellerating the grip free wheels requires an increase in torque and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and in this case thats the opposite wheel having a little bit of torque applied to it while the slipping wheel speeds up. this will rock the wheel, which provided its got some grip on the planet might be just enough to move you to where you get a bit of grip from the freespinning wheel and once youve got that your out (maybe).

This works better with the CDL out as all disc all round rovers (not counting homebrew series rovers) have a proportioning set up that means the rear wheels recieve less braking effort than the front so the rear freespinning wheel will spin faster, it takes more effort to make it spin faster so the amount of reactionary torque applied to the other wheel is also increased.


For those of you who have disc/drum you can try both methods but your in a comprimise from the get go Pick a method you think might work in the given situation and if that doesnt work try the other and if that doesnt work, Dig.

just remember MTC is not as good as real TC and will get you out if your only just stuck. Maybe... Dont sit there pumping the brakes and riding the clutch while your coes got the 12 foot breaker bar on the snail cams to try and lock up the free spinning wheel. Your just digging yourself in deeper and making it harder for the next guy (which might be you tomorrow if you have to come back the same way) and giving the green freaks more ammo to throw at us.

And thats uncool..

ahh this is funny as I always use my breaks when I think its needed, even when climbing.

Anyways I got up a difficult short climb once, and a hardcore 6" lifted patrol driver was laughing at me saying "you know you could have got up there much easier if you wern't resting your foot on the brake pedal, lockers make everything easy"
To which I replied "I don't have lockers mate"

Now I am the total opposite, I can't remember when or how to brake and I am hopeless with accelerator judgement , I need to get out and 4wd more to relearn.