You dont drive in the middle of mudd pit and stop...You hit it with momentum and keep ur tire speed up to keep ur speed. Not let off the gas because you dont like ur tires spinning...

 

Who said anything about stoping. You do eaxctly the same in snow. But wheelspining through the mud/snow dont mean you get extra grip. As long as your wheels are rotaing at the same speed your going then you still have forward momentum. Spinning your wheels at 100mph just gives you less grip. But if you really want to fling mud everywhere to impress your mates then turn off the TC. Then you can spin them as fast as you like.

 

Exactly!

I've been driving off-road for over 30 years in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. I've traversed 4-wheel drive trails over the Cascades, the Coast Ranges, The Rockies and the Sierra San Pedro Mártir on the Baja Pennisula. These are remote areas where you are on your own and one of the first things you will learn if you ever take an off-road skills driving course is that a spinning wheel offers less forward drive than a wheel maintaining the vehicles speed. Of course I learned this through experience, by tackling difficult terrain under increasingly difficult conditions. And also from working at ski areas for 8 years of my life. Only the beginners spin their wheels at high speed if your goal is to accelerate or maintain speed up a tricky section.

The traction control system on the F-150's make them MORE capable of negotiating difficult terrain than without. And this is true no matter how skilled the driver is because even a skilled driver cannot apply one brake at a time or stop wheelspin in a hundredth of a second.

 

I was on the interstate on the way to pick up my truck in our RR sport. That things got some pretty slick off road systems and we were doing 20mph and still having trouble staying on the road. it was only an inch deep but it was icing as soon as hit hit the road. There were idiots coming past us doing 50-60MPH sliding all over the place out of control and they clearly didn't think once about what sort of accident they could have caused. One woman ended up in the barrier from going too fast and trying to take an exit and under steering into it. She was in a FWD Honda driving like she thought she was a pro ice rally driver. She must have gone to the same class as some on here.

I'm surprised they don't teach people the basic driving skills when taking a driving test over here. In the UK they teach you about loss of traction= loss of control. Most cars are FWD drive so they also teach you the basics of no traction and no steering control and simple things like staying in high gears on slippery surfaces so that you don't spin the wheels. But like someone said. It's just bad information in and bad information out.

 

Terrain varies and there may be times when you have to spin the wheels if you ever end up in the right (or wrong) terrain. Just as there are different types of terrain, there are different types of mud. If you drive slowly in clay-type mud it is more than likely that the mud will fill in the tire tread completely, essentially turning the tires into slicks with no grip and no traction. This happened to me in the Colorado rockies and I had to spin the wheels to throw out the heavy clay-type mud from the tire tread and get enough traction to move forward. If I tried going slow (no wheelspin) I had no traction and went no where.

 

True, there are unusual circumstances where wheel spin is necessary.

That's why there is a button to disable traction and stability control systems!

 

I also have had zero issue with the way the TC works.

Most of the cases where people say that the TC caused them to get stuck they would have got stuck anyway.

The only way spinning you wheels can help is if you dig down through the snow you are on and hit the pavement. With that said, it is the best way to brake axles and U-Joints since you have fast tire spin and suddenly gain traction.

 

Thank you, Everybodys right so far in a way. But different conditions need different style of driving...

 

You guys crack me up... I don't have any personal issue with the TC in my F-150. My concern is that although it indicates that it is off, the truck feels like the TC is still activated. Very sluggish almost like the e-brake is on...

 

This is why Ford added a button so that you can do this. I got stuck in some snow the other day. it was about 18" deep and i was about to make a turn and the truck sunk into some soft mud/snow. I only needed to press the button a single time and it gave me enough power to get out of the snow. Then when out it turned it's self back on. But lets say you need even more tire spin for clay like you say. then you hold the button down for 5 seconds and it gives you unlimted tirespin until you clear the clay then you can turn it back on. Needing any more setting than on or off is useless.

 

so you are saying that when you push the button and the traction control icon shows on the dash display that the tc is actually off? and when you dont push it and no icon is shown on the display that it is on?

 

When the light is on the display the TC is off. But you can also hold down the button for 5 secs and it will flash and stay on and this will complety shut down TC even when over 35mph.

 

It engaged on it's own initially and after the display went off it still acted as if it was still engaged.

Interestingly, today it still felt sluggish. So I pushed the TC button to engage it and the truck felt normal again. I left it on and parked and just shut the truck off. When I got ready to to go again the TC was off and the truck felt normal again. I really think that even though the display wasn't on the TC was still actvated after it had initially come on and I had to manually turn it on again and shut it off to get it disengaged.

 

TC and RCS needs a better lockout solution. While Wheeling in Moab yesterday it came on several times after having it turned off. I don't know if it came back on after shifting from 4hi to 2hi and back again or if putting it from park to drive did it but I do know it was very inconvenient to have it keep popping on.

Anyone who has done any off roading knows that momentum and wheel speed are required in certain terrain. And no, it's not just for kids showing off.

 

Thats the reason you can completely shut of TC. I'm not sure but i think the TC does reset when you change from 2-4wd. But just check your display. it will tell you if it's on or off. If it shows in the display then your good to go. I used the button today. I reveresed into my garden thats 2ft deep in snow and got stuck because i had stopped. I got a little carried away though and gave it to much wheelspin and cut thought the snow and into the mud underneath. I wish i hadn't turned the dam thing off now as I'm sure the TC would have kicked in before i dug though the snow. Turned TC back on and rocked the truck back and forward and got out. TC just made sure i didn't dig any deeper. Would have been stuck without 4wd for sure.