ABS - anyone else want to switch it off?

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Thu 24 Jan 2013 20:57
ABS - anyone else want to switch it off? - John F

By now many will have experienced the stuttering glide along snowy sideroads when trying to brake. I have driven on snow on many occasions since passing my test in 1967 and my work frequently necessitates driving on minor roads and sidestreets. I think I could stop more quickly before ABS was imposed upon us. It's no good being able to maintain steering capability if there's an inevitable collision ahead!

Does anyone else hate it?

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Thu 24 Jan 2013 21:08
ABS - anyone else want to switch it off? - Bromptonaut

On the whole I welcome it but the ability to shut it off occasionally might be useful.

I suspect the stuttering glide on snow owes more to wide tyres - narrow ones dig in - than ABS itself.

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Thu 24 Jan 2013 21:58
ABS - anyone else want to switch it off? - RT

There's no problem if you drive to the conditions and brake accordingly - many of us learnt to drive when winters were worse, ABS hadn't been invented and there was no minimum tread depth law, it wasn't a problem then so why should it be now.

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Thu 24 Jan 2013 22:33
ABS - anyone else want to switch it off? - SlidingPillar

Only time you'll usually stop quicker than ABS is in falling snow where locking a wheel piles up a wedge of snow in front and slows one more that way.

A really skilled driver will properly utilise cadence braking when traction is poor, but most of us don't do it well enough to better ABS.

As said above though, the present fad for wide low profile tyres is exactly what you don't want in poor conditions and probably accounts for most of what you are suggesting.

Tthe rest is that most cars these days are overweight so get a 2CV with 125 15 tyres and a weight of 510 kG...

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Thu 24 Jan 2013 22:22
ABS - anyone else want to switch it off? - Cyd

On Audi Quattros you could turn it off for this very reason.

The trouble is though that lots of drivers would turn it off and leave it off (a bit like fog lights in reverse)

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Thu 24 Jan 2013 22:30
ABS - anyone else want to switch it off? - gordonbennet

I think Brompton has hit the nail.

In the days before ABS we ran round on narrower high profile tyres which gripped quite well in adverse conditions, we've gained ABS and now we need it in these conditions on ultra wide low profile tyres..

I triggered my winter tyred MB's ABS once so far this winter, a slight judder just before stopping at a really slippery roundabout, i expect if i was on the 225/45 section summer set then it would have been working overtime.

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