I try to get the slip light to come on when I'm on dry pavement ;-)

 

I done that a few times on my 09 x (dry pavement) It sucks that it cuts off the power once that light comes on.

 

All cars have a light that comes on when the traction control / stability systems are activated. Infiniti uses the "slip" light to indicate this.

 

My xS sedan sometimes chirps second gear in the dry and the light never comes on. In my rwd coupe I see that light all the time. now that I have winter tires I even see it on the highway sometimes. i let off the gas right away just in case and nothing ever happens but it is very scary.

 

JohnEnglish: You are correct.... I think everyone here with X Gs, thinks that when the AWD kicks in. I beleive that is incorrect. The Slip light comes on when traction / slippage is occuring. The AWD is fully automatic and moves 50% toque to the front wheels in union with the rear wheels in a nano-second depending on the traction needs. Even with AWD engaged for those quick moments - it does NOT stay on - wheels/tires can slip and lose traction at any one of more of the wheels. When that occurs, the "slip" light will come on. That's part of the Traction control/ electronic stability control system of the car.

To All X owners: Read the descriptions on the Web site, look at the video on the web site, it describes the functionality very well.

 

As a Added Note, there was a full description of the many AWD, Four Wheel Drive, 4 X 4, part time, full time, car and truck web site out there. Can't remember the exact one, but Consumers Reports also did a full description of the systems in the past.

For what I know, having owned Jeeps, Pathfinder, Subaru (an older one), and now my second G X model, they vary quite a bit in performance, traction, and overall driveability. The Old Chevy Blazers, Izusu Troopers, Ford Broncos and a number of , true 4 X 4 Pickups, SUVs, etc, employed mechanical Locking Hubs at each wheel. You had to physically turn the Hubs to engage "true" 4 X 4 torque at each wheel - no splits, etc. Pure straight ahead power and traction. excellent vehicles for Plowing snow. Oh Yeah the new Jeep Wranglers - with manual engagement of the lever in the car, also could provide true 4 X 4 traction. This is to the best of my knowledge and reollection. The new Jeeps, etc, if you ordered with Limited Slip Differential (usually at the rear) even in Lo Modes of shiftable 4 WD systems, would get you 3 whhel drive - Posi rear and one fron axle traction. The shift on the Fly systems in the past 20 years or so for SUVs, allowed you to engage 4 wheel drive (a misnomer since, it was only capable of splitting the torque front and rear at only one non-spinning wheel).
I leave one example from experience and you guys can test your vehicles. I had a 1986 Subbi Wagon (turbo 4 cyclinder - a whopping 110 horses), I placed the passenger side wheels on a strip of ice/snow next to the curb, the driver side wheels were on pavement. Well even though the Subbie was advertised as a 4WD car, the two passenger wheels just kept spinning - front and rear - the car could not move. Open differentials I guess. The new versions of Subbies and the G are more sophisticated, although, Ihave NOT tried that test on my G. The SH-AWD system in the Acura is advertised as splitting the torque from front to rear and from side to side. Not sure if the G does that....have to find out.

 

Yup, but those days are long gone with the newer 4x4 vehicles. Now you can lock the hubs (even when you have true lockers in front/center/rear) from the comfort of the cabin. The only problem is that not many of today's SUVs have true lockers anymore.

Depends on how it's optioned. You can still buy a Wrangler with open diffs and no lockers at all. It will still be good in snow, but not as good as it would be if it had lockers. Then again, some of the more advanced traction control systems on 4x4 vehicles is pretty darn good and does a fantastic job in snow.

Again, this varies. As an example, I'll use my 4Runner. It had several different 4wd modes. If you drive it in fulltime 4wd mode, it will use ATRAC (an advanced traction control system that uses wheel speed sensors on all four wheels to detect any slipping wheels and apply braking force to the slipping wheels). In this mode, it will also vary torque between the front and rear axles. If you want to split this torque evenly, there's a button to lock center differential, giving you true 50/50 split between the front & rear axles. So if you have the power split evenly front and rear, the side-to-side torque transfer is managed by ATRAC. This will allow the vehicle to move forward even if only one tire has traction. The other three can be slipping on ice, but as long as just one tire has traction, it will move the vehicle.

Check out the YouTube link I posted earlier in this thread. It has the exact type of test you mentioned with a few popular crossover SUVs.

 

Anyone living in the NY tri-state area knows that we just got hit with a pretty decent blizzard yesterday/last night. Central Park in Manhattan got a reported 20" of snow. I live 20 miles north of the city and we got a bit more than that. Some reports put us at up to 30" of snow, but I don't believe that. It's really tough to measure because the wind was intense and there were huge snow drifts all over the place.

I came home to a snow drift at least 36" in my driveway. I was in my 4Runner at the time (of course!) and wasn't sure if I could get into my garage with all that snow in the driveway. I ended up plowing through all that snow and into my garage without any issues. The snow was up to the top of the 4Runner's hood and I ended up pushing a lot of it into my garage. The damn door wouldn't close, so I actually had to shovel the snowout of my garage before I could close the door again. I don't think I'll ever sell my 4Runner....it's the perfect winter vehicle.

 

MSCA: 4Runners and Land Cruisers were always well known as terrific 4 X 4 vehicles. The Land Cruisers were always compared to Range Rovers as far as traction, hill climbing abilities, etc.....but more reliable.

 

MSCA: I will do that as asap.... THX for the link. I do agree with your coments about the lockers concerning the wheel hubs, but with reference to ATRAC type system (I'm no expert in these matters, not even close) but applying braking force to either side wheel is a make-shift approach to True locked Hubs with torque at each wheel. Of course, it can be used for going straight, Posi-Traction achieved with Limited Slip Differentials will cause spin outs and with Posi front and rear axles, the grinding on turns can make it dangerous. That's the principal reason for developing these very sophisticated computer controlled AWD systems. Also, I remember my 1994 Jeep Cherokee which had Quadra-Trac, all time 4 wheel drive, 10% to the front and 90 % to the rear at any speed, no need to shift on the fly and in the deep stuff, it would use the torque front or rear as needed. It had a Low and High and Auto switch. My 2001 Pathfinder very similiar as well, but a better system IMO. But in both cases, each of these vehicles did NOT have Limited Slip rears and therefore, as an engineer explained to me, was NOT a true 4 WD vehicle. With Limited Slip rear (it could be ordered, at leaset with the Jeep , it could - cost was $50 at the time - i didn't do it), you will have 3 WD - true torque at 3 Wheels....Regards,

PS: to all with AWD or 4WD vehicles, it doesn't matter if you 8 WD, you will still slip and slide and braking is another matter. You see it all the time, SUVs off the road in the snow banks, etc...

 

about 90% of the wranglers (newest generation = JK model 2007-up) are open diffs.

Rubicons have the best of all worlds... normal drive = limited slip rear and open front. but it has a locking front and rear diff (electronic push button in dash). That is the best situation imo. rear limited slip and a part time front locker. For off road, nothing can beat that. I wouldn't want to be hoping on a rock, with my rear axle locked, too easy to break stuff. many wranglers with factory tow pkg, tend to come with nicer gears (eg 4.11 in mine) and sometimes limited slip rear axle, which is a great option, very sporty. Step on the gas and you can surprise a car next to you at a light, with 4.11s, it just launches.

I've had many wranglers and cars. The best vehicle in snow was my WJ Grand Cherokee with Quadradrive. Active full-time 4WD. It uses their Quadra-Trac II transfer case and Electronic Limited Slip Differentials in both axles. And it has a 2.72 LOW-RANGE and NEUTRAL.

My beater is a 2008 JK Wrangler sahara. My DD is the xS. I bought it in October. And it has been in the garage since it snowed here last night. I want to take it out and play, but with the salt on the road, and the jeep, I don't see the point. I have the dumblap all seasons, which I guess are the best of the factory all season options. We shall see.

CRAZY thread with a lot of info being put out there, good and bad

 

kinda wish I had all wheel drive...after this storm...as long as we don't ge hit like this again I'll be okay

 

Amon, I knew some folks who had Gs with RWD only - 2005s 2006s. The switched to True Snow Tires (Blizzaks) and they were much better in the snow. Try it...

 

Drove a long route in the blizzard from Long Island back to Brooklyn with the OEM Good Year all season.
The AWD handled really well as I was passing by countless cars that got stuck on the road.

A few times the traction broke lose when making turns but i was able to recover easily.
Going over slopes and inches of snow was no problem.

I was pleased with the performance but the traffic still sucked.
The sanitation department did a really poor job in Brooklyn.

 

My car is still buried in snow. The city hasn't plowed my block yet. It has been 4 days.