Offroad modes

[RubyRubi]

The Wrangler has BLD that does the same thing as A-trac. It activates the brakes with the abs system which helps to regain traction with the wheel that’s not spinning. It’s always activated.

Kinda. Toyota’s system is more like the Grand Cherokee’s electronic limited slip rear diff. Or a combination of the two.

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[Killed by Death]

Toyota's sand capability is pretty cool. You can bury it axle deep and crawl out no problem.

Skip forward to around the 3:30 mark to skip the sales B.S.

 

[Pig-Pen]

We had a 15 explorer sport (awd). We were up in the mountains playing in the snow all day. When it came time to leave there was massive traffic at a standstill due to an accident. I took a fireroad to get out of there. It was a seriously uneven road that was now covered in snow and ice, and it was night time now. I used the explorers “snow” mode and it performed unbelievably well. I tried it without the mode and the all season street tires were slipping snd sliding like crazy. In snow mode, zero slippage. It was impressive to say the least. Not a gmmick at all.

 

[Jtphoto]

Kinda. Toyota’s system is more like the Grand Cherokee’s electronic limited slip rear diff. Or a combination of the two.

The BLD is exactly the same tech. Electronic limited slip.

 

[Boogey]

So all of these offroad vehicles are coming with a gazillion of "offroad modes" Think of all the modes in the toyotas and the new ford. While our Jeeps pretty much have a manual transfer case and that's it. Sure there is BLD and all that, but it just works, you don't need to select anything. Lockers and sway bar disconnects have been in existence for years, and enabling these is a pretty manual process.

I go offroad quite a bit and I've never even used the hill descent control, I tried it once for a few seconds and it felt pretty weird. I get to the trail, disconnect my sway bar, drop the tire pressure, and have no issues at all climbing up the trail. And same thing do my friends with Jeeps.

I hear all these Toyota guys talking about crawl control this, and crawling mode, and sand mode, and all of these buttons. And I just dont understand why all of that is needed. What do these modes actually do? is it all just a marketing thing? It is funny because Jeeps don't have any of this gimmick and they outperform all of these other vehicles.

So you Just get on the trail with your Jeep and floor it and you cross the finish line?

You do realize that not everyone is an offroad expert like you and you do realize that 90 % of the time people never use these modes or care about them and you do realize that many "people" who have Toyotas and other brands never even take their vehicle off road, like some Jeepers here as well.

Your broad assumption and bewilderment is extremely out of place to start with.Why do vehicles have these modes...really? if you give an XR 392 Rubi to someone who cant navigate a shallow stream then they WILL get stuck.
Some people will get stuck and sometimes those modes will truly help them out of a difficult situation, having these modes is NOT a negative thing, it is an EXTRA.

Your statement "Jeeps don't have any of this gimmick and they outperform all of these other vehicles." is and has been the DEBATE of the century.

Jeeps do not OUTPERFORM all these other vehicles period, not by a longshot like saying one car brand is better than another is just silly. Under what tests, mods ,tires and driver experience and dozens more factors are you basing this on?Jeeps , Toyotas, Land Rover, Fords, Nissans and many others have proven time and time again how amazing they are off-road.

For a person who disconnects the sway bar and lowers the tire pressure you must seem like a king offroad.

 

[Jtphoto]

Toyota's sand capability is pretty cool. You can bury it axle deep and crawl out no problem.

Skip forward to around the 3:30 mark to skip the sales B.S.

Interesting but not unbelievable. Only 2 wheels were stuck, not all 4. So this will really only work with open diffs. If you had lockers or limited slip diffs all 4 tires would be buried. I had a Sahara with rear limited slip, and that combined with the BLD system was amazing in even 2wd.

All that being said, if you have a Rubicon with lockers, none of this traction control hokey pokey matters.

 

[entropy]

So you Just get on the trail with your Jeep and floor it and you cross the finish line?

You do realize that not everyone is an offroad expert like you and you do realize that 90 % of the time people never use these modes or care about them and you do realize that many "people" who have Toyotas and other brands never even take their vehicle off road, like some Jeepers here as well.

Your broad assumption and bewilderment is extremely out of place to start with.Why do vehicles have these modes...really? if you give an XR 392 Rubi to someone who cant navigate a shallow stream then they WILL get stuck.
Some people will get stuck and sometimes those modes will truly help them out of a difficult situation, having these modes is NOT a negative thing, it is an EXTRA.

Your statement "Jeeps don't have any of this gimmick and they outperform all of these other vehicles." is and has been the DEBATE of the century.

Jeeps do not OUTPERFORM all these other vehicles period, not by a longshot like saying one car brand is better than another is just silly. Under what tests, mods ,tires and driver experience and dozens more factors are you basing this on?Jeeps , Toyotas, Land Rover, Fords, Nissans and many others have proven time and time again how amazing they are off-road.

For a person who disconnects the sway bar and lowers the tire pressure you must seem like a king offroad.

the trails that I do i hardly see anything other than Jeeps, and if I see them they usually struggle. So yeah, jeeps do outperform these vehicles on jeep trails.

I asked the question out of pure curiosity. I want to know what these mods do thats all.

Sorry if I hurt some yota pride.

 

[Pig-Pen]

I like hill descent control. It works remarkably well. you have to play with the speed, its adjustable. In a seriously sketchy downhill moment it really helps. It doesnt drive the jeep for you, it just locks the speed in. Ive never had it hit the brakes on me either. It keeps going, like cruise control at 2.5mph. Some times just using the brakes can cause you to slide, with less control. It makes a difference when theres possible body damge inches away.

 

[rubiRI77]

Well, we DO have 'Offroad +'...

I am still trying to figure that one out. I tried it a bunch of times this year. I guess it kind of changed the shift points, and engine braking?? . I just left it off for most of the trail rides.

I did like having the manual mode for the automatic when in 4 low (don't laugh all you stick shift guys and gals! I have a bad left knee so a real manual is out for me ) It was very nice to be able to control the transmission when we went a little faster but not enough to switch to 4 high because we would be going right back to the tough stuff again.

That being said, I do miss the simplicity of my TJ with ARB lockers. in or out, on or off. That's it.
But then I go down any paved road, and I think...oh yeah, that is why I went with the JL!

 

[txj2go]

I'm sure there is some gimmick involved, but it is also tech attempting to make up for shortcoming in the drivetrain and suspension. The big difference with the JL/JLU is the better articulation a solid axle gives. If you keep all 4 wheels on the ground you need less gimmicks to try to move torque around. Of course if there are ways to benefit a lesser vehicle, maybe there are some ways to benefit the JL/JLU. I've done a lot of trails, including a good number that were rated difficult, and I can't recall that I've had any problems with tires slipping so what do I have that needs improvement?

I did contemplate a Grand Cherokee before buying my JLU. If I had gotten one I would have put on a real lift and 32s so it would have been closer to the JLU and wouldn't have had to rely on electronic gimmicks.

 

[Jtphoto]

So you Just get on the trail with your Jeep and floor it and you cross the finish line?

You do realize that not everyone is an offroad expert like you and you do realize that 90 % of the time people never use these modes or care about them and you do realize that many "people" who have Toyotas and other brands never even take their vehicle off road, like some Jeepers here as well.

Your broad assumption and bewilderment is extremely out of place to start with.Why do vehicles have these modes...really? if you give an XR 392 Rubi to someone who cant navigate a shallow stream then they WILL get stuck.
Some people will get stuck and sometimes those modes will truly help them out of a difficult situation, having these modes is NOT a negative thing, it is an EXTRA.

Your statement "Jeeps don't have any of this gimmick and they outperform all of these other vehicles." is and has been the DEBATE of the century.

Jeeps do not OUTPERFORM all these other vehicles period, not by a longshot like saying one car brand is better than another is just silly. Under what tests, mods ,tires and driver experience and dozens more factors are you basing this on?Jeeps , Toyotas, Land Rover, Fords, Nissans and many others have proven time and time again how amazing they are off-road.

For a person who disconnects the sway bar and lowers the tire pressure you must seem like a king offroad.

Jeep has a model to meet everyone’s needs. Not even the other Jeep Wrangler models compete with the Rubicon, it’s that simple. It’s a simple purpose build rig that doesn’t need gimmicks.. Electronic computerized traction control means nothing when you have lockers. You will never get better traction then full 4wd.

Computerized TC is good for newbs who are learning but it’s no substitute for driver experience and skill. Like everything else people learn to rely on these computers instead of themselves. Who even cares if 99% of the people that buy a Rubicon don’t take it off road. They bought an icon, the benchmark by which others are compared. So you say, well they are all just as good or better then Jeep. Are they really, then why do they always feel compelled to compare.

 

[engineXI]

I think all that stuffs is good. I mean, its all in the order of improving capability. As technology and manufacturing techniques, and engineering improves we can reap the benefits of those.

Who knows what they may have in 3 decades from now. But all improvements are generally incremental, so you have to have all these small items until 1 day, someone hits a homerun.

 

[WreckEm711]

We had a 15 explorer sport (awd). We were up in the mountains playing in the snow all day. When it came time to leave there was massive traffic at a standstill due to an accident. I took a fireroad to get out of there. It was a seriously uneven road that was now covered in snow and ice, and it was night time now. I used the explorers “snow” mode and it performed unbelievably well. I tried it without the mode and the all season street tires were slipping snd sliding like crazy. In snow mode, zero slippage. It was impressive to say the least. Not a gmmick at all.

Same vehicle, equally impressed with it. We’ve been stuck in horrible icy weather on a long trip where we passed many bad accidents, and we never once slipped around. It was the first time i was ever grateful we own that vehicle lol.

 

[entropy]

The computer cant turn an IFS into a SFA. Just saying.

 

[entropy]

We had a 15 explorer sport (awd). We were up in the mountains playing in the snow all day. When it came time to leave there was massive traffic at a standstill due to an accident. I took a fireroad to get out of there. It was a seriously uneven road that was now covered in snow and ice, and it was night time now. I used the explorers “snow” mode and it performed unbelievably well. I tried it without the mode and the all season street tires were slipping snd sliding like crazy. In snow mode, zero slippage. It was impressive to say the least. Not a gmmick at all.

Well thats one I def. Need on my 2door JL. It sucks on icy roads.

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