GEN 2 Offroad Drive Modes

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hkguns

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Tizzle, does your truck have the front Torsen?
 
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Bark beetle

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Raptizzle, thanks for the good info, must be nice to live near desert heaven. You have definitely set the bar for altitude, I generally try to avoid flight in a non-caged truck but have "accidentally" gotten the new truck a little bit airborne. Also good to know how much abuse they can take. Please keep us updated on your experience. If you believe the manual, the rear locker automatically disengages in all available modes except mud/sand, baja, and rock crawl above 25 mph. Mud/sand is my favorite so far with the steering rolled back to sport and locker engaged. Now I need to try Sport with the stability control as is, higher threshold, and mostly off with the press and hold based on your review. I also want try it in 2wd, as I just confirmed that you can adjust the stability control in 2wd or the 4x4 modes. The biggest issue I have noted is the ABS portion of the stability control. I have run standard 2wd normal and sport modes in the dirt/gravel and found the stopping distance lacking compared to the mud/sand/baja ABS tune that allows much more wheel lockup and better stopping on dirt, sand and gravel.

We have a snow storm tonight so hopefully I can do some snow and ice testing tomorrow with the info from ZanemasterX.


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Bombsquad68

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I have only used Baja mode so far offroad but I found stability control would still kick in even after holding the button to switch to what I thought was completely disabled. I tried hooning on a frozen lake and it started to cut power and apply outside wheel brakes when I got really crossed up, once I got past about 30 degrees. Anyone else find this? I can't see it being an issue in any normal situation but I am used to drifting my big diesel around without any interference.

I haven't noticed the throttle input lag Raptizzle mentioned in Baja Mode, but now I'm curious about Sport mode to see if it's snappier. I would think the addition of Pedal Commander would make it too much of an ON/OFF switch for my tastes, with lots of power I like to have lots of pedal travel.

I did love 4A mode with the locker in, it feels fantastic and I could steer with the throttle. The power distribution page is awesome and you can see it sending power preferentially to the back. 4H felt too locked down, prone to push the front end in turns and make turn-in less responsive, especially with the rear diff locked. But it was very sure footed on the steep snow covered hills I tried. Overall though, for high speed and most off-road stuff I do, 4A locked up is the cat's pyjamas.
 

ChevyChad

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Great info! One question: how do I pull up the power distribution screen?
 

Bark beetle

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I did some more testing today and I am going to focus on braking performance on loose dirt/gravel in this post, no shifting, throttle response, etc. For me this is the most important function of a offroad worthy vehicle and it has been the source for the first mods on all my trucks equipped with ABS. Poor stopping ability on dirt will lead to disaster. Washouts, rocks, animals, other vehicles coming around a blind corner, I have experienced them all and stopping or slowing down is critical. My Tundra was the single worst vehicle I have ever owned with ABS when it comes to stopping on dirt, it was flat dangerous. I put the ABS on a switch and I would turn it off immediately when going on dirt. Fortunately Ford has given us lots of options with the Raptor.

Weather and Rock crawl modes not tested for these conditions as I would never use either in the terrain where this matters.
Normal mode - ABS kicks on with moderate brake pedal pressure and is very active causing poor stopping ability (not even close to my Tundra though).
Sport mode, 2wd, 4a, 4h, locker on, locker off, trac on - ABS kicks on with moderate pedal pressure but is slightly less active, still fairly poor stopping ability.
Sport mode, 2wd, 4a, 4h, locker on, locker off, trac off (press or press and hold for 30+ sec) - didn't matter which one I selected - ABS kicks on with moderately heavy pedal pressure, decent stopping but could still be better.
Sand/mud mode, trac auto off with mode selection, other stuff didn't matter but I did not try to see if I could go back to 2wd or 4a in this mode (need to do this) - ABS not easily detected even with very heavy pedal pressure, allowed dirt to pile up in front of the tires. As good as dirt stopping is going to get, up to you to optimize pedal pressure for the best stopping performance given the type of dirt/gravel/sand that you are on.
Baja mode, trac auto off with mode selection - ABS performance seemed identical to sand/mud mode which is good.

One strange thing I want to note is during one of my test runs on a slightly rocky road section I experienced a violent response from the electric steering assist and it is a good thing I keep my thumbs out of the spokes! I did have it on sport mode but that was not a good response. My RZR has electric assist and I have never felt that before. Not really impressed with the feel or response of this steering. I definitely prefer good old hydraulic power steering. I can give up V8 but wish I still had hydro!


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hkguns

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I did some more testing today and I am going to focus on braking performance on loose dirt/gravel in this post, no shifting, throttle response, etc. For me this is the most important function of a offroad worthy vehicle and it has been the source for the first mods on all my trucks equipped with ABS. Poor stopping ability on dirt will lead to disaster. Washouts, rocks, animals, other vehicles coming around a blind corner, I have experienced them all and stopping or slowing down is critical. My Tundra was the single worst vehicle I have ever owned with ABS when it comes to stopping on dirt, it was flat dangerous. I put the ABS on a switch and I would turn it off immediately when going on dirt. Fortunately Ford has given us lots of options with the Raptor.

Weather and Rock crawl modes not tested for these conditions as I would never use either in the terrain where this matters.
Normal mode - ABS kicks on with moderate brake pedal pressure and is very active causing poor stopping ability (not even close to my Tundra though).
Sport mode, 2wd, 4a, 4h, locker on, locker off, trac on - ABS kicks on with moderate pedal pressure but is slightly less active, still fairly poor stopping ability.
Sport mode, 2wd, 4a, 4h, locker on, locker off, trac off (press or press and hold for 30+ sec) - didn't matter which one I selected - ABS kicks on with moderately heavy pedal pressure, decent stopping but could still be better.
Sand/mud mode, trac auto off with mode selection, other stuff didn't matter but I did not try to see if I could go back to 2wd or 4a in this mode (need to do this) - ABS not easily detected even with very heavy pedal pressure, allowed dirt to pile up in front of the tires. As good as dirt stopping is going to get, up to you to optimize pedal pressure for the best stopping performance given the type of dirt/gravel/sand that you are on.
Baja mode, trac auto off with mode selection - ABS performance seemed identical to sand/mud mode which is good.

One strange thing I want to note is during one of my test runs on a slightly rocky road section I experienced a violent response from the electric steering assist and it is a good thing I keep my thumbs out of the spokes! I did have it on sport mode but that was not a good response. My RZR has electric assist and I have never felt that before. Not really impressed with the feel or response of this steering. I definitely prefer good old hydraulic power steering. I can give up V8 but wish I still had hydro!


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Thanks that is a good post with good info.
 
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