Someone call
Yeah played with the ASC off button and I don’t think it made much of a difference, if at all. The "Active Stability Control" is hooked up to a Yaw sensor mounted under the front of the console. It is "designed to improve the vehicle's stability by restraining its tendency to slip sideways"
Straight from the manual that so not much use at slow speed in the bush
The manual also says to turn the ASC off if stuck. "The vehicle will then be easier to extricate" so sort of contradicts itself. Traction control is still active though.
When I was playing (testing) the other day, Ii wasn't using a lot of revs, unlike the guys with the LSD's. I was only using revs between 1500 and 1800 to see how it would crawl. Next time I will use a few more revs and see how that goes with the traction control.
So far I have worked out that I can get as far as any LSD ute using 1500 to 1800rpm when they have to use brute force and heaps of revs, throwing crap everywhere and risking breakage. Next step is to work out how best to use the TC to get even further.
I've been driving 4WD's for about 20 years and I am learning heaps at the moment. The traction control is a whole different ball game and Ii will admit, I don’t think I have got the best out of it yet.
I think the main issue with the traction control is it only has one mode, ON. If we compare it to the latest generation TC systems they have modes for snow, mud, rocks, etc, etc. I believe the TC system is calibrated for on road use so it is OK on hard surfaces but crap in mud.
When I was coming home from the Lithgow trip it was raining pretty heavily. The Bells Line of Road is pretty twisty and it had water rivulets running across the road. A couple of times the back stepped out on me as I was pushing pretty hard to get home. The Traction/Stability control had it all under control before I had time to really react. Works very well in those sort of situations
So to sum up, I'm still out on a desicion on the ability of the traction control as a 4WD enhancement. The difflock is Gold. Best money you can spend apart from tyres.