Well, after conversing with a variety of parts dealers, and reading a bazillion posts on various web forums, it seems there is quite a bit of confusion about the H2 and its traction control system, and how it works, and how to use it. I hope these comments are helpful.

The H2s traction control system, or TCS, is the same technology as the TT4 system developed for the H1 in the late 90's. But its both more effective and more versatile. And its simply modified to expand its utility even more, which i'll get to below.

how TCS works:

if you have a vehicle with a conventional 4 wheel drive system - like a normal pickup - and you get in a situation where one wheel has no traction (its over a gravel pocket on a hillside, or up in the air) what happens is that all the power going to that end of the truck goes to the wheel with no traction. The wheel on the ground sits helplessly, while the airborne wheel spins pointlessly.

TCS reacts - very, very quickly - to these kind of situations and applies the brakes to the wheel(s) with no traction, forcing power to the wheels that do have traction. Now the truck can proceed, even if one wheel is in the air or over a gravel pocket, and so forth.

Systems with similar on-paper technology are found in many vehicles, including Toyotas (even my prius), but in the times i've seen the "TCS" of 'yotas (and i assume alot of other more on-road oriented vehicles) in action, it quickly brings the truck to a stop as it seems to cut the power in addition to, or rather than, re-routing it. The H2 tries its very best to send all the power your right foot is asking for to some wheel with traction.

TC2. The H2 has a second traction option - TC2 - which you can activate by hitting the button on your dash right above the "towing" button, and 2 spots above the air suspension button for those ofus with the adventure package in our trucks. TC2 is a very valuable adddition to the truck because it allows much, much more wheel spin than the normal TCS does. Why does that matter?

Well imagine you are knee-deep in mud, or deep snow, or potentially deep sand (i've never driven deep sand). Now you're in a situation where the NONE of the wheels have traction, and the only way to move forward is to getALL of the wheels spinning and flinging and churning. Normal TCS reacts to these situatiosn by doing what it does best - stopping spinning wheels that have no traction.

But when none of the wheels have traction, and you simply need to spin them all at 40mph to churn through a mud-hole, stopping spinning wheels is bad because ... all you have going for you is wheelspin, and you want it.

Engaging the TC2 function (by hitting the button on your dash to make the little orange light show) allows far more wheel spin, and as a result allows for better performance in mud or snow (and probably deep sand). It still engages its traction functions, but only when much higher levels of wheel spin are reached, and it doesn't clamp the wheels down nearly as aggressively as normal TCS. But it does still limit wheel spin to some degree, and does prevent you from unleashing the full 325 horsepower worth of big-tire, mud-flining potential that your truck has.

DO NOT ENGAGE TC2 WHEN THE WHEELS ARE SPINNING, ONLY USE THIS FEATURE AHEAD OF TIME AS A PRE-PLANNED CHOICE, NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF A MUD-PIT WHILE THE NORMAL TRACTION SYSTEM IS ACTIVATED. Breaking this rule of thumb may cause damage to your truck.

And so I offermy fellowH2 offroad-enthusiasts this means of modifying your truck to provide a third traction system setting - "TCS-off".


The TCS-OFF mod:

note: only attempt this mod after A) consulting your

 

Excellent post Greenie ... and yes, the TC2 saved my azz in deep snow last winter by doing just that ... paddled my way right on outa there!I shouldn't have been where I was without shovel or any kind of recovery tools other than the 4x4system in the Deuce ... but after a little cursing, dumping her in to 4L locked and poppin' on theTC2 .. Iwas able to sling enough white crap around me to dig out!
If you recall my winter "scenery" pic on the ranger trail ... that was taken AFTER getting out ... further in to that trail I'm estimating a minimum of 2 feet of snow and well, I couldn't just stop and turn around could I!? LOL! If nothing else it gives you a whole hell of a lot more confidence in your vehicle ... glad I got stuck!!!! :-)

 

enjoy the TC2 - until it grenades your front diff. i know i'll never turn it on, that's why i don't go out alone and always have the winch with me. i'd rather get pulled out than towed home.[>:]

 

Shorty ... is this a common outcome? Just curious as this is a first I've heard of it ... Got the Warn winch bumper coming to me .. I just need to pull that trigger .. I'm STILL hesitating lol! As far as going out alone ... I wouldn't either ... but in this case, was out playing around in the snow, didn't realize it was as deep as it was which was a damn rookie mistake on my behalf .. and front diff is still in one piece :-)

 

I have to disagree with Shorty on this one, even though he's my favorite internet H2 guru.

Hitting the TC2 button while the first TCS is active might grenade a front diff, but i've used it widely and not had any problems. If TCS is active and you flip the TC2 button, you suddenly take a drivetrain that is restrained by the brakes and let it run wide-open, which might be bad. I've no doubt that a shock to the driveline could occur if someone used TC2 suddenly when spinning in front of a rock or a tree stump, and TC2 shouldn't be on when rock crawling or something, but spinning tires hardly equates to certain differential demise.

But in TC2 the overall wheelspin is kept to a lower level than that in, say, a normal boring old pickup. And with the TCS off, the strain on the front diff is the same as any other normal truck without a TCS like this.

Use TC2 when all tires are spinning (deep snow, mud, maybe deep sand) and otherwise don't, and i sincerely doubt you'll cause trouble.


Zyne, i've had the exact same experience of stuck in snow (or mud), engage TC2, spin my way out. I think its sweet.

 

I know it would beat the pants out of trying to get a wrecker in there to pull me out LOL! He probably would've gotten me loose enough to get out and then I'd have to tow his azz out behind me LOL! I guess I could've avoided the towing/hook up charge then huh ... :-)

 

i know of 2 cases of grenaded front diffs with TC2 active, one mud, one snow. that's enough for me to know i won't use it. [:'(]

 

I can't remember who posted it on here but I've only heard of ONE grenaded front diff ... I think that was due to what Greenie said, a rapidly spinning tire that suddenly gripped and *kaboom* ... while my experience in this field would make me ignorant at best, I do have somewhat of a difficult time understanding why this feature was included in our vehicles if all it does is eat diffs. Seems to me it's more of a usage/driver error causing them to grenade rather than the technology itself. Again, I'm NOT speaking from experience here so ...
Regardless of the cause for grenading diffs, I don't personally useTC2 very often ... in fact the snow incident was I think the first time it's actually been used "in the field" so to speak.

 

highly possible, even probable, that the TC2 was engaged while in the midst of spinning. all i know is we had to wait for a strap out and an eventual flat-bed. i figure i have a winch, i'll use it, and i'm not too proud to ask for help.

 

That to me would be more of a driver generated problem rather than the technology itself .. though I guess I'll play the devils advocate here and say they could've built in a fail safe in to that system preventing it from kickin' if the tires are spinning rapidly.

Hell no, I wouldn't think twice about asking someone for help or bustin' out the winch (if I had one lol) if need be. I've never really had much of a need for TC2 other than the time in the snow .. hell, I stuck around in either 4H locked or standard full time 4wd last time we went .. the vehicle is so capable as is ...