Had the H3 out for first time on trails - clay/sand and big mud holes. Awesome rig... I was in normal 4X4 mode with traction control on...on a couple of holes I put it into 4 Hi Lock/TC off, to make sure I got through it but I put it back to normal when back on the trail. I've read and talked to a few people that say this is the way to go because it causes less harm to trail...but others have told me 4Hi or 4Low, TC off, shut the fck up and drive. The best logic I have heard so far for the latter is you don't want to find yourself in a mud hole and realize you weren't in 4 lock and have to start messing with it...

 

W/ our push button system it's not that big of deal to start off in 4hi, we don't have to get out of the truck to change between any of the options so no big deal. to go from 4hi to 4hi lock can be done on the fly & worst case if you need 4lo you slow to under 4mph put the tranny in neutral & hit the button. what 4x4 slection your in has no effect on the trail, that relies strictly on how you drive slow & easy = less torn up trail, hammer down flying over stuff = torn up trail

 

once you get yourself stuck, you will probalby get a better feeling for how and when to gas it, I have gotten stuck twice, once in mudd and in snow and I have found that they both equally suck when you have to get out of it

 

Turning traction control off???? This has been discussed many times. You can turn off Stabiltrak, but not T/C. It's on in all ranges and can't be disabled.

 

The reason you want your TC off is because it will start to go nuts when you are looking for traction... sometimes when you are trying to spin your way out of a mud hole it will cause more grief than assistance.

The way TC works is it starts to modulate your brakes on the wheels that slip so it causes the other tire to grab. If it is constantly buzzing the brakes (that ticking noise) it can actually cause your brakes to wear out prematurely. You are better off to just put it in low and turn the lockers on in super low traction situations.

4Hi is good for your standard trail stuff, as soon as you get off good roads and onto the trails just flip it on and don't worry about it. Turn the TC off, it won't help you much anyway off-road. You can conquer most trails in 4Hi. I usually flip it into 4Low when I approach deep mud or very steep and rocky grades. After I get past the obstacle I flip back to 4Hi

There is an override mode as well, if you hold the button in for 10 seconds it should totally disable the traction control systems. Just pushing it once puts it into a more dormant mode but it is still operating.... mind you I still hear it buzzing a bit sometimes even after that.

 

TC is tough to get used to, especially coming from my last truck that didn't have it.

 

Yep it can be turned off on some. There was a few threads on this and I believe there was a difference between years.

 

Yeah, I went back and read that thread. I guess the end result was "inconclusive" as different people had different results. Personally, I have an '08 MT and there is NO way to turn off T/C. As they say, "your results may vary."