No joke, like about 75-80% cheaper per year.

 

It varies depending on whether the trailer is loaded, what the road surface is, and how slick it is, and whether you are in a curve or traveling straight.

ABS was forced on us by law, because of all the 'data' presented by guess who...the makers of ABS systems.

Because of the large rotating mass and weight of tandems, the on-off cycles are much MUCH slower than the average automobile. Where in a car or pickup or van, you feel a rapid pulsing, what we get is an on....off....ok...back on...now its off...

It not quite that slow but almost that slow. Keep in mind the ABS on the tractor is independent and not communicating with the ABS on the trailer, which has a power lead in the pigtail connector, but no real interface other than a warning light.

Then the other main problem for us is when we have a partially loaded trailer, say 10 heavy pallets up front, and nothing on the rear of the trailer. Going down a slight incline, lets say, approaching a stop light, on a surface that's intermittent snowy and then clear pavement.

Apply service brakes and try to base the timing so that the tractor brakes will grab on the dry patches, and the trailer ABS electronics get a signal that its slippery and no traction, so my full application of the tractor brakes gets cancelled and the whole rig starts to dance forward and back, as the entire braking system is reacting, or trying to, when its just one or two tandems that are sliding. Meanwhile, 50 feet ahead of that slipping trailer tandem, my drive tires are on DRY pavement but the computer is pulsing things...and my rig wont stop as quick as I planned.

In my opinion, ANY rig that bends around turns should have a way to disable ABS in bad conditions....and guess what? We have that switch right on the dashboard...(it's usually combined with the ATC* functions) but you have to know when and when NOT to use it.

When someone figures that out...let me know...OK?




(*Automatic Traction Control)

 

I am starting to have some other steering component concerns with these upgrades.
I can now take turns at nearly twice the speed, it is like riding on rails dead flat.

My concerns are that the tie rod ends are stock @ 177k, could doing double the stress lead to tie rod failure at the worst point in time.

Have a story from when I was 18, Bob, "friend in high school" just got his brothers 73 camaro SS/RS split bumper. We cranked that car to 155 mph down 422 towards King of Prussia. Hit the King of prussia exit, go around the turn At the bottom end of deceleration of 3rd gear "about 70 mph" and the ball joint drops out and the right front wheel goes into the wheel well bottomed. Smoking us to a dead stop. I just realised I nearly just got killed, 155 mph just minutes ago.

Custom SS/RS 350 with Edelbrock intake 1250 Holly double carb, Headers, dual exhaust, Hurst 4 speed, car totalled, "twice".

Could one of these joints fail in the same way? King pins on spindles replaced @ 130k, steering linkage is original.Also got 2 new michelin tires installed today due to the impending snow storm, me & a boat ton of other people down to an 1/8 inch tread. And noticed that the new rear drums have turned white with dust, some serious heat going on here in braking.

 

Yep, steering and suspension components can fail. They very rarely fail without giving lots of warning though. I wouldn't replace known good components because of what *might* happen at some point. New parts can also fail, Google "Bathtub Curve".

 

You can fit 20" rims if you put 2" coil spacers up front,if you do that you could fit some LT 265/60/20 size tires. If you decide to do the 2" spacers let me know because I have a set of the maxx lift spacers that are brand new and I will give you a good deal. I have an extended 2001 E350 with 2" spacers and it rides and drives great.

 

You could always just throw some 44's under there and call it a day. This was a guy in our 4x4 club in Alaska. Cool van.

 

LOL! Thats totally a weekend project

It is a cool looking van, looks like he trimmed so much of the fender back that he was actually trimming the door lol.

 

Wow. I'm not at all a kind of guy that likes 4x4, or big tires, etc.

But that van is very cool.

 

What is it about big tires and rims that brings the kid back out in us , we may never need them ,but boy do we love them !

 

In the earliest days of factory ABS its operation could be defeated by quckly pressing the brake pedal, first time just enough to feel braking begin, letting off then quickly pressing the brake pedal again. The second time would be operation without ABS. Not sure if that's still how they work---it was something more than a few less-than-professional drivers had huge issues with.

I think its a "Hot Wheels Effect" ?? I hate the ride that sort of set up has but OMG they do look uber cool!

 

Because they remind of us of the toys we used to play with

 

It is so true! I get so many thumbs up and comments from random people about my lifted van.

 

One thing I should have included, (and yes I know this is not the primary topic for this thread but it came up in conversation so I think its ok)

....is that the override switch or button is a temporary condition...when the event clears, the ABS/ATC all return to normal...

My quip about knowing when to hit the switch was a tongue-in-cheek comment, since none of us can reliably predict tire skidding/slipping...it just happens. No time to fumble for a little switch on the dash when your watching your trailer slide sideways....by then it's just too late anyway...

 

Not worries----I myself never took your comments incorrectly---at least I don't think I did?

You're a long time valuable contributor here---we all come at things from different perspectives and it shows up from time-to-time with gentle disagreements etc.

But as I think back on my own experience with ABS so far--knock on wood---its not been a saving grace nor detrimental feature, perhaps only because I think I drive according to conditions, never rely on having full braking power when facing a situation where that might be important. The phrase "always give yourself and out........." is something I took to heart a long long time ago and its worked very well every time so far.

I dare say I'm driving "out the rear view mirrors" as much as I am looking out the windshield, almost always 3, 4 5 or more car lengths ahead of me.

And this is NOT advocating we defeat or delete ABS---it can be a good thing for many in so many situations.

 

JWA, the phrase "always give yourself an out" is an important mantra, I am looking at the situation where the "out" options dwindle quickly. I never look in the rear view mirror, even debated taking it out, but with my new found suspension powers, I may look at that again dreading ABS's coming up my rear now not able to stop or "out".

Great story on an ATV; "No ABS"
Top of a 6 story coal pile overlooking 5 ledges cut into the pile with a Honda 400 EX. 45 degree slope, I am going down that! At the top of my game, all 5 in the group said no f(*&& way. Here we go over the edge, no coming back, (leaving 2 250 R's in my wake) it is a dead lock slide all 4 wheels to the first ledge, bounce on the ledge, back into 45 lock. Start to lose navigation to the side, let off brakes to straighten up, hit second ledge, speeding up. Back into lock slide "straight" on 45, were good were straight, not a wheel is turning, did that three more times down to the last 8 foot culvert at the bottom, picked a line a let the brakes lose after the last shelf. Went into the culvert full speed bottomed out ,then launched out the other side 3 feet in the air sideways hit the ground and slid to a stop on the main road.

I will never believe in ABS again, the human brain is much faster than ABS, disable it,,,, and drive.

Shut down the machine, the 4 on top just erupt in cheers, short lived, quary truck coming, I gotta go.

Design note, granted it had a "Roll Design" $2400 7 inch "triple rate" suspension in the front, (plus 4 wide) and a $1700 "Roll Design" (plus 4 wide) suspension in the rear (double rate), god that was fun pushing design to absolute extreme. The point is, there is much more performance in the design of Big E to be leveraged in spring replacement, treat springs like shocks, that they are a finite lifespan replacement item. Don't look at them as something that is permanent, that is what held me back.