hi this is michael vein from pickup trucks calm and we're here at General
Motors milford proving grounds for 2008 halftone shoot out what we're doing here
is a split Mu test Mu is a measure of friction on any type of surface so we've
got three surfaces we're going to measure against we've got an asphalt
surface
we've got this white tile it's a slippery as an icy road and then we have
this blue tile the blue tile is slippery as a snowy road
we're going to take each of the trucks we're going to run it with one wheel
here one wheel here and we're measuring wheel slip between the two surfaces so
on the slippery surface we're going to see the rear wheels slip more than on
the other surface we want to see how each truck handles that situation
traction control does two things when it senses a truck slipping on the surface
it cuts engine power and applies the brakes to help stop the wheel that's
spinning enabling the wheel opposite the spinning one to gain traction because
most full-size pickup trucks are rear-wheel drive and the bulk of their
weight is positioned in the front half of the vehicle trucks can lose traction
more easily than other vehicles particularly in icy conditions the new
Ford f-150 and toyota tundra perform best of this test
there are the only two trucks to make it off the slippery surface without having
to stop and engage four-wheel drive
we judge the f-150s traction control system to be superior to the Tundra
the f-150 is wheel slipped but the truck was able to cut throttle smoothly to
enable it to virtually walk off the surface
the tundra cut power to the engine too but more aggressively than the f-150
it took pushing the accelerator all the way down to Floor to keep the engine
power up while the tundra slowly crawled up the surface both tundra and f-150
had limited-slip rear differentials
they were also the two heaviest trucks that we tested which probably helped in
this test the rest of the trucks in our group were very challenged by this test
chevrolet silverado and GMC sierra both had locking mechanical rear
differentials that engaged automatically when will slip hit a certain rpm
while both pickups did excellent in our autocross test
they were challenged by the very wet and slippery surface that we were on both
required putting the trucks into four wheel drive high to get off the surface
the dodge ram 1500 also require the use of for high to get off the slippery tile
but like the ford f 150 and tundra it also use a limited-slip rear differential to
us this was proof that extra weight and excellent anti-slip logic can make a big
difference getting a truck out of slick conditions
the nissan titan was the most challenged by this test when its electronic locking
rear differential wasn't engaged because we were using two wheel drive the rear
differential operated as an open diff meaning that there was no way to shift
power between wheels when one wheel started to slip. the titans engine
quickly get close to the red line and began to slip backwards as it struggled
to figure a way off the hill Finally we had to cut power and engage
four-wheel drive to drive up the hill. what you've just seen is a small part of
the 2008 pickup trucks.com have to shoot out for more information and videos of
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