mcfarmall

No I'm not a logger!

This is my first truck with an LS axle. I have noticed that on snowy/icy roads when the rear tires break loose that the whole truck will slide sideways. On my non LS truck under the same location and conditions only one tire would break loose (obviously) and I was much less likely to skid.

I understand why this happens because on the non LS axle the tire that isn't spinning still has a bite on the road which lessens or eliminates the sideways skidding force.

So is there any way to lessen or eliminate this tendency to skid? I already have around 200 lbs centered between the wheel wells and my tires (OEM) have about 5/8" tread depth so far. Yes, I can always reach over and twist the dial to 4 HI but what about the 2wd owners? I have a couple of long icy hills nearby that make me nervous knowing the likelyhood that the rear end might get squirrely

wrvond

Mine does the same thing. The only solution is to switch to 4hi and go on.

me1234

Actually there is a way to help this. When your stopped, swiitch your gear from Drive to the 2. After you get traction and are moving switch it back to drive.
What this does is starts you out in 2nd gear. You can start out like you normaly would and less power goes to the wheels allowing you to get traction, once you're moving you can switch it back to Drive and the transmission can shift normally again.

wrvond

I may be wrong, but I always understood those positions (L1 and L2) to be limiting positions. That is, in L2, your transmission starts in first and shifts to second, but won't shift to third, etc. Which is why you downshift to L2 when going downhill being pushed by a trailer. You're engine braking.

me1234

Im not sure abouy the newer trucks(I just realized this was the general F-150 section. I thought I posted in the 1997-03 section lol ). On my 2000 the gears go P,R,N,D,2,1. Putting the shifter to 2 starts the truck out in second.
Last year when it was snowing, I read in the manual that switching to second can be used for added traction, engine braking, as well as preventing the transmission from constantly shifting when towing. I have a 2wd limited-slip no 4x4 switch for me lol . Anyways, i hit the gas to the point where the rearend would slip/try to fishtale in Drive, then I tried it in 2 using the same amount of throttle. The truck kept it's grip and accelerated slower. So I take it that it was in 2nd gear from the start, not 1st.

Ecoboost AM

Being a 2011 doesn't it come with Traction Control? My 2wd w/ LS doesn't have the back end slide out as Traction Control defaults to on everytime the truck is started. I have a switch to turn it off, I'll have to give that a try when the roads get bad again to see how loose the back end gets.

Cord

The furthest I can get it out is 20-30 degrees. At that point you can feel the left rear wheel brake hard. If the truck tries to fish tail you can then feel the right rear brake hard next. System works really, really well. Almost to the point, that I feel my snow driving skills have diminished slightly and I'm willing to take more risk knowing the system will save me.

13Harleyfan

Isn't that what the captain of the Titanic said?

130428

to elaborate on starting in 2nd gear, just put it in M (if you have the SelectShift i think it is) and upshift to 2nd when you're stopped. your truck will start in 2nd gear.

oh, and Traction Control does work great... and saved my *** the first night i was driving the truck... tried to be a smart man breaking my truck in, pressed the go pedal down doing 55 on an icy highway, truck downshifted to 4th, rear end went sideways a good amount and after 2-3 back and forths, i was back on track... that'll teach me...

mcfarmall

Thanks for the replies. Looks like it's just the nature of the beast.