[MadMax]

Originally Posted by Titan4x4Aggie

i will concede, i think we are both misinformed. Orange Crush just put up an excellent post about the computer systems in our truck: Nissan Titan 4wd System Explained

taking an excerpt from the post about ABLS:

"ABLS, applies brakes selectively to a slipping wheel. This braking action literally fools the differentials into sending power everywhere except the slipping wheel."

"When ABS wheel-speed sensors detect a loss of traction in one or more wheels, braking force is applied to that wheel to help slow it down. This redirects power to the wheels with better traction."

based on the above (and comparing to my prevoius experience driving mazda rx-7s with and without a cluth-type LSD), it seems ABLS does act like a true mechanical LSD. if a spinning wheel is locked up with the brake, the torque has to go somewhere, i.e the other wheel. i dont know how much torque is lost though from this action, though. need to do a FBD (free body diagram) to figure that one out.

you are right in saying that there is a rev limiter associated with the ABLS, although this is a separate traction control system. still, if i'm accelerating from a dead stop, i can break BOTH tires loose (i have semi-drifted this truck around a corner) in both straight accelerations and around a corner. they keep spinning until the TCS kicks in, which i slightly notice as a pause in power.

he just backed up my argument - the braking REDUCES power to the individual spinning wheel meaning it matches the wheel speed of the spinning wheel to that of the wheel that isnt spinning enabling both wheels to gain traction and eliminating wheel spin. a traditional limited slip doesnt decrease power to one wheel it distributes power to both wheels - the abls will work beneficially in all situations excepting when you want to spin both wheels - i do believe the system COULD be set up looser enabling wheel spin on both wheels but as Nissan has it set up in trucks it acts as a poor man's traction control. Maybe your truck has slightly different programming - I have read elsewhere in TitanTalk that the earlier release models 'feel' a bit more powerful and also tend to get better gas mileage - I dunno if they made any changes but there are variances between trucks for no easily apparent reason - Some people have trucks which will break loose and others don't - unfortunately for me - I fall into the category of trucks that dont break loose. Maybe I just got a dog - I cant hold 90 mph in 5th in gentle terrain easily either ......