Are you aware of the maintenance costs you can incurr when your vehicle has stability control.

It sounds great doesn’t it? Your vehicle starts to go out of control and magically it’s electronic box takes over and saves you.

This is what the so called experts are telling everyone. It is going to be the thing that will stop a lot of road deaths. Or will it?

You see, for this new technology to work correctly all four tyres have to have exactly the same wear rate and rolling circumference, otherwise the wheel speed sensors become inaccurate and will not work as designed.

Ask any tyre place about the Melbourne round-a-bout syndrome. Ever since we have developed so many round-a-bouts here in Melbourne the front passenger tyre wears considerably faster than drivers front.

I religiously rotate my Prado tyres every 7,000 – 10,000 km’s, doing a cross change on the rear to try to combat this problem. Before rotating it is still quite evident that the front passenger tyre has worn more than the others.

Last year I did an Outback trip, staying off the bitumen as much as possible. I covered 7,500 km’s in 14 days. When I got home I was shocked to notice that my rear tyres had worn 20% more than my fronts. My explanation for this is that the front tyres loosen and flick up a lot of stones, so unlike the front, running over a smoother surface, the rear wheels are running over a much looser surface which takes its toll on the rear tyres.

So, with this technology, be prepared for your service person to say you need 4 new tyres. You cannot just replace 1 or 2 tyres, they must be changed in fours.

In the 4WD world, these technological beasts often cook their electronics when the going gets hard in 4WD. This is just an added burden to the whole system and could leave you stranded for long periods in the outback or on your favourite beach.

Have a great day!
See you in the bush

Email: info@4x4galore.com
Author – Doug Johnston

Vehicle Preparation The first thing to do before any unfamiliar water crossing is to walk it. If you cannot walk it you cannot cross it. If the water is flowing too quickly to safely walk the crossing, then it cannot be driven across. Remember, 4x4's actually float until water seeps into them. When you walk the crossing you are actually starting your vehicle preparation. You are giving the axles, diffs and gearbox time to cool down while you find out exactly how deep the water is.