full time 4WD

all wheel drive

difference 4WD - AWD ?

automatic 4WD

So, picture yourself barreling down a perfectly healthy dirt road at 60 mph and all of the sudden you notice part of the road missing like on one depicted below:

In most cases you will have a hard time to stop your vehicle on sand or gravel when equipped with ABS. Only locked up wheels on a dirt road guarantee shortest stopping distances due to the reasons described on the previous page. Mercedes engineers incorporated a special algorithm in the M-Class' ABS programming to ensure shortest stopping on gravel. However, the program is active only when in low range and at speeds up to 20 mph - In my opinion this is completely worthless because it is quite easy to stop at slow speeds. We would need the special programming, allowing partial locking of the wheels, when at 60 mph in high range.

So, your only way out is pulling the ABS fuse when traveling off road - or would you like to experience extra long stopping distances when washouts like the following one appear in front of your SUV? :

The drop was at least 30 feet down!

The road was gone for about 250 feet!

why ABS can sometimes be bad for you

ABS does not work with part time 4WD