It's braking with only one wheel with good traction that is going to make
the car pull to one side, whether this is because the other wheel is
skidding or is not being braked is immaterial. And I believe you *are*
worse off with ABS, *if* it removes braking from a wheel with good traction
in order to keep the car straight without driver input.
In my experience the greatest retardation occurs as the wheel starts to lose
traction but is still rotating to some extent i.e. there is still
steerability. Skilled racing drivers do this as a matter of course. The
point of full locking can be felt as a significant pulse of vibration
throughout the car, which is nothing to do with the pulses felt through the
brake pedal with ABS, but is the sudden changed from the still significant
retardation of a partially turning wheel to the fully locked condition,
which results in significantly less retardation on any surface. I have
always felt that ABS is removing the braking effort as the wheel starts to
skid, rather than waiting until it is fully locked, hence wasting potential
retardation.
PaulH.
----- Original Message -----
> By pulsing the brake on
> the wheel which is on the verge of skidding, the system is preventing the
> car from suddenly pulling to one side (as one wheel locks up), not causing
> it to slew. The situation described may possibly occur in a situation
> where
> there is a radical side-to-side variance in surface traction (the
> hypothetical one-wheel-on-ice scenario), but that would have resulted in
> slewing without ABS, so you can't say you're any worse off.
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