4 replies to this topic

[Dave_12]

What is traction control and what does it do?    

[Wizard Of Iz]

From the Difalco website:  

 

"The traction rheostat reduces the amount of power available on the upper wiper bands to reduce sliding out and deslotting on the exit of turns. Extremely useful for scale cars as well as NASCAR type racing."
 
I have an older Difalco that doesn't have traction control. However, a few of the guys that I race with have it and tell me that it truly does make a difference in being able to adjust the controller to make the car easier to drive.

[Eddie Fleming]

From the Difalco website:  

 

"The traction rheostat reduces the amount of power available on the upper wiper bands to reduce sliding out and deslotting on the exit of turns. Extremely useful for scale cars as well as NASCAR type racing."

 

But it does not prevent you from going to full speed.

 

I have said it before, When I first got traction control I did not like it. After I played with it and figured out how to work with it, I love it. It is a balancing act with the traction control and the sensitivity working together to get the response you want for the car and track. 

 

Say the car is sliding out (loose) off the corners. I turn up the traction control and then the low speed is to slow so I turn up the sensitivity to get the low speed back where I want it. Then I may need to turn the traction control up a little more. by playing with the two adjustments I have a lot of control over how the car behaves.

 

It can be added to older controllers, Rollin.

[Jim Difalco]

The traction rheostat reduces the sensitivity on all the wiper bands equally and helps calm down the car on the exits of turns to keep from over driving the car and de-slotting or inducing excessive fish tailing. Since the traction rheostat reduces the power on the first band as well racers should compensate by increasing their sensitivity knob to keep the same first band starting voltage.

 

If you are new to traction control I always encourage racers to drive with it turned off and then when you become accustomed to the controller and become consistent with your lap times you can then experiment with adding in traction control to see how it improves lap times and or reduces falling off and de-slotting.

 

Traction control can be added to almost all of my controllers if you do not have it now. Newer circuit board designs of the last two years make it extremely easy for the racer to add it themselves with my parts. Older models may require a little wiring and moving around a resistor's location. Controllers sent to me for update automatically get a tune-up included with the traction rheostat installation.

 

Hope this explanation helps. I do get this question on how it works quite often.

[Sloter]

It works!

 

Bob