Slippery mode is beneficial

[Derwood]

We've had a couple of days here in Southern Ontario where the roads were pretty slick. I found that activating slippery mode really cut down on the tire spinning on accelerating from a standstill. Just in case some of you haven't engaged this mode in wintery weather yet.

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[TrailMaster]

I'll be in that mode most all winter long! Snowing now, but I haven't driven my Maverick in snow yet. Still have the stock Pirellis on. I have four new Yoko Geolandars that need to be installed and aligned, but arranging to get it done is a bit challenging in this one dog town. I'll be looking for that weather window and getting those installed ASAP, then I'll feel better about old man winter.

 

[commadorebob]

I have noticed Slippery Mode will be quicker to send power to all four wheels if you have AWD whereas Normal tends to only favor FWD once up to speed.

 

[colinl]

I have noticed Slippery Mode will be quicker to send power to all four wheels if you have AWD whereas Normal tends to only favor FWD once up to speed.

agreed. OP is in a hybrid, but this is definitely true on ecoboost AWD models.

the wheelspin difference is pretty significant.

 

[710-oil-614]

I have noticed Slippery Mode will be quicker to send power to all four wheels if you have AWD whereas Normal tends to only favor FWD once up to speed.

I've been watching the intelligent AWD pretty closely as of late with the roads having some moisture and only more coming.

I had an interesting discussion with a buddy who drives an older Ridgeline and he said that it is only AWD/4WD up to 35mph and I thought how crazy but maybe you don't need it after that.

Sure enough it seems that the Maverick taps out of AWD around 45mph unless WOT and even then it is tapering hard.

I haven't played with the modes much but any acceleration above maybe 30% throttle sends at least some power to the rear wheels in normal mode on nearly every acceleration from a standstill.

 

[commadorebob]

I've been watching the intelligent AWD pretty closely as of late with the roads having some moisture and only more coming.

I had an interesting discussion with a buddy who drives an older Ridgeline and he said that it is only AWD/4WD up to 35mph and I thought how crazy but maybe you don't need it after that.

Sure enough it seems that the Maverick taps out of AWD around 45mph unless WOT and even then it is tapering hard.

I haven't played with the modes much but any acceleration above maybe 30% throttle sends at least some power to the rear wheels in normal mode on nearly every acceleration from a standstill.

Yeah, I keep the wheel power screen up. I drove in a pretty heavy rain about a month ago and had it in slippery going about 55MPH on the interstate. It had power going to all four wheels during that time. Normally, power to the rear wheel tapers off around 30MPH. Which I guess makes sense. Ford figures if you are doing more than 30 you aren't exactly off-roading. Even when in tow mode, it tends to favor the front wheels.

 

[Derwood]

I've been watching the intelligent AWD pretty closely as of late with the roads having some moisture and only more coming.

I had an interesting discussion with a buddy who drives an older Ridgeline and he said that it is only AWD/4WD up to 35mph and I thought how crazy but maybe you don't need it after that.

Sure enough it seems that the Maverick taps out of AWD around 45mph unless WOT and even then it is tapering hard.

I haven't played with the modes much but any acceleration above maybe 30% throttle sends at least some power to the rear wheels in normal mode on nearly every acceleration from a standstill.

Well, mine's a hybrid so only FWD but a noticeable improvement on slick roads for me which is very nice to have!

 

[Derwood]

I'll be in that mode most all winter long! Snowing now, but I haven't driven my Maverick in snow yet. Still have the stock Pirellis on. I have four new Yoko Geolandars that need to be installed and aligned, but arranging to get it done is a bit challenging in this one dog town. I'll be looking for that weather window and getting those installed ASAP, then I'll feel better about old man winter.

Me too, stock Continental tires. If I slide around too much I'll simply put winter tires on next year but hopefully the slippery mode makes driving in the winter bearable

 

[dags1207]

I love slippery mode on my Wife’s Bronco. Definitely more beneficial on the AWD Maverick but the throttle response will play a big role on the hybrid. Specially due to the torquey hybrid system. Glad to hear I can expect it to work once I get my Maverick (with Ford’s willingness to ship it lol)

 

[Montana]

Quicker to send power to the wheels that need it and softens the throttle/shifting a bit.

Was the same way in my Escape and I used it for the majority of winter. Just took a drive this morning and used it for the first time, about 25 miles both ways. I set mine to be the 2nd drive mode so it's only two hits of the button, then sport, then mud/rut and back to normal.

 

[bombast]

I noticed when I first got my maverick (In a January, so things got slick pretty fast) that the slippery mode also seemed to make engine braking more aggressive, which I liked. Instead of being tempted to hit my brakes too hard and send me into a slide, the vehicle would perfectly decelerate me, especially going down hill.

I had some slippery misadventures in my Impala so I appreciate this.

 

[elspumante]

Thanks, this is good to know. I live in Ohio and have a Hybrid on order (finally with a build date) but have been getting cold feet, in part because I've considered getting a CR-V Hybrid or Forester instead for the AWD advantage.

 

[DesPeresMark]

Got caught in snow coming across Kansas after Thanksgiving and there were dozens of cars off I-70. I was in slippery mode and had no issues with traction.

 

[Stang89]

I tried using slippery mode in the snow but noticed that there's way less regen as compared to eco mode. At first I thought something was wrong as I needed to use more brake pedal effort than I was used to.

 

[colinl]

I tried using slippery mode in the snow but noticed that there's way less regen as compared to eco mode. At first I thought something was wrong as I needed to use more brake pedal effort than I was used to.

that actually makes a lot of sense to me, because the regen might be strong enough that you could lock up and slide. ABS would not matter if that did happen because the regeneration doesn't use brakes.

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