Disable Traction Control for winter situations?

My guess, if Toyota didn't put a push button to disable a traction control then there is a reason behind it. I am sure it was not a problem for them to do so, since most of relatively new non-hybrid toyotas have such button.
The set of good winter tires will do the job just fine. Since in situation like this, the good grip between your tires and the road is way more important factor that the ability to turn off the TRAC and spin the wheels on the icy road in order to make even more slippery. Kind of a trap IMHO....

 

My LEAF has a button to disable TC. it saved us IMMENSELY a few months ago when we had our "100 year snowstorm" on our street (13 houses) only I and one other vehicle could make it to the main street for 3 days. i did it by disabling TC and rocking back and forth (about 10 minutes to go 100 yards!!)

now, why the Prius could not move in a "bit of snow" i dont know....

 

it snows about every other year here. i dont do snow tires. i HIGHLY doubt that would have made a difference

 

Agree with that. Did it have real SNOW tires and not these M+S

 

Doubt with that. Good snow tires make a HUGE difference. Believe to the person who spend decades in the area where the snow can be from late October until early April....

 

the problem here is with TC on, as soon as the car detects wheel slip, it cuts the power. which means you cant rock the vehicle. ok?? got it??

now, tell me what kind of tire will get you out of 25" of snow without ANY SLIPPAGE???

the morning after the pix was taken (you notice snow was still falling right?) i watched my neighbor accross the street in his F-350 SuperCrew with his huge backroad tires spend about an hour moving back and forth in the little 40 ft area because that is how far he got.

 

oh ya, snow tires help a ton, most of the time. this was not one of those times.

 

I perfectly understand how the TC works. My point here that the M+S tires do not have the same design of lamels as opposed to snow tires. M+S are generally bald compare to real snow tires. These little lames make the difference, since they expand under the load and basically "stick" to the slippery surface. Slowly but shortly they will do the job. You were able to make 100 yards in 10 mins most probably because the snow was still fluffy at that time . If the road was more icy your rocking wouldn't make any difference unless someone will be pushing the car from behind. Sometime it is so easy to put the blame on the system, even though the rest of the car may not be ready to hit the road.

 

There's no substitute for tire slip. Even when awesome, dedicated snow tires stop going forward without slip they will go further when you start spinning them.

I've had 4wd trucks since 1988 and have pulled out of snow buckets full of small cars, trucks, and even two single axle articulated trucks. When my truck tires are in good shape and I have 700 lbs of sandbags in the bed I have not failed to pull out whatever I'm hooked up to or gotten where I'm going. Sometimes that included a lot of slipping, sliding, and spinning of tires.

But I've never had to pull out a Prius yet. Other than the wife trying to get up our hill and being stubborn about it and winding up crossed up on a sidewalk, I haven't even seen one stuck.

 

Doesn't it looks familiar?

And here is some nice real slippery...

Does the slippery really help???

 

There are two camps. Some feel the Prius is the best thing since sliced bread for winter/snow/ice driving. I am not in that camp. I had one scary experience with my prius (which I LOVE by the way) that is somewhat different but related. I was visiting a friend at a popular lake in Ithica NY where access to the homes on waters edge is generally via a long and extremely steep and winding dirt/gravel drive down from the main paved road that runs around the lake. When I arrived (I had never been there before) I unthinkingly just headed down my friend drive to the small parking area next to the house. I sometimes forget that in a Prius you need to take special precautions in some situations that you do not need to take in a conventional automobile. I realized on the way down that I was in trouble - that I was not confident I would be able to drive back up this driveway - but it was too late, I was committed. The next morning I decided to try drive out on the theory that if I really have a major issue it would be best to find out on Saturday rather than on Sunday when I had to get home. It took me three or four very scary attempts but I did make it out. On several occasions despite my best efforts applying all my previous experience driving my Prius (including years of winter driving in central Vermont where I live) the vehicle came to a stop in the middle of a hair pin turn and I had no choice but to back down which was very very hairy. Ultimately I found a way and made it out - I expect a less experienced Prius driver would never have made it out. I was never able to make it out with a passenger in the car. Just that extra weight made it impossible for me. All the conventional cars made it out with out any problem whatsoever. The surface of the drive was dirt/gravel and the steepness was such that it was impossible to avoid wheel spinning and at the same time keep momentum.

For what it is worth my experience is living all my adult life in Vermont where we get out and go before the plows every storm and drive in mountainous terrain regularly, I also own a four wheel drive truck and like the previous poster I have lots of experience pulling people out of snow banks and such. Also, I have owned a Prius since 2008.

 

Since nobody ever answered, yeah, it works. I needed it today. You get "Maintenance Mode" on the display. If you clear it, 5 seconds later, it pops up again. Stoopid snow and ice.

 

I tried it too. Today was our first snow since I bought the Prius C last spring. The plow didn't visit our street and I was almost unable to get off the street and back in the garage. I called Toyota and they said I couldn't disable the traction control. I have 4 x Mich XIce3 and my car just wouldn't move. I used to have a Mini with 12" wheels that worked better than this.

I'll try the Maintenance Mode tomorrow.

 

How did you get the laughing monkey out of the zoo to hold the camera while you were stuck? Seriously, a wheel spinning in the snow is just not that funny.

 

This is what a 3rd Gen will do with studded tires in inspection mode. Never had a problem in snow, I'm sure a C would be comparable.

SPH-D710 ? 2

 

Are you saying that you were unable to get the maintenanc mode to clear after a reset. If this is the case would it require going to Totota to get it cleared? From this email it would appear that this is not something you would want to do unless it was an absolute emergency. If I'm wrong please correct me.Thanks.