Hey all,

When I need to stomp my brakes (very common in the traffic we have here) it seems that I do a little more sliding than I'm used to in a vehicle with ABS.

Actually I'm not sure "sliding" correctly describes it, my tires seem to make little chirping sounds and they feel "squishy" at that point.

Then again the X is probably the heaviest truck I've had with ABS.

Anybody else notice this?

Sounds normal, but why would activating your ABS be a common ocurrence? If you have to hit your brakes so hard that the ABS kicks in that often you must be following people from 2 feet behind their bumper or not paying attention. I live the stop and go nightmare too and hardly ever have to hit the brakes hard unless someone does something stupid in front of me and believe me, the traffic goes from 65 MPH cruising to stopped very fast around here! Then the cycle repeats.

I used to have same thing with my old tires on wet road, but not anymore.

What psi you got on your tires? they probably have too little grip to stop properly.

Thanks for the input. I am running the tires with pretty high pressure (42 PSI) so I'll try lowering that and see if it improves.

As far as driving style requiring heavy breaking, I have lived all over the US and can honestly say that I don't think I have ever encountered so many idiots who switch lanes with no notice as around here.

Couple that with the fact that most of our surface streets travel at around 50 and that they (the idiots)refuse to use either mirrors or head turning to take notice of the huge yellow truck alongside them and you end up braking hard to avoid taking them out (tempting to do but so very expensive).

42 is wwwaaay high for truck like XTerra, imho.. Too much weight vs too little friction on stops. Of course it would help mileage though..

Try to go for 32-35 - that should improve grip a lot.

I've lived in SOCAL and your right, there is no place like it. Doing 80mph in bumper to bumper traffic to stay alive and stuff happening all around you. Especially the motorcycles splitting lanes at that speed, it's crazy. The tire preasure should help. You can even drop below 30, but don't go below 25psi. Good luck and keep your hands on the wheel!

Agree, for a normal daily driving X - with no extra weight/trailer, I'd run 34-35 for better gas mileage and improved braking. I can see 40psi if you're pulling a 3K# plus trailer - otherwise you're doing too much floating.