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What do we know about the differences between mud/sand/snow selections? Is that an improvement over the G1's manual VTM-4 lock and ability to disable VSA for sand, mud, and deep snow... which allows wheelspin in order to maintain momentum? Is there a VSA disable switch on the panel? I assume the G2 still has VSA?

 

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Interesting article. Thanks for the link.

 

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For G2 owners who aren't familiar with the G1, the G1 had a "VTM-4 LOCK" mode that could "lock" the rear wheels to help get you unstuck. It would only work in 1st, 2nd, or reverse. Using it on dry pavement results in increased wear and likely damage to the VTM-4 unit.

Just to be clear about this, I view VTM-4 (I don't know enough about iVTM-4 yet) like a conventional, mechanical 4wd system. Only use it in slippery conditions so you don't get bind in the driveline that is not easily removed by a tire slipping on the terrain.

You can engage manual lock on the G1 and hear the slippage occurring when you back up and turn at the same time in gravel. If that slippage can't occur (as on dry pavement), the driveline will bind and something will give somewhere. Ergo the admonishment to not use 4wd/locked diffs on dry pavement or high traction surfaces.

That being said, I see no reason for any damage to occur if you use manual lock (or the G2 equivalent) on dry pavement as long as you go in a straight line and have equal tire pressures all around (so that all tires travel the same distance). Then again, I see no reason to engage it on dry pavement anyway (unless you are testing something)!

 

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Because both VTM-4 and iVTM-4 overdrive the rear wheels by 1.7% and 2.7%, respectively, so even in a straight line with four tires with identical circumference driveline binding and/or clutch slippage will occur.

Ahh. Good info! Do you have a reference for the overdrive specs?

On my older conventional 4wd vehicles, you were supposed to exercise the systems frequently. If I didn't have slippery surfaces convenient, I'd just drive briefly in a straight line with 4wd engaged to exercise them a bit. To the best of my knowledge, conventional 4wd doesn't overdrive anything.

 

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Thanks zrog. 0.8% overdrive for the RL. If I knew that, I'd forgotten it. That's quite a change from the VTM-4 to the iVTM-4 system. I wonder how that overdrive function works? Is that number driven by gear ratios?

So for the VTM-4 system, the rear wheels go 1.008 times the front wheels?

 

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Great info Outahere. Thanks. I hope iVTM-4 is at least as durable as VTM-4. While there is some suspicion that there are many VTM-4 silent failures out there, I would think the failure wouldn't be as silent as postulated. I would think excessive torque steer and front wheel burnouts would be a pretty solid indicator of such a failure. ??

In that regard, I wonder how the FWD G2 RL drives relative to the AWD G2 RL? If they drive similarly, I wonder how Honda tamed torque steer and limited front wheel spin?

 

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5:24. If this was a locking diff, both rear wheels would spin at the same time. As you can see, one wheel is slipping and the other is not moving. This is a good example of the clutch packs working as you explained, but it is certainly not a locked diff.

This appear to duplicate the test I put my 2006 Pilot and 2008 Ridgeline through many years ago. Both failed to climb the berm unless VSA was engaged so the front could help pull it up. IIRC. It's been a long time since I did that testing.

A little VTM-4 lock action

I had not considered the gear ratios. It would be nice if Honda offered a little more robust rear drive system.

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