Antilock Braking in a Jeep Grand Cherokee

One of the many good features and a great safety feature on my Jeep Grand Cherokee is the 4-wheel anti-lock disc brake system.

As I was growing up, I had the opportunity to participate in Boy Scouts. Their motto is "Be Prepared." I've practiced that in a lot of areas of life. And I've projected that into many areas to be ready for unexpected events, like auto accidents. When I see an accident, or a narrow miss, I think about how it would be best to react in that situation, like pump the brakes instead of just slamming them to the floor. So I thought I was prepared.

Then, about 10 years ago, I had an opportunity to see if my preparation would help. It didn't. A car ran a stop sign at a snow packed intersection. My foot shoved the brake pedal all the way to the floor as I frantically tried to steer around the car. With the brakes locked, I slid straight forward into the front passenger fender of the other car, glancing off and sliding into a telephone pole. Fortunately the speed limit was only 35 on that road so there were no injuries, except to the cars. In spite of my preparation, I could not overcome my instinct to just slam on the brakes. I could have slowed down more if I had pumped the brakes with perhaps much less damage to the cars and I might have missed the telephone pole. Also, I may have been able to steer around enough to miss the other car.

Now there is an invention which overcomes the instinct to push the pedal to the floor. I have a 4-wheel anti-lock disc brake system on my Jeep Grand Cherokee. A while back a pick-up truck pulling a huge boat ran the same stop sign as my earlier incident. My instinct again was to slam on the brakes. However, this time I was able to steer around the other vehicle without any damage to either vehicle.

The 4-wheel anti-lock disc brake system automatically gives a pumping motion to stop more quickly as well as allow the driver to continue steering. No locked brakes causing straight forward sliding. What a great invention!

Some people to whom I've talked have complained that they don't like the sound or feel of the automatic "pumping motion." However, I'll take that feel and sound any day over the feel and sound of crashing into the fender of another car. Give me anti-lock brakes any time over a standard brake system.