Sorry for the confusion. I specified "deep snow", like when you try to drive on a residential street after a snow storm and before the plow made its way there. You drive at very low speed and you need al the traction you could get to advance. My understanding is that in this very specific conditions, the ASC could take over and cut the power to the wheels when they slip, which you don't want.
Some very intersting videos are available on the Mitsu Japan web site, where a driver demonstrates ASC and 4WD on snow.
For the regular driving on icy, snowy, wet roads, yes, the ASC should stay ON all the times.

 

For those of you who did not see these videos;even though they are in japanese, you could still enjoy them.
http://outlander.jp/drivers_feeling/dri_04.html#start

 

And here it is the article from Mitsubishi's web site where they mention the ON/OFF switch for ASC and when to use it. Deep snow is one instance.
http://media.mitsubishicars.com/deta...0&mime=ASC
One more thing - I started to look into ASC/4WD details when I read a thread about a RAV4having trouble to get out of the snow. The owner wished to have the ability to disable the VSC system on the RAV4 in that situation.
It seems like the Outlander wins again.

 

Duuuuude! You have more guts than I do to take a brand spanking new, 2007 Outlander 4WD (which in my area a base LS 4WDmodel starts @ $24,000) and go off-roadin'!!! [:-] With that said, I also would like to point out your observation about the low clearance - the Outlander was designed to be more sporty, a grocery-getter vehicle, so to speak. Unless it's rival, the Nissan X-Terra, the Outlander has less clearance, less HP and torque, and certainly fewer off-road features such as low range gearing, off-road tires, and skid plates underneath the vehicle to protect some of the goods undernearth the car's body. Also, unlike Jeeps, the Outie is not trail rated. As a side note the Outlander's owner's manual clearly says this vehicle was designed primarily for paved streets and to very seldomly to go off road. So you guys be careful of not busting up your brand new Outties by trying to play Rambo!

 

ehhh, screw it, if it rolls down a hill, and I live to tell the tale, ya know what everyone is going to say "oh my god, I am so glad your ok"
they wont mention a thing about the truck... lol. I CANT LOSE.
No in all seriouisness, I would never do anything too hard-core with this thing, I would rate what I did with it, on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being easy and 10 being expertly hard, maybea 3... maybe a 2.

 

I would be interested in knowing if turning off ASC also disables traction control. ASC and traction control are two separate strategies-technically, traction control is one part of the ASC equation. That would be bad if it disabled TC for the stuck in snow or ice situation. The outlander has open front and rear differentials and the way Mitsubshi descrides its TC is that if torque is flowing to a spinning wheel (as it would, stuck on ice, just like any car without limited slip) the TC can brake that individual wheel and, essentially fool the diff into thinking it has regained traction, sending torque to the opposite wheel with traction. You would definately want this if stuck in deep snow or ice. ASC uses TC, reduced engine power, yaw sensors and a host of other goodies to keep you on your intended path WHILE MOVING.

Some things to keep in mind for anyone considering off-roading this vehicle. There is no mention of wading depth anywhere in any of the liturature I have seen (including the post on this forum about the Mitsubishi tech explanation of the system). Transmissions and differentials have ventilation holes in them and if they are not fitted with breather hoses to higher elevations in the vehicle then you run the risk of water infiltration. Very Bad. Same goes for combustion air intake location. Hydrolock-water in cylinder is very bad. Anyone look to see where the electronic brain equipment is mounted? This can be particularly vulnerable to water. Approach and departure angles make a huge difference in not getting stuck cresting or decending a steep incline-it doesn't take much. Prolonged hill climbing beyond manufacture specified angles can cause engine oil to return to the sump away from the pump location causing oil starvation. Same goes for fuel tank pump. Seen it happen. Off road vehicles have larger oil capacities and often special resevoirs just for this situation.

Having owned a 2004 Land Rover Freelander and off-roaded with it, the Outlander has the same potential if these often overlooked issues can be dealt with. You see why manuf. can void your warranty if you off-road? Clearly Mitsubishi is aware of these issues due to their extensive off-road haritage. It would be nice know if they included them in this vehicle.

 

From what I understand from the paraghraph belo, when you turn the ASC OFF, is does turn off the TC as well and I highlighted what I belive it was the reason for Mitsubishi to do it.

"An ASTC OFF switch allows the driver to disengage the system. Instances where that could be useful include driving the vehicle through deep snow, or out of a snowed-in parking space. In such situations, traction control could be a hindrance. The electronically controlled 4WD system does not rely on traction control to distribute power; power distribution is controlled through the electronically controlled viscous coupling, with ASTC influencing that as needed.

Note the wording as well; they say "could be".

Now, I don't have experience to judge waht is good and what is not in deep snow in terms of TC, but I will have to give Mitsu credit for their extensive experience on this matter.
Another thing I know, MitsuDOES NOT claim that the Outlander is an off-road vehicle by any means.It's justagoodall-weather vehicle. Could Outlander handle some moderate off-roading? Yes, but that's about it.
And in any case,from what Iread so far,Outlander has some of the best all-weather (and perhaps off-road) features compared tothe main competitors: RAV4, CRV, Hyundai Santa Fe and this is enough for me.
Just my .02....

 

In a 2WD Outlander I would agree, disabling TC could get you out of a stuck situation by letting the tires spin in hopes of burrowing down to dry pavement. This would mean both front wheels have lost complete traction and wild wheel spin is a last ditch effort. Cudos to Mitsu for allowing this. But in a 4WD Outlander, the chances of all 4 wheels having absolutely 0% traction is much slimmer and I would want to the system to rely on what it was built to do, which is quickly identify the wheel(s) with 0% traction and get the torque flowing to the ones that have something other than 0. Remember, ACS also reduces total engine torque output which you definately don't want in this situation, that is the part best left disabled.

This system worked brilliantly in the Freelander I mentioned I used to own. That ute could outperform CJ's and Liberty's (so-called "Trail Rated") with open diffs in 4-wheel-near-zero traction situations. The Jeeps would have both opposite front and rear wheels spinning like mad trying to get unstuck with zero torque flowing to the opposing front and rear wheels. Thats how open diffs are supposed to work. The TC on the Freelander would start firing away on the ABS at each wheel individually, constantly redirecting torque to the opposite wheel with some traction. If that wasn't enough, it would redirect torque to the opposite axle and the whole process started over again. The ute would literally scamper out of the mud, ABS ablaze. Virtual Limited Slip as Mitsu describes it in its own liturature.

As you can tell from my lengthy posts I'm a fanatic about these modern systems. Brains over brawn I say. Nothing is sweeter than watching the faces of Jeep owners as you ****** them out of the mud. Of course, rock climbing was a different story...

 

I should also mention, the Land Rover was horribly unreliable, even by Land Rover reliability standards and thats saying something. I've never had such a love/hate relationship with a vehicle. This is why I'm excited about purchaing an Outlander. Potentially the same performance but with the benefit of Japanese enginnering.

Think Mitsu will still be around to honor the 10-year warranty someday?

 

Thanks for your comprehensive explaination. In my opinion, having the OPTION to disable the ASC in given conditions is a big plus and this is where Mitsu is superior in my books compared to the direct competition.
If you get stuck you could try with or without ASC and go with the most effecive setup for your scenario. It's just a switch away.