Have people generally found ABS a hindrance or help off road??

Go the base model. I have it & hate it. I pull the fuse when on dirt. MHO.
Vince

Keith,
I got it and a passenger's air bag as a "freeby" when I bought my 4.2 GU Patrol in 2000. Didn't really want it, but am glad to have it all the same.

Having said that, it's an absolute nightmare on gravel roads. I nearly came unstuck big time on our Cape York trip because of it. When I stopped for a BEX and a cuppa tea, I pulled the fuse out and it was back to being a normal/predictable braking system again. When I got back home, I removed the fuse again (I'd put it back in on the bitumen) and made up a replacement for it. Simple....
Get a small piece of PC (printed circuit) board about the same size as the plastic bit of the blade fuse. Solder 2 bits of brass the same as a fuse has. Carefully cut the copper cladding between the 2 bits of brass. Solder a wire from each side, leading to a dash-mounted switch, via an in-line fuse the same amperage as the one you removed (7.5amps in the Patrol). Plug it in and away you go. The Patrol has an idiot light in the instrument cluster to remind me when I've got it switched off.
I know I've probably broken about a million ADR's and my insurance company will show me the door etc, but I feel 110% safer when it's off and I'm on gravel roads.
Cheers,
Roachie

I've heard there can be big differences in it's effectivness on dirt depending on the manufactuer, however my only experiences have been in a BA falcon in dirt and mud and a subaru forrester in dirt and mud. Found it actually a little freaky as in the mud it's almost like total brake failure!! Gravel it probally stops you the same if not a tiny bit sooner but you have absolutally no control over whats going on, and with gravel I don't think that's a good thing. Sometimes on the gravel you want you tyres to dig through the top surface.
I wouldn't bother if it's the only feature lacking.

On the road it's a totally different storey, very very good (most of them anyway) and for bigger cars (like 4bys) an excellent idea.
The other option if to get a crimp type wire joiner, they fit perfectly into one side of the fuse blade socket, get another for the other side and run through a switch as mentioned above. I did a similar trick to run my dome light of the aux bat instead of the starter as it was turning out to be to bigger mission to re-wire from underneath the fuse box, solid connection and very easy to do, works a treat.

ABS on the blacktop is very worthwhile, but it's still easy to come unstuck in extreme situations so it's not a substitute for driver skill.

There was an extremely wet morning morning last year when I hit a piece of slippery road on the Link Rd exit of Southern Cross Drive in Sydney. Even with ABS, my vehicle had not responded to the turn of the wheel and had locked up going straight instead. Not sure if it was oil or what, but the plantings on the island ahead looked like another victim had already been in there.

If your vehicle is full time 4WD or a torque on demand style of 4WD, it's useful to be aware that you can use your throttle to save yourself instead of standing on the anchors.

I'm lucky that I had those extra few milliseconds and I blipped the throttle to get the front wheels turning again. She went around the bend ok, but it was a scary few seconds.

I also know a fellow that owned a Merc AMG E something or other with ABS, who ended up with no brakes when he hit the anchors in the rain on bald tyres. They just kept on rolling because there was no chance of the tyres gaining any traction.

Insurance companies are NOT fond of ABS.
Many people think it'll reduce their stopping distance, and drive accordingly......
It will NOT dramatically reduce stopping distance on bitumen, but will dramatically INCREASE it on dirt.
definitely not all good news, to put it mildly!!

ABS, love it or hate it?

I have owned and driven many cars with ABS and without ABS including racing them from time to time. I also drove rally cars for 27 years - all without ABS.

On the sealed roads, wet or dry, yes, it is the best thing to have. You have to be extremely skilled to outbrake a car equipped with ABS and even then, you will only make around a car length in decreased stopping distance from 80kph if you are really skilled. I have seen demos on the track and also participated in such demos

On gravel roads, depends on the car but in general, an ABS fitted vehicle will not stop as quickly as a skilled driver without ABS. In my son's Nissan Pulsar, anyone could stop quicker without ABS on gravel - it is so bad. On loose gravel, you need to lock the wheels and get the tyres to the hard stuff below the surface, You also build up a wall of gravel in front of each tyre that helpsyou stop. If you had ABS, you skate across the top of the gravel.

On some slippery surfaces eg grass, mud, etc - the ABS gets tricked and spends so much time in the unlocked brakes mode that you end up with no brakes - scary as. I used to race my road car (Subaru) from time to time in club grass track events and pulled the ABS fuse as this is the only way to make it stop.

I also find that the Traction Control on our Freelander is a hinderance in soft sand. (ABS working in reverse mode) It locks the wheels all the time until you stop so once again we pull the fuse. Not so bad in mud as if you keep the wheels spinning above a certain speed, the TC stops working but you cannot do the same in sand.