Trail overheats my brakes and HDC switches off

Just an observation to share.

I was exploring/offroading the Coyote Flats (California Sierras) area this weekend. Took the Bishop side route up and down on the way out. I used HDC on the way down about 1/2 way and received an warning that HDC was no longer available after about 25 to 30 minutes of constant use. Apparently my brakes overheated.

I continued to use lower gears to reduce my speed and applied brakes sparingly. Made it down fine but was a little surprised about the fault.

Anyone else experience HDC limitations?

25-30 minutes of constant use? Were you coming straight down the mountain slope, switchbacks be damned? I have to say I don't care for HDC much and use it very sparingly, only when it really, really gets steep for a few yards here and there, otherwise I usually switch it off asap, even in program modes that have it on by default. For me, low range + 1st gear seems to provide plenty of engine braking for all but the highest pucker factor slopes, I barely need to touch the brakes to begin with. I never have HDC on for more than a few seconds - maybe a minute, maximum - so I can't say I have ever experienced any overheating brakes as a result of its use, but I see how that could happen with extended use. After all, HDC makes very aggressive (and often unnecessary IMHO) use of ABS.

Yeah, sounds like simply too much brake use no different than too much down a long, long, highway grade. Didn't we all learn to not ride the brakes ?

It's simple enough to use the low range and then sport shift to the appropriate gear as needed. Brakes should not be used for continuous speed modulation. Brakes are for momentary slowing or stopping. The least amount of actual time on the brakes is the best plan to avoid overheating.

HDC is one of the stupidest things ever. If a person cannot learn to modulate the vehicle speed without HDC, then they should not be in the environment where HDC was designed to be used in the first place!

It's an extra stupid design though because a truly smart system could be devised that senses the need for gearing reduction rather than simply relying on brake rotors. Now that would be cool, more foolproof, but still lame.

I always turn the HDC off when off road and use the low range and down shifting to control downhill speed. I've never experienced brake fade but have alwayd been concerned that the HDC relies too heavily on braking

Driving on a hard surface, I might agree HDC is overkill. However...

Another thing to consider is HDC is pretty damn good on desert dune faces. I have used it and it is pretty sensitive in detecting one side slipping more than the other, etc. I like having the feature, personally.

I've used it numerous times however never found myself having to use it for more than a minute or two (most of the time a few seconds really). On top of that you can easily override it by simply adding a little throtle.