Dangerous Grade Braking

RandyG · December 17, 2016

This feature is not only annoying, it is dangerous. While trying to navigate down a steep hill under icy conditions grade braking kicked in. Increased engine revs, working against the brakes. Before I could react and throw it into neutral it had pushed me right through the intersection at the bottom of the hill. Fortunately no other vehicles in the area at the time.

SkiDooNick700 · December 17, 2016

I'm confused, are you saying the high RPM made you go faster? Or the downshift caused the tires to break traction?

That's something i never really thought about before, grade braking kicking in down an icy hill, likely not a situation where you would want it to kick in.

Silverado Steve · December 17, 2016

This makes no sense. Your engine revs went up because the engine downshifted to keep a lower gear, using the engine to help slow you down. How does this work against the brakes? Now if the downshift caused the truck to lurch, causing you to slide, that makes sense, but if you were also braking, this should of had no effect. Putting your truck in neutral surely wasnt the right thing to do if trying to slow down. You can disable the engine braking feature by pushing the tow haul button for 2 seconds.

Britt Lifsey · December 17, 2016

Perhaps dangerous on an icy hill but I don't find it annoying in general and it definitely adds a margin of safety in non-icy conditions.

Binobanbino · December 17, 2016

Yea I'm at a loss for this one to. Maybe he was thinking since he saw the rpm go up that the truck went faster. I don't know about using this feature in snow or ice or even going down steep grades since I live in South Florida.

Can you explain it in more details so we may all understand.

Donstar · December 17, 2016

This feature is not only annoying, it is dangerous. While trying to navigate down a steep hill under icy conditions grade braking kicked in. Increased engine revs, working against the brakes. Before I could react and throw it into neutral it had pushed me right through the intersection at the bottom of the hill. Fortunately no other vehicles in the area at the time.

I find this quite interesting trying to imagine the situation that you are describing. You are suggesting that grade braking locked your wheels while you were approaching an intersection. I am assuming you were driving slow for the road conditions and the knowledge that an intersection was ahead. If it wasn't driver error then you have a faulty truck and should have it serviced.

Willyone · December 17, 2016

This feature is not only annoying, it is dangerous. While trying to navigate down a steep hill under icy conditions grade braking kicked in. Increased engine revs, working against the brakes. Before I could react and throw it into neutral it had pushed me right through the intersection at the bottom of the hill. Fortunately no other vehicles in the area at the time.

All part of the fun of having a vehicle that thinks you need it to drive for you. Bunch of bullshit.

Silverado Steve · December 17, 2016

This is what im thinking....op thought rpm increase=increased mph which isnt true. Im leaning toward operator error Anyone who knows anything about braking and maintaining control of a vehicle knows you never ever put a vehicle in nuetral when trying to slow down. Nuetral is strictly for a vehicle with a stuck accelerator pedal...aka Toyota circa 2010.

Yea I'm at a loss for this one to. Maybe he was thinking since he saw the rpm go up that the truck went faster. I don't know about using this feature in snow or ice or even going down steep grades since I live in South Florida.

Can you explain it in more details so we may all understand.

Britt Lifsey · December 17, 2016

This is what im thinking....op thought rpm increase=increased mph which isnt true. Im leaning toward operator error Anyone who knows anything about braking and maintaining control of a vehicle knows you never ever put a vehicle in nuetral when trying to slow down. Nuetral is strictly for a vehicle with a stuck accelerator pedal...***aka Toyota circa 2010***.

Wait...are you saying Toyota had an issue with their vehicles??? Never heard of such. ;-)

L86 All Terrain · December 17, 2016

It's like a Jake brake in my big truck, it loads up the engine to slow its momentum. In icy conditions, if you have the Jacob's brake set to full and you do not have a load on, the Jake is strong enough to hang up all 8 drive tires and send the tractor into a slide. Effectively, you are applying too much "braking torque" to the wheels. Your rubber tires can only hold "x" amount of G-force on ice before they let go. It is the drivers reaponsibilty to know how and went it will happen in different road conditions and how to react. I have not had this experience yet in my 6.2 but i can imagine how easy it can happen. I go back to what i always say about driver nannies, they can help the stupid, but they can hurt an educated and able driver. I wish i could fully turn it all off like my buds WT trim 1500.