Off-roading Mary Ellen Gulch (soon to be Snowbird) UT 9/14

[Marc_C]

For off-road downhills there's a variant of cruise control that holds one's speed without the driver applying the brakes

Or the gas, if it's similar to a feature in my dearly departed Land Rover (RIP).

I was curious and had to check into this hill-descent control feature. Here's what I found (a generic description):

In order to keep the vehicle at the preset speed during a steep decline hill descent control uses the brakes, ABS and any other electronic aid or assistance that may be equipped along with the brakes and it applies the brakes to each wheel individually.
This individual application of the brakes is what makes it suitable for off road downhill driving and separates the feature from you just applying the brakes yourself.
Some vehicles may also take control of the engine throttle and the transmission in addition to the braking system. This method can take some of the stress off the brakes as the transmission will hold a low gear such as first or second to ensure that the vehicle is not free to just roll down the hill.

As much as I embrace computerization and that there are at least 6 that control my JK, I would not be at all comfortable going down the Shafer or something similar using just that system without a full 4x4 Lo set of gearboxes.

 

[Tony Crocker]

As much as I embrace computerization and that there are at least 6 that control my JK, I would not be at all comfortable going down the Shafer or something similar using just that system without a full 4x4 Lo set of gearboxes.

Any time I was going downhill with the descent control, I had the transmission manually in first gear. While the Cayenne has lots of computerized electronics, Porsche generally believes in providing driver options to take manual control more than most of its competitors.

Honda Pilot? Porsche Cayenne????
I thought we were talking about real 4x4's, not mall runners.

Porsche was criticized by most of the auto press for designing the first generation Cayenne too much in the direction of off-road capability, supposedly testing it on a Paris-Dakar rally route across the Sahara. It had the separate low speed gearbox, weighed ~5,000 pounds, had poor gas mileage and not the greatest performance. Needless to say, that market was not who was buying the cars, thus the new transmission and ~450 pound weight reduction in the second generation.