Ford explorer hill descent control!

[scotsman]

A buddy and I went to Chelan Butte in his brand new Ford Explorer.... on the way back down he locked in the hill control. Impressed! All the way down the steep twisty dirt road he never touched the brakes. The car held exactly the speed set on the control from top to bottom. Dunno how it does it, but its pretty sweet.

[Mudman]

Hmm. Electronic auto trans?  Or a diesel manual in low range doing 2mph max.  Big deal to have this imop.  My RZR does a great job at it to. Braking sucks!

[kselkhunter]

Yeah the hill descent control feature is cool.  Even without using the formal hill descent, if you brake more than once going down a steep road the engine will sense it and downshift to keep you from braking again (not the same as the formal hill descent feature, but handy).

There are so many bells and whistles on the newer Explorers.  I still haven't gotten up the courage to try the self parking buttons yet...…the Explorer parks itself in both parallel and back-in parking situations using the cameras and sensors.

[b23]

We have a new Explorer we bought last Nov. it hardly ever gets driven, I think there's barely 2000 miles on it.  I don't know a fraction of the stuff it has or is capable of.  I keep saying I'm going to read the owners manual but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  The little I have driven it they seem like a nice rig, has pretty good power and I definitely like that.

[jackelope]

Yeah the hill descent control feature is cool.  Even without using the formal hill descent, if you brake more than once going down a steep road the engine will sense it and downshift to keep you from braking again (not the same as the formal hill descent feature, but handy).

There are so many bells and whistles on the newer Explorers.  I still haven't gotten up the courage to try the self parking buttons yet...…the Explorer parks itself in both parallel and back-in parking situations using the cameras and sensors.

Last time I tried a self parking car, all it did was turn the steering wheel and tell you when to shift forward to reverse. You still had to use the brakes and shift. It took a lot of trust for me to try it. I was sort of freaking out the whole time.  It's all done through the proximity sensors and cameras.

[whacker1]

on the F350 diesel the hill descent is a combination of exhaust brake, down shifting to 1st gear if not already there, and computer controlled brake utilization.  I haven't tried it on our new explorer, but I assume that it is the same less the exhaust brake.
2016 f350 vs 2017 explorer. 

I am following along in case my assumptions are wrong and someone sets me straight.

[b23]

I've used it a time or two in my 2013 Tacoma.  It worked pretty well and if I recall, it only works when it's in 4 Lo, its been awhile so I don't exactly remember.

[magnanimous_j]

I still haven't gotten up the courage to try the self parking buttons yet...…the Explorer parks itself in both parallel and back-in parking situations using the cameras and sensors.

Don't think of it as automatic parking. Think of it as park-assist. You still need to pay attention.

When I was still selling Fords, I had a customer crash one in parallel parking mode, hard. He claimed he didn't have to pay because it was the car's fault. It was a huge mess.

[KFhunter]

A buddy and I went to Chelan Butte in his brand new Ford Explorer.... on the way back down he locked in the hill control. Impressed! All the way down the steep twisty dirt road he never touched the brakes. The car held exactly the speed set on the control from top to bottom. Dunno how it does it, but its pretty sweet.

Hate to burst your bubble, but your buddy was using brakes the whole way down 

hill assist = auto braking (unless you're in a diesel with exhaust brakes of course)

[KFhunter]

[KFhunter]

I have it in my 2016 Colorado, so as it was coming down on auto decent control I was trying to figure out how it was working, if you touch the brake pedal (not push it in) you can feel it. 

I wasn't sure if it was possible to smoke the brakes coming down on decent control so I let it go a ways and I think it is possible to smoke the brakes, I didn't get them hot as I slowed and down shifted. 


Wonder how many people smoke the brakes on decent control?

[Old Man Yager]

I got a 2001 Tacoma with brake assist, I only use it in the woods though. It's called 4 LO. 😝😝