It's pretty amazing, made it look easy "walking" down that 40+ degree hill. Still needed to touch the brakes in places as the surface was so crumbly, but the fact that you have so much control - even on the steepest slopes - is really a game changer. Even compared to my LR4, which had an excellent HDC system already, this is far superior, and somehow the nasty ABS noises are gone, too.
How it’s moved on since my first car with it back in 2001 - a Freelander1 - it needed 5 wheel rotations to activate by which time the car was moving pretty rapidly downslope and when it engaged it was like somebody had slung an anchor out the back and the weight has suddenly come onto the rope! Yes the groans from the ABS could be disconcerting and I still cannot help switching it off to preserve brake pads/ discs on the flat with TR modes engaged - old habits die hard! I did a very steep and slippery down hill with 11 hairpin bends and loose surface covered in dead leaves with 5 old Defenders following me - when we got to the bottom the driver of the Defender following immediately behind wanted to know how I had gone down so slowly as his Puma 90 in low range 1st gear with no HDC kept trying to run up the back of me as he couldn’t go that slow!
Umberto, the new version of HDC on L663 Defender is brilliant isn’t it, so slow at less than walking speed is very confidence inspiring.
It's pretty amazing, made it look easy "walking" down that 40+ degree hill. Still needed to touch the brakes in places as the surface was so crumbly, but the fact that you have so much control - even on the steepest slopes - is really a game changer. Even compared to my LR4, which had an excellent HDC system already, this is far superior, and somehow the nasty ABS noises are gone, too.
How it’s moved on since my first car with it back in 2001 - a Freelander1 - it needed 5 wheel rotations to activate by which time the car was moving pretty rapidly downslope and when it engaged it was like somebody had slung an anchor out the back and the weight has suddenly come onto the rope! Yes the groans from the ABS could be disconcerting and I still cannot help switching it off to preserve brake pads/ discs on the flat with TR modes engaged - old habits die hard! I did a very steep and slippery down hill with 11 hairpin bends and loose surface covered in dead leaves with 5 old Defenders following me - when we got to the bottom the driver of the Defender following immediately behind wanted to know how I had gone down so slowly as his Puma 90 in low range 1st gear with no HDC kept trying to run up the back of me as he couldn’t go that slow!
Just did it today you had it easy slid down 1/4 of the way
You're almost a year in on the new vehicle right? What's your assessment?
Gnarly Hill! Defender handles it! cheers