I've had my new truck for about a week now. Loving it! Still figuring out all the doo dads and extra stuff nobody needs on a pickup truck.
Still, it's fun to play with.
Since I'm still breaking in the truck, I keep off the highways and not doing any steady speeds. So, I take the long, scenic routes.
Rt.30 (Lincoln Highway) in Pennsylvania is one of my favorite roads. It has many starts, stops, fast, slow, steep inclines and descents.
Today, I had a day off work and decided to take a ride on old Rt.30 in the area of Bedford, PA. 200 miles total. Along the way I started noticing warning signs to truckers of steep descents. Many of these incline/descent placards along the way.





So, wanting to learn the gadgets on my truck, switched the display over to "Off Road Status" to see how the descents matched up.





They did not match up at all. What the surveyor grade placards read was 8% to 9% at the steepest while my "Off Road Status" incline readout was at 5% to 6% at the steepest.





So I wonder which is correct? The highway incline placards for big rigs are wrong, maybe off? Ford F150 calibration a little off? Seems like a large margin of error for a precision tool. Not sure.

 

Degrees do not equal % slope: http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/sl...de-d_1562.html
Looks like 5 degrees is about 8.75% slope so pretty close. I'd trust the highway engineers over the gauge. I mean is it even calibrated? Interesting experiment though!

 

Ha, didn't catch that. Good attention to detail! or lack of on my part. Good to know the truck is accurate.
Anyway, had a really fun time on all those % grades checking out the tow/haul mode and sport modes. Passing was a breeze.

 

Just having fun with this feature, found the steepest hill I know of in the Pittsburgh area, I'm sure there is steeper but probably not by much! You can see the sidewalks had to be made of steps. The camera doesn't show it but it's steep.
According to the scale you provided, this hill is about a 25% grade. "Off Road Status" display on the truck shows 14 degrees.

 

Cool post. I'm familiar with the area and roads. I grew up in Johnstown, spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh and a lot of the roads in between. Pretty much any road to avoid the turnpike. My uncle lives south of Bedford, near the PA/MD line. He's in between Chaneysville, PA and Flintstone, MD. Pretty good hunting.

 

I don't have descent control, but I like the hill start assist. It holds the brakes while you go from the brake to the gas until you give enough throttle to move forward. It works pretty well. My only gripe is that it also engages when your truck is pointing downhill. Kind of weird. It just doesn't feel smooth when you're pointing downhill.

 

what does the middle indicator mean, the one above the truck drive train?

 

The 'hill descent control' is one of my favorite features on my truck. I kind of marvel at all the mechanical magic that is taking place, seamlessly and without drama.

 

If you mean the middle one on the offroad status, that's the degrees your wheels are currently turned.

 

Comes in handy for "levelling" truck with back wheels sitting up on an incline, with front wheels sitting on ramps, when changing front differential or transfer case gear lube raised for access.