Loud ABS/ratcheting noise?

Occasionally, when I go from a paved to dirt road at about 10-15mph, I get a pretty obnoxious noise from what I assume to be the ABS. If I tap the brakes just a little, this crazy loud ratcheting sound comes from under the truck. My 2005 never made such a loud noise, or initiated ABS at the same point in the road. Anyone else hear the same noise? I'm hoping it's normal...

 

ABS shouldn't kick in unless you hit the brakes hard enough to slide a wheel, so if you are just driving onto the dirt and it happens something is wrong. Traction control could be the other possibility. If, when you hit the dirt, the wheels start slipping from either sliding a bit or too much throttle the TCS will kick in by using the breaks on a wheel or two, it will sound about the same as ABS, because it essentially is the same mechanics. But for that to happen you still have to be sliding a bit. So if you are just at an even speed, and it's a fairly smooth transition to dirt and it's still doing it, something is probably wrong.

 

The ABS actuator is in the engine compartment. In a non-TRD Off Road model, it's on the passenger side, in front of the firewall. If the sound you hear is from anywhere else, it is not ABS or traction control.

 

That's what it feels like. Overzealous.

 

In previous cases (e.g. Lexus GX460), when Toyota set reasonable limits with the electronic nannies, publications like Consumer Reports villify it. In response, Toyota had to do a stop-sale and issue a recall on the GX460, basically a software flash that made the electronic nannies intervene earlier.

Consumer Reports thinks the ideal pickup truck is the Honda Ridgeline... Unfortunately the magazine is pretty influential.

 

I had it fire on me one time and I thought the wheel was going to fall off. It was just the traction control actuators on the brake booster