Detail/Damage texture on models

After searching through the forum for information on how to apply damage decals/textures on a model I used the setSkinName function to swap "damage texture level" for my player models. The problem is that the models uses large textures (512x512 and 1024x1024). and to make like three levels of damage demanded four texture to be loaded per model. At the moment we use four different player models (and it will be more in the future). I had to write a function to preload all the textures becuase else the game would freeze for like 0.5s when the texture had to be loaded (when someone got damaged). This work but will not be suitable in the future becuase of the amount of textures.

Is there anyone that uses the detail texture layer on DTS object?
I wonder because I think I will try to make that layer render a damage texture instead. Then we can use a set of small damage textures shared for all player models. I have started to go through the render pipe to find out how it works and I think I might be able to pull this off.