Driving
On
Grades
Reduce speed and shift to a lower gear
before
you start down
a
long or steep
downgrade. If you don’t shift down, you might have to use your brakes
so
much that they would get hot and no longer work well.
On a long uphill grade,
shift
down and reduce your speed to around
45
mph
(70
km/h)
to reduce the possibility of engine and transmission overheating.
When towing at high altitude on steep uphill grades, consider the following:
Engine coolant will boil at a lower temperature than at normal altitudes. If
you
turn
your engine
off
immediately after towing at high altitude on steep
uphill grades, your vehicle may show signs similar to engine overheating.
To
avoid this, let the engine run while parked (preferably on level ground)
with the automatic transmission in PARK
(P)
(or the manual transmission
out of gear and the parking brake applied) for
a
few minutes before turning
the engine
off.
If
you do get the overheat warning, see “Engine
Overheating” in the Index.
Parking
on
Hi//s
You really should not park your vehicle, with a trailer attached, on a
hill.
If
something goes wrong, your rig could start to move. People can be injured,
and both your vehicle and the trailer can be damaged.
But if you ever have to park your rig on a hill, here’s how to do it:
1.
Apply your regular brakes, but don’t shift into PARK
(P)
yet, or into
gear for a manual transmission. When parking uphill,
turn
your wheels
away from the curb. When parking downhill,
turn
your wheels into the
curb.
2.
Have someone place chocks under the trailer wheels.
3.
When the wheel chocks are in place, release the regular brakes
until
the
chocks absorb the load.
4.
Reapply the regular brakes. Then apply your parking brake, and then
shift into PARK
(P),
or REVERSE
(R)
for a manual transmission.
5.
If you have a four-wheeldrive vehicle with a manual transfer case
shift lever, be sure the transfer case is
in
a drive gear
-
not
in
NEUTRAL
(N).
6.
Release the parking brake.
4-48
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