The Victoria Napolitano Bookstore THE DRIVING COMPANY WORKBOOK | Page 23

Aborting a Hill Climb
Hill aborts are a frequent cause of rollover acci-
dents. Make sure you maintain rolling friction when
backing down a hill, which means you must keep
the front wheels rolling! If the front wheels are skid-
ding and not rolling across the ground, then you will
not be able to steer. Because most of the weight and
braking power in your vehicle is up front, it will start
to slide sideways on the hill if the front wheels are
locked up. Once sideways, it can roll over. To give
yourself a little more braking to the rear wheels as
you back down, set the parking brake about half
way on—not full to cause the wheel to lock. Even
if you are backing faster than you want, keep the
front wheels rolling so you can steer your way out
of trouble.
For larger off-road vehicles that have air brakes, a
spring brake is used as the parking brake. This spring
brake is either all the way on or all the way off, but
you can still use it to back down the hill. Just engage
it, put the rig in reverse, and apply light pressure to
the service brakes. The engine idle should be enough
to overcome the spring brake while giving you the
control you are looking for. It may be necessary to
give it slight throttle to get moving.
If you have a feature called “Hill Descent Control”
(or “Crawl Control” for many Toyota models), then
this is the time to engage it. Get the vehicle in re-
verse and allow the computer to control your speed
back down the hill without skidding. Before you get
into a hill abort situation, verify that your Hill De-
scent Control feature works in the reverse.
Practice backing down a hill before you actually
need to do it. Find an easy hill and practice. As you
get better, find a steeper hill to practice on. Soon you
will be proficient and it will be no problem when
you actually need to use the technique.
If the engine stalls while climbing a hill, then restart
the engine while holding the vehicle with the main
brake and the parking brake before getting it back
into gear. Do not coast down the hill in Neutral. If
you have a manual transmission, then just restart the
engine with it in gear. In 4WD low-range, 1st gear,
your starter will do the job with no problem.
Climb and descend hills while oriented as straight up
and down as possible. Getting sideways on a steep
hill can lead to a rollover. Never attempt to turn
around on a hill. If you encounter another vehicle
on a hill, then the vehicle traveling uphill has the
right-of-way.
Do not be afraid to admit defeat. Do not repeat
what you just did if it didn’t work the first time. Do
not have your ego invested in that particular hill. If
you can’t make it, then choose another route.
Stopping and starting on a hill can be a challenge.
With an automatic transmission, use your left foot.
You want to avoid rolling back when transitioning
your foot from the throttle to the brake whether
you are starting or stopping; using your left foot will
help you avoid that. With a manual transmission,
you can turn the key off and on with the vehicle in
gear. Some vehicles allow you to start it in gear and
some have a switch or button you will need to press
to allow this. Some vehicles do not have this feature
at all and you must depress the clutch before you
can start it. If this is the case, then seriously consider
adding this feature. In the meantime, you can use the
parking brake to keep you from rolling back. Some
people think you will damage your vehicle by start-
ing it in gear. Starting in 1st gear, low-range is not a
problem for your starter. We had no issues using this
technique in heavy, armored vehicles.
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