Mountain Driving Tips

I was curious about the performance of these auto tranny's, especially downhill in the mountains and on snowy/icy roads? I have been thinking of specing a truck with an auto, but I would like some feedback from you guys that run them over the rockies

 

I was never lucky enough to have jake brakes, the rule of thumb is good. Stop before going down market dowgrades and " ADJUST " those brakes. Put Flashers on. Ease down the hill and in a gear where the RPM`s can handle 25 mph, The engine pressure will assist the brakes and never go down those grades in " high gear " always stop at any next marked downgrade " ADJUST " brakes and for heavens sake do not miss a gear climbing and stall out. Your hair will be standing up. The west is an experience but ya all remember the east has some hills too. Be alert, there ain`t no second chances. A profession is a profession.

Steady pressure with the brakes holding the rpms around 1700. if you let up on the brakes air gets in there and they will get hotter.

Maximum 80,000 lbs and yes you better be in that gear before starting down the hill, things can get carried away in a hurry. If your really out in nowhere gear down more.

 

Good post Driver, very good......

 

they work perfectly fine in the mtn's, I've run 1.2 million miles between two different trucks with Eaton/Fuller Autoshifts in Colo. mtn's, usually 78,000 + lbs. Simple action, climb in whatever gear the truck wants to climb in, drop to 6th or 7th for the downhill, keep the tranny in hold mode, jakes on high and enjoy the scenery. Of course this depends on the motor/tranny combo and how well the jakes work. This past friday, I ran from Kremmling, Co to Denver, Co with 79,067 gross. Lovely ride, got my cruise set to 60 on Hwy 9, then started up Eisenhower, left the truck in D and let the cruise do the work. Dropped as low as 5th gear (about 23mph) on the climb. Popped out of the tunnel and kept it in 7th/high jakes all the way down to Georgetown, then up as high as 10th, before the climb up Floyd, dropped off Floyd in 8th with high jakes, then up and over Genessee, dropped Genessee in 7th with high jakes, used th regular brakes maybe a half dozen times between all hills.

Happens more then you think, Colo. State Patrol chases at least one or two a week from the ramp on Genesse and Vail.

See my above comments, the biggest thing is to get used to the trans itself before running in the winter with it. I've got no complaints about then in any condition, dry, wet, snow/ice, flatlands, hills, mtn's.

 

im new obviously, and dont want to sound like a know it all because i sure as hell dont know everything, if anything at all. i also want to say i dont and no one should make a habit of shifting downhill.

anyway i was trained by my employer in a pretty awesome way on hills. they make you know how to shift down grades. the theory is important, its obviously not as easy as shifting on the flat. anyway they made me go at a 6% in 10th @60mph. only a mile or 2 long hill so nothing too dangerous if anything were to go horribly wrong. no traffic, 2 lanes.

if your brakes are cool, which they should be at the top for instance, you can easily brake hard enough to get down some gears. the only difference with downshifting on a hill is you need to raise the rpms about 50% more to compensate for the added momentum for that time while you are in nuetral. so you brake down to about 1100 then match to about 1700 and it WILL go in.

obviously if your brakes are hot this is completely useless and you will be in a world of trouble, but the idea is if you know how to do it and arent a #######(ideally being in the right gear to begin with is still your best bet) you can get down as many gears as you need before you get yourself into any trouble, because your brakes never SHOULD get too hot.
the plan is to obviously be in the right gear before taking the plunge, BUT if you do end up a gear higher dont have to sit there trying to use your brakes to correct it. if you are picking up speed from the get go dont start a braking party. while they are still cool get on them hard ONCE. dont play the dmv manual brake slow down 5, brake slow down 5 nonsense. that still overheats brakes. get yourself one big stab down to your speed/rpm where you can hit the next gear. repeat until you have a gear where your jakes can manage ALL of the braking. that is where you want to be. because back to the top if your brakes are cool, you can get down another gear if the grade got sharper, or you could even come to a complete stop if you needed to for whatever reason.
the key is dont wait if you need a gear. you cant alternate between using the brakes to control speed and downshifting. its one or the other. you need to commit right away if you want to get down a gear, or use the service brakes to control your speed. if you are stabbing at them every 30 seconds, you might be in for a world of hurt if you decide its not working for you and think you can still downshift because theu need to be kept cool for the process to work safely.

and even for someone who may like to do this all the time, i still think your a tad nuts, but it really does work well and is pretty safe. i have done this, and missed, and still had plenty of brakes to slow down enough to grab 5th, from riding in nuetral back up to about 50mph after missing a gear, on 6%. and if you ever manage to get yourself in a worse situation then that(via driver error) on a real hill, you probably shouldnt be out there! the point is you can recover because your brakes are cool, because you didnt rely on your service brakes, right?

however if you miss every gear on a hill attempting this, you will still overheat the brakes and die haha. so dont go out and try it without practicing it somewhere safe. or if your system is working just stick with it. i was skeptical about it, but like i said i was forced to do it and got put in my place. its a really good thing to know how to do IF you should ever need it.

this post is more addressed to new guys, im certainly not going to tell anyone here how to do their job. talk to your instructors and see if they are willing to teach you some downhill stuff. i was scared as all hell of hills when i got cut loose from school, because they didnt cover much. they just reword and quote the dmv manual...

 

BRM to this very day I remember the first Grade I went down which I thought was major at that time, going west to Albuquerque. After that it was nothing compared to Grapevine in Oregon. By the way on the west side of Albuquergue is a hill at the top where you can see the whoe city at night. It`s called Angel Hill.

About the downshifting going downhill, yes it`s tough ya gotta rev the engine up pretty good. If a driver has this happen and the downgrade says 5 miles they better just get stopped and in a hurry. " One word of warning " just west of Kingman was a two lane road going to Laughlin. When I took it there was no sign and it`s a long long way down with hardly a place to stop. And the hills block your view of how far down it is. Not a good experience if your not aware of it.

 

Getoverit the only Grapevine I know of is the one on 5 between L.A and Wheeler Ridge. Guess you are refering to Siskoyou Summit. Most if not all the Mtn States will have signs stating the grade and some like Ore. will have a posted speed for a certain weight. Some states will ticket and fine anyone who parks in front of a runaway ramp if they catch them.

 

That would be Highway 68, It is steep and long, Truck Brake Check Area on top, plenty of signs at least now, Truck speed limit on the down hill. Use it a lot to go to Vegas from the Hoover Dam Bridge Project. I have been using it since 1997 and its been marked well since then.

Down shifting on a down hill is a bad idea, Part of trip planning is to know where your going to be driving on a given day, anything else is just careless. If you are not familiar with a road or highway you should exercise caution till you are. I run lots of mountains, the sierras to the back country, the high end of Death Valley, etc... Paying attention is vital, no excuses. Alot of the road I use are very narrow with steep drop offs to the sides. And we all want to go home when were done. Be careful, pay attention and select 1 gear lower than you think you will need in most case if your not sure. Or of course ask.

 

When did they move the Grapevine to Oregon????


######! Nobody ever tells me anything!

I would'a been all for it though...It would'a made the trip from northern Cal. to southern Cal. even easier!