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Manual Shifting a Steep Hill - !PLEH

This is SO embarrassing...

Back in S. FL the land is flat, no giant hills to get stuck on to worry 'bout manual shifting. Now I live in N. SC, lots of hills and more. This presents an embarrassing scenario...

Wouldn't be a problem except every time I pull up to a hill in traffic, the jerk in front of me stops, ergo now I am stopped at a near 45 degree angle (and not quite up the hill) and inevitably there is another bigger jerk tailgating me. Now I am stuck in a 45 degree position, in 1st gear with no room to roll backwards and the car will only go - backwards - no matter how I rev it up.

What I've had to do is think quick and then panic. I put the e-brake and flashers on. Usually the offender will either back up or go around me and I can roll back to go forward on my merry way.

There must be a better way than this. I need some good advice before I either roll back into someone or burn something up. (2007 ION Manual 5 sp.) TIA.

marx404

Reply to
marx404
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Well, it takes some practice. What you need to do is apply the parking brake, and shift into gear. Then put your left hand on the steering wheel, right hand on the brake lever, left foot on the clutch pedal, and right foot on the gas pedal. Apply the accelerator, slowly engage the clutch, and slowly release the parking brake.

The keys here are releasing the brake gradually, and getting the clutch partially engaged before you release the brake *at all*. While you're waiting for the light to change, the brake should be the only thing keeping the car from rolling backward. You make a gradual transition from brake-only to clutch-and-brake-together to clutch-only to actual forward motion.

With practice, you'll eventually be able to do this smoothly. But it does take practice.

Reply to
Doug Miller

That's the way I do it here in NY also. Most times I'm just quick about shifting my right foot from the brake to the gas after bringing the clutch up to the friction point and just starting to load the engine idle a bit. The nice thing about today's engine management is that the throttle will attempt to stay at 550 rpm even with a minor load. For a steeper hill or in more slippery conditions where there is a reduced safety margin, I do it Doug's way. Oppie

Reply to
Oppie

Man,I havent ''ran'' into that problem in a long time!,I think I used to go thru that crap tho.You just have to give enought gas while letting out the clutch,sounds easy,but it took me a long while to master it.You have idiot drivers down there too?. ;- P

Reply to
teem

yea, idiot drivers are as prevalent as cell phones, they go hand in hand :-)

An old timer at work told me about using the e-brake too, I'll have to practice it on a lonely hill one day until I master that too. He said around here that a manual tranny attracts tailgaters here, it's like an idiot magnet. Thanks all for putting up with a stupid question. I'm allowed one a week, right?

Reply to
marx404

Two. You're cool.

Reply to
Doug Miller

haven't had that problem yet but when I do I think I'll just slowly roll back and use hime as a parkingstop then get the rpm up until I can get going and give him a nice firendly wave for helping out :-)

Reply to
p_vouers

I used to pull up on the emergency brake on my old Datsun and then rev it up and get some torque on the tires and then let off on the brake. Not too good for the clutch but then it did last 100k miles before it needed relining. Hard to do while having my morning coffee however. Of course that was only going To work. Home was down-hill.

Fred

Reply to
Fred

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