Towing Tips; Driving On Grades - SSANGYONG MUSSO Owner's Manual

Towing Tips

When towing a trailer, your vehicle will
handle differently compared with normal
driving condition.
For safety, observe the following precau-
tions:
• Practice turning, stopping, and reversing
before you begin towing in traffic.
Do not tow in traffic until you are
confident that you can handle the
vehicle and trailer safely.
• Before driving, make sure that the lighting
system of the trailer works properly.
• Do not drive faster than 50km/h or legal
maximum speeds, whichever is lower.
• Make sure that you have enough room
when cornering and avoid sudden
maneuvers.
• Avoid abrupt starts, acceleration or
stops.
• Avoid sharp turns or lane changes.
• Always drive your vehicle at a moderate
speed.
• Always have someone guide you when
reversing.
• Allow adequate stopping distance.
Stopping distance is increased when you
tow a trailer.
• Slow down and shift down into a lower
gear before descending steep or long
downhill grades. On vehicle equipped
with automatic transmission, select drive
range "2" or, if necessary, "1" for engine
braking efforts.
• Avoid holding the brake pedal down too
long or too frequently, which will cause
the brakes to overheat and result in
reduced brake efficiency.
• Always block the wheels on both
vehicle and trailer when parking. Apply
the parking brake firmly.
• Parking on a steep slope is not
recommended.
You really should not park your vehicle,
with a trailer attached, on a hill.
If something goes wrong, such as the
trailer/caravan hitch becoming disen-
gaged, people can be injured and both
the vehicle and trailer can be damaged.
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY 6–15
• If someone removing the blocks stands
directly behind the trailer, he could be
injured. If your brakes or the hitch
slipped, the trailer could roll backward.
Make sure anyone removing blocks from
your wheels stands to one side.
• Take note of trailer manufacturer's
instructions.

Driving on Grades

Reduce speed and shift to a lower gear
before you start down a long or sleep
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 40 km/h to
reduce the possibility of engine and other
components overheating.