Table of Contents
Advertisement
Towing tips
When towing a trailer, your vehicle will
handle differently than under normal driving
condition.
For safety, observe the following precau-
tions:
•
Practice turning, stopping, and revers-
ing before you begin towing in traffic.
Do not tow in traffic until you are confi-
dent that you can handle the vehicle and
trailer safely.
•
Before driving, make sure that the light-
ing system of the trailer works properly.
•
Do not drive faster than 80km/h or legal
maximum speeds, whichever is lower.
•
When driving uphill do not drive faster
than 30km/h in first gear or 50km/h in
second gear.
•
Make sure that you have enough room
when cornering and avoid sudden ma-
neuvers.
•
Avoid abrupt starts, acceleration or
stops.
•
Avoid sharp turns or lane changes.
•
Always drive your vehicle at a moder-
ate 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
automatic transmission, select drive
range "2" or, if necessary, "1" for en-
gine braking efforts.
•
Avoid holding the brake pedal down too
long or too frequently, which will cause
the brakes to overheat and result in re-
duced brake efficiency.
•
Always block the wheels on both ve-
hicle and trailer when parking. Apply the
parking brake firmly.
•
Parking on a steep slope is not recom-
mended.
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 6–11
•
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 in-
structions.
Driving On Grades
Reduce speed and shift to a lower gear
before you start down a long or sleep down-
grade. 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 re-
duce your speed to around 45 mph(70km/h)
to reduce the possibility of engine and
transaxle overheating.
Hide quick links:
Advertisement
Table of Contents
