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Your Driving and the Road
they are not. It's important to check
occasionally to be sure the trailer bulbs
are still working.
Driving on Grades
Reduce speed and shift to a lower gear
before you start down a long or steep
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
45
mph
(70 km/h) to reduce the possibility of
engine and transmission overheating.
If your trailer weighs more than 1,000
pounds (450 kg), and you have a manual
transmission with fifth gear, it's better
not to use fifth gear. Just drive in fourth
gear (or, as you need to, a lower gear).
Parking on Hills
You really should not park your vehicle,
with a trailer attached, on a hill. If
something goes wrong, your rig could
start to move. People can be injured,
and both your vehicle and the trailer can
be damaged.
But if you ever have to park your rig on
a hill, here's how to do it:
1.
Apply your regular brakes, but don't
shift into
P
(Park) yet, or into gear
for a manual transmission.
the trailer wheels.
2. Have someone place chocks under
3 .
When the wheel chocks are in place,
release the regular brakes until the
chocks absorb the load.
apply your parking brake, and then
shift to P (Park), or
R
(Reverse) for
a manual transmission.
vehicle, be sure the transfer case is
in a drive gear
-
not in N (Neutral).
4. Reapply the regular brakes. Then
5. If you have a four-wheel-drive
. . .
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