SHIFTING GEARS ON HILLS
One of the most humiliating experiences which can come to an owner is
to have to ask his guests, even if it be only friend wife, to get out
and walk when a long and steep hill is partly ascended. While there
are conditions of engine which would make hill climbing hard, if not
impossible, they are due to neglect or poor adjustment, so that the
engine has not power enough to negotiate stiff grades. The owner who
keeps the motor in proper condition, in practically any make of car on
the market today, should have no trouble in making the worst hills. Yet
how often we find cars stalled on mountain roads and even on steep city
streets, and see owner and guests walking or pushing the car.
Recently the writer, going from Greenwood Lake to Tuxedo, in Orange
County, New York, in a well-known make of touring car, passed six
cars of different kinds stalled at the very start of the climb over
Sterling Mountain. The first one met was a Ford. Now there is no reason
whatever for stalling a car of this make on any hill. It is a matter of
comment that the Ford—much despised by the owner of the big car—will
take hills that some multi-cylindered and high-powered cars make much
fuss over, and do it handily. The trouble was that the driver started
at high speed and then did not know how to shift the gears properly and
the car stalled.
When we reached it the Ford was stalled across the roadway and we had
to stop until the driver started the engine and backed the car to one
side. Not being familiar with the hill-climbing abilities of the car in
which he was seated, the writer inquired of our driver if it were not
better to walk awhile.
“No one will ever walk while I am driving,” was the reply, “unless
something breaks. I do not go out riding to walk; besides the car will
carry us all right.”
And it did. Although we had stopped at the very foot of a steep grade
fifty feet long, the car on low gear took it without a stutter, and
then coming to a lesser grade, a shift was made to second gear. We did
not use first speed more than once or twice, and then only to keep from
stalling on the grade when it was necessary to slow down in passing
other cars at narrow points in the road. Occasionally high speed was
possible for short stretches. When well over the top of the mountain we
stopped to let the engine cool off for probably ten minutes and then
coasted nearly all the way down the mountain side.
There was no need of any of the cars stalling on this grade, though it
is long and has many very steep places; there was no sign that any of
the cars was deficient in power. The deficiency was in knowledge on the
part of the drivers.
Where the driver understands gear shifting well enough to do it on
a grade, the proper way to approach a hill is on high, with the
accelerator opened enough, and spark advanced, to speed up the car.
Then when the car begins to lose speed and before it has slowed down
too much, the shift should be made to second-speed gear, which should
carry the car up any ordinary hill. If an extra steep gradient be
encountered, first speed may be necessary for that stretch.
It is well just as the foot of a hill is reached to open the throttle
wide. If the engine begins to knock or otherwise labor, retard the
spark enough to overcome this. In the chapter on “Driving the Car,”
detailed instructions for the operation of the gears in hill climbing
and descending are given. Study these rules closely and try out your
car on short grades before attempting long and steep hills. Make sure
that you know how to operate the levers for gear shifting and then take
things easy. Do not be in a hurry. Haste makes waste.
While many high-powered cars, and sometimes those of less pretentious
build, will take almost any hill on high gear, it is not always policy
to do this. Some modern motors are designed with a view to make the
climbing of hills easy, but even so, the climb made on second-speed
gear will take but a trifle longer and the car will not be submitted
to the tremendous strain of operation on high speed. It is all very
well to boast that one’s car will “take the worst hill on high,” but
a better boast would be that the car has stood up for two or three
years longer than ordinary, and care in the operation will produce that
result.
The driver whose engine is not in the best of condition and which is
not delivering its full power, and especially if he is not fully versed
in shifting the gears, would better not try to take a hill of any
length or of any considerable grade on high. Indeed it is wise to shift
into second gear before starting up the grade, for nothing is more
unpleasant than stalling the engine half way up. And he ought not to
despise low speed if necessary to negotiate the hill without straining
the engine unduly. Motoring is not just piling up mileage records or
speeding across the country as though the devil were at one’s heels.
There are a few things more desirable than miles per hour, even though
the American “Get There” spirit be abroad. Generally speaking there is
a direct relation between cost per mile and miles per hour, and while
some owners may be able to afford twenty cents and upwards per mile,
the average owner does not care to indulge regularly in such a cost
figure.
When it comes to descending steep hills, the cost does not figure so
much as safety. How often one sees cars tearing down a hill with the
engine running, gear in high speed, and devil-may-care at the wheel.
If the drivers realized the slight things upon which their fate hangs
at such a time there would be more care. Ninety per cent. of all the
accidents to automobiles are the result of sheer carelessness of the
drivers; nine per cent. are from the carelessness of some other driver;
only about one per cent. can be set down to breaks of parts, blow-outs,
or other things not to be prevented by ordinary precautions.
On a slight and straight hill it is all right to go down on high
speed, simply shutting off the ignition so that the engine will act as
a brake, the foot brake being used if necessary; but on a steep hill it
is far wiser to shift into second-speed or even first-speed gear before
attempting to descend. The engine will exert a powerful braking force
in low-speed gear. Besides, the running and emergency brakes are to be
used alternately, so that on a long hill the brake linings will not
be burned up. Of course the clutch must be left engaged to secure the
braking effect of the engine.
It is a mighty bad thing to start down a hill in high gear and then,
half way down, find that brakes will not hold, or that something has
gone wrong suddenly. Long and steep hills rarely are wide or smooth;
there are ditches and humps and rocks, sometimes, and narrow places
where there is scarce room for two cars to pass, and less than perfect
control of the car is perilous. “Better be safe than sorry” is a homely
old saw, but it is pertinent.
Another thing is that the hill speedster is one of the greatest menaces
to other drivers so far found. If one cares not for his own car or
neck, at least he should have a care for the others on the hill; and
whether it is on the ascent or descent the speedster endangers every
one else going in either direction at the same time, except perhaps
the fellow who is following him at a safe pace. It is no comfort to
know that the mortality is highest among the speed fiends of motordom;
occasionally they raise the mortality figure of the drivers who
practice safety first.