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

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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?

 

Two. You're cool.

 

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

 

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