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I found myself in a sticky situation today, stopped on a very steep hill with a city bus honking behind me, struggling to get going in first gear. Shamefully, I stalled my 6,000 lbs Badlands twice, so the honking was well deserved.
Now I know what you’re thinking — “SPITmadFIRE has no idea how to drive a manual”. In previous vehicles (all manual), I’d use all four limbs to get out of this predicament; use the e-brake to allow my right foot to switch from brake to gas, and apply gas while clutching out and releasing the e-brake slowly. In my RS, I’ve used Hill Start Assist and for the most part did away with the e-brake start altogether. This was the first time trying to use Hill Start Assist in my Bronco (at a very familiar stop sign I’ve navigated just fine in all previous vehicles without stalling).
Even with Hill Start Assist, this Badlands is simply too heavy to comfortably hill start in first gear. I was already applying what I felt was too much gas the first time I stalled, and was confused by how fast the engine bogged down. But then I remembered, I have an even lower gear…
Since I haven’t done any off-roading before, I didn’t expect my crawl gear to get a whole lot of use, and definitely not on pavement. I’m of a completely different mindset now. The crawl gear is the perfect gear for getting this behemoth moving up a steep hill. Using the crawl gear to get moving up this steep grade was as easy as getting rolling in first on flat pavement.
TL;DR: Hill Start Assist works fine for moderate hills, but break out the crawl gear for steep stops — you’ll thank me later.
Now I know what you’re thinking — “SPITmadFIRE has no idea how to drive a manual”. In previous vehicles (all manual), I’d use all four limbs to get out of this predicament; use the e-brake to allow my right foot to switch from brake to gas, and apply gas while clutching out and releasing the e-brake slowly. In my RS, I’ve used Hill Start Assist and for the most part did away with the e-brake start altogether. This was the first time trying to use Hill Start Assist in my Bronco (at a very familiar stop sign I’ve navigated just fine in all previous vehicles without stalling).
Even with Hill Start Assist, this Badlands is simply too heavy to comfortably hill start in first gear. I was already applying what I felt was too much gas the first time I stalled, and was confused by how fast the engine bogged down. But then I remembered, I have an even lower gear…
Since I haven’t done any off-roading before, I didn’t expect my crawl gear to get a whole lot of use, and definitely not on pavement. I’m of a completely different mindset now. The crawl gear is the perfect gear for getting this behemoth moving up a steep hill. Using the crawl gear to get moving up this steep grade was as easy as getting rolling in first on flat pavement.
TL;DR: Hill Start Assist works fine for moderate hills, but break out the crawl gear for steep stops — you’ll thank me later.
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