“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.