Parking on a hill everyday

My driveway is quite steep, it has to be atleast 45° and I have to park my truck there every night. My HOA community doesn't allow on the street parking unless your driveway is completely full, which mine never is (don't get me started on
HOA's arghhhh).
So... My ritual when I park it is to pull up, keep brake down while I push in the E brake and shift into Neutral. Then I let off the brake which causes the truck to shift back a bit, then I shift into Park.

Question is... Is this at all necessary with today's technology and is it going to do anything to prolong the life of my transmission?

Mechanic friend told me there's some link gear for Park that can get worn down when shifting out of it which is why in some trucks their colum shifter feels like it just slides into Reverse. Thereby doing this I won't get that sliding shifter feel, but regardless of doing it there's basically no damage done if I just parked it "normally."

I know alot of people who do this wherever they park and I have to imagine there's a good reason?

with today's tech, I doubt it's necessary

with that being said I always do it as well when I have to park on a hill lol

CLOUDL1GHT said:

with today's tech, I doubt it's necessary

with that being said I always do it as well when I have to park on a hill lol

Click to expand...

^^^^what he said^^^^

After all, its 10 seconds of your time and it sure can't hurt.

I'm not positive about new transmissions, but older autos have an internal shift link which works a lever, called a parking pawl, which engages a very coarsely toothed gear on the output shaft, locking in turn the driveshaft. It is a very simple, yet stout design which I have never heard of wearing out.

Before parking anywhere (even on level ground) I shift to neutral and let off the brake. If the truck rolls even the slightest I stab the e brake and shift into park.

If it does not roll at all I go straight to park.

parking on a incline it is always! a good idea to use your "parking" brake

there is a reason they call it a parking brake, not an emergency brake

Rustycowl69 said:

I'm not positive about new transmissions, but older autos have an internal shift link which works a lever, called a parking pawl, which engages a very coarsely toothed gear on the output shaft, locking in turn the driveshaft. It is a very simple, yet stout design which I have never heard of wearing out.

Click to expand...

They can wear out, but more frequently, they just break.

And yes, they still have a mechanical pawl for the job.


How do you drive your truck UP a 45 deg driveway ?? the bumper would hit on mine long before the front tires.

I do the same, hold brake shift to N and engage brake let off brake pedal then place in park. All I know is how hard of a shift it is when I don't do this it can't be easy on the parking lever in the trans, I also do this when I load a trailer with a car tractor ect anything that rocks the truck. Its Not hurting anything to do it the way you are.

At 45° I'd be more worried about dry start and oil sump issues....

Epillon said:

So... My ritual when I park it is to pull up, keep brake down while I push in the E brake and shift into Neutral. Then I let off the brake which causes the truck to shift back a bit, then I shift into Park.

Question is... Is this at all necessary with today's technology and is it going to do anything to prolong the life of my transmission?

Click to expand...

Yes. There is no in vehicle tech that reduces or eliminates the need for the process.

TRCM said:

They can wear out, but more frequently, they just break.

And yes, they still have a mechanical pawl for the job.


How do you drive your truck UP a 45 deg driveway ?? the bumper would hit on mine long before the front tires.

Click to expand...

Ive never scraped my truck bumper but I have to pull up very slow or I feel like the front may scrape. Not lifted or anything, just a level kit. The flat sidewalk transitions like a step so I don't have any problems. Now, if I had a low riding car, that'd be a totally different story.

I use my parking brake everywhere, not just hills.

Epillon said:

My driveway is quite steep, it has to be atleast 45° and I have to park my truck there every night. My HOA community doesn't allow on the street parking unless your driveway is completely full, which mine never is (don't get me started on
HOA's arghhhh).
So... My ritual when I park it is to pull up, keep brake down while I push in the E brake and shift into Neutral. Then I let off the brake which causes the truck to shift back a bit, then I shift into Park.

Question is... Is this at all necessary with today's technology and is it going to do anything to prolong the life of my transmission?

Mechanic friend told me there's some link gear for Park that can get worn down when shifting out of it which is why in some trucks their colum shifter feels like it just slides into Reverse. Thereby doing this I won't get that sliding shifter feel, but regardless of doing it there's basically no damage done if I just parked it "normally."

I know alot of people who do this wherever they park and I have to imagine there's a good reason?

Click to expand...

that my situation as well and I follow the same procedure,if its over kill that fine with me v=because it s not gonna hurt anything
brianj

Use the parking brake.

Use it or lose it, up here corrosion is a factor. I use it when ever I park, if you live where the roads are salted then you should use it as much as possible.

14hemiexpress said:

I do the same, hold brake shift to N and engage brake let off brake pedal then place in park. All I know is how hard of a shift it is when I don't do this it can't be easy on the parking lever in the trans, I also do this when I load a trailer with a car tractor ect anything that rocks the truck. Its Not hurting anything to do it the way you are.

Click to expand...

Whats the purpose of going into neutral? I push the brake in. Shift to park. And while still holding the brake in push down the parking brake. Then release the regular brake.

lagerstout said:

Whats the purpose of going into neutral? I push the brake in. Shift to park. And while still holding the brake in push down the parking brake. Then release the regular brake.

Click to expand...

When you release the foot brake, you also release the front brakes, which do most of the holding/stopping. The parking brake must 'set' to do it's job, and by that, I mean the shoes need to move enough to 'bind' against the drum so that they hold. That usually means the truck will move slightly, usually downhill, until the parking brake 'sets'. If you don't go to neutral during this time, you can have the parking pawl engaged with the full weight of the truck on the engagement pawl & rod, which can cause it to be hard to get it out of park then next time you want to drive, and this will cause accelerated wear.

This can also cause the parking brake to not fully engage when the truck can't settle enough to actually 'set' the parking brake shoes because the parking pawl locks the drivetrain.

Remember, disc brakes (front & rear) just push pads into the rotor to provide friction to stop with........drum brakes - and the parking brake on our trucks is a mini drum brake inside the 'hat' portion of the rear brake rotors - push shoes out against the drum using leverage, so when 1 end of the shoe touches, the force still has to be applied thru leverage until the other end of the shoe touches as well. Once this is done, the parking brake is set....and the truck won't move, but if you think about it, when you set the parking brake on a hill, the truck always moves slightly after you do, and this is from the shoes 'setting' against the drum.

lagerstout said:

Whats the purpose of going into neutral? I push the brake in. Shift to park. And while still holding the brake in push down the parking brake. Then release the regular brake.

Click to expand...

I put it in neutral because it tends to rock some I just feel the brakes holding the whole truck before I put it in park. Over kill sure but it helps me sleep at night.

I use mine everywhere too. It's part of my ritual when I get in the truck. Hit Start button, seatbelt and then pop Parking brake off. Then turn down the radio because I left it too loud when I got out the last time.

Use it too.