Auto Park helped me out

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Yardbird

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While the auto park can be annoying, it actually helped me out the other night.

I needed to go to CVS to pick up a few things, and I asked my wife to ride with me. We got there, and she wanted to stay in the truck with it running to stay warm, so I set the parking brake and went in.

I was inside appx 15 minutes or so. Came back out, got into the truck, then reached down ro turn the dial to reverse. You know the rest....The dial was pointing to D, and the light was flashing.

I'm still getting used to this rotary knob thing, and I've only driven this truck less then 4k miles since I've had it. Jury is still out on if I will learn to love it or not.

Anyway, the truck had shifted to park, and the trans fluid was normal temperature. I hate to think how hot it may have gotten if I had let it idle in gear that long.

So, here is an instance where auto park was a very good thing.
 

Jeepwalker

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I doubt it would have hurt it. I remember when I was a kid our neighbor would come over for some reason and end up visiting with my dad at least an hour with his foot on the brake ...in D. Vehicles are designed for worst-case scenarios.

If your truck had a lever instead of a knob, pretty sure you wouldn't have left it in D. The knob low on the dash promotes things like that. Good example of technology solving a problem that didn't 'really' exist in the past, for the sake of saving a couple bucks manufacturing. But they all pretty much have that now. I suppose there are a few dogs or kids which put the vehicle in gear inadvertantly (not sure how with a brake interlock) ...but that might just be a darwin award for not paying attention to kids/pets.

I'm more troubled by your wife needing to "keep warm" ...in NC? (just kidding)

.
 
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Yardbird

Yardbird

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I doubt it would have hurt it.............
You're probably right, but with these electronic transmissions, I don't want to take a chance.
If your truck had a lever instead of a knob, pretty sure you wouldn't have left it in D...........
Been driving since I could sit on my dad's lap and hold the steering wheel, and have never done that with a stick or lever.
I'm more troubled by your wife needing to "keep warm" ...in NC? (just kidding)...............
My wife wants heat in August. She's always cold, and I'm always hot. lol

The only other times I've left a truck idling in gear was on an Allision in a quad dump truck. I was given it to drive, and it being a tap the button in the console, a couple of times I forgot to tap neutral while waiting at an asphalt plant. According to the temp gauge, it got pretty hot pretty quick.
 
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Spree

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I have probably shut my Ram off a few times while in drive. A few cuss words go through my head but so far no problems.
 

Jeepwalker

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I was at a local gas station gassing up this evening. Saw some guys/workers pull up to the front door and go inside to get whatever. Truck was a Ram 1500 4dr, 4th gen. I looked up and saw the truck slowly back up. Thought to myself, "...that was quick." It kept rolling, I figured there was someone inside backing up slowly maybe on their phone(??). As I was screwing my gas cap on I heard this big "Crunch!". It rolled back and whacked into a pump. Nobody inside.

Fortunately there wasn't much distance to pick up a whole lot of speed. Damage to the pump was a sheet metal panel popped off and...that didn't seem as bad as it could have been (although I kept a safe distance and didn't go up and inspect it real close). There was probably other damage that wasn't visible. I was the only one gassing up, so I didn't want to walk over and get overly nosy. Truck had a busted taillight and bent sheet metal around the taillight.

That's about as exciting as it gets around our town. I wonder if it might have been a similar situation, where the driver forgot to put the knob into P, their truck didn't have a safety interlock ..and it rolled back?? Were there some years which didn't have an interlock? I didn't get close enough to see if it might have had a gear lever, but it didn't look like a tradesman.
 
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Yardbird

Yardbird

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I was at a local gas station gassing up this evening. Saw some guys/workers pull up to the front door and go inside to get whatever. Truck was a Ram 1500 4dr, 4th gen. I looked up and saw the truck slowly back up. Thought to myself, "...that was quick." It kept rolling, I figured there was someone inside backing up slowly maybe on their phone(??). As I was screwing my gas cap on I heard this big "Crunch!". It rolled back and whacked into a pump. Nobody inside.

Fortunately there wasn't much distance to pick up a whole lot of speed. Damage to the pump was a sheet metal panel popped off and...that didn't seem as bad as it could have been (although I kept a safe distance and didn't go up and inspect it real close). There was probably other damage that wasn't visible. I was the only one gassing up, so I didn't want to walk over and get overly nosy. Truck had a busted taillight and bent sheet metal around the taillight.

That's about as exciting as it gets around our town. I wonder if it might have been a similar situation, where the driver forgot to put the knob into P, their truck didn't have a safety interlock ..and it rolled back?? Were there some years which didn't have an interlock? I didn't get close enough to see if it might have had a gear lever, but it didn't look like a tradesman.

I bet he had installed a seat belt extender to override the auto park. I don't trust myself enough to do that with this rotary shifter.
 

bchap05

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I wish they had it when I first got the truck. I was backing onto my boat and didn't have a camera at the time and we backing on by myself. So I had to keep jumping in and out of the truck to see how close I was to being on. One time I jumped out with the truck still in reverse, truck drove into my trailer and put a small dent in the bumper.
 

Jeepwalker

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I went to the gas station again today to juice up. They had the pump roped off with caution tape. Not just on the pump, but roped off a distance around it. I got a closer look, looks like the damage is worse than I first thought. The cast aluminum face is busted in a couple spots and the frame on the sides look bent. They'll probably have to replace the whole thing. It's one of those new pump units with the (very annoying) TV screens that give you some worthless 2-week-old news and sale items (inside the station) as ya pump. I wonder if they tracked the truck owner down on that deal?
 
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