Outer Limits 4x4 Board

dont laugh this is a serious question......

last night i spoke to a guy who builds performance auto boxs for 4bys.

to cut a long story short basically he told me if i ever wanna go down a step hill while 4wding i could very slowly roll in to the hill in first then put it in reverse once gravity is doin its job (basically giving the effects of engine braking). this obviously puts the weight of the car back on the motor. if you wish to slow your descent even more you accelerate. he said with most descent autos they will be able to handle this without damage. this is an interesting thought for the auto 4wd mob out there and MAY offer a solution for engine braking with an auto down step hills

anyone have any thoughts?
Rodney maybe?

as i said dont laugh, this is what i was told by a performance trans builder

sw1 wrote:anyone have any thoughts?

has been asked before... or was that back in snake days?

Well you won,t be gassing it out if the arse cocks up , can,t actually see where it would be of any help only a danger,you are taking away part of your controll. The ability to match tire speed with ground speed ,without this you are out of control.
Be better to if it hasn,t got one already fit a transfer mounted brake and apply it a bit to retard progress.

JMO.

Larry.

someone with an auto should trail it for a year or so and let us know how it goes. I do it myself but i have a manual

not sure about that one i will do it if some one can pay for a rebuild

if you want manual like braking power down hill in a auto you should get

a lock up converter switch basically its a switch inside the cab that

pulls in the lock up solenoid in the auto and gives you the engine braking

speed.

I have done this, works well.. dont do it on slippery surfaces, only loose rocky decents..

you can roll forwards upto 20km/h down a hill while the trans in reverse due to the slip.. after this speed, it will most likely stall..

it works well even on hill climbs, if you get stuck & its steep enough, dont drop it into R, let the weight of the car roll back and use the accelerator & converter to keep control of speed going backwards..

this is a proven technique & works well..

bump

The first time I heard of this was in FourWheeler (US) in the late 80's, but they only recommended it with "old, loose" auto's.

I understand that with more modern autos, they tend to stall quite quickly, resulting in loss of control... (no power brakes, no power steer, and angel gear... yuk)

whilst I have never done it descending a hill forwards with the trans in reverse, I do it regularly when backing down hills. (the G wagen has pretty average brakes) I will leave the auto in 1st, and ease the brakes off, then "brake" the car with the accelerator as gravity pulls it down the hill. This works VERY effectively, but in my applcation, it is possible to stall the motor unless a little bit more idle speed is wound in.

do not underestimate the "anti intuative" effect though... years of driving teach you that the right foot makes it go and left foot makes it stop, so when under pressure or getting a bit puckery, it is easy to do the wrong thing and end up with a worse situation. - as has slready been said, you can't power out of it

and remember if going down on the converter on slippery surfaces with the wheels spinning backwards your steering is also backwards.

Used to work well with the T400's.

Michael.