Gear used to climb steep hills (X20XE)

Hello

Maybe it's a noobish question but what gear you guys are using when climbing steep hills (Low gear and 4x4 activated).There are 3 situations that comes to mind:

1. The climbing starts from complete stop position from the base of the hill..In this situation i am pretty often and i use only 1st gear to climb all the way to the top..I tried to switch and for a moment i lose grip and i may lose the power to climb completly...I feel not safe switching gears during climbing.Using only 1st gear i need to keep at 5000 rpms to get a constant climbing power.The problem here is if i encounter a situation during climbing where i need even more power i feel that even i press the acceleration more the car don't seem to accelerate anymore..

2. One has some space to catch up speed so there is time to shift in 2nd gear...In this case i can actually keep the climbing rpm lower than 5000rpm but and have more room for getting more power durring climbing if some special obstacle is encounter.Also i feel that if the car encounter a hard to overcome situation it will go under the lower rpm threashold and the engine begin to die and car lose begin to lose grip even if i am accelerating...

3. One has some space to catch up but still keep 1st gear and not switching to second...

Please advice...

By low gear i meant 4low..

Sadly this is the drawback of the 2 litres in a heavyish car...The engine needs to be revving hard to produce the power, but this means that you either climb too slowly in first yet keep the revs up, or drive too quick in second but it bog down half way up the hill or if you need to slow a bit for a technical section, and once "off the boil" it wont pick back up.
Upshifting first to second half way up a hill isnt gonna work in a 2 litre unless you have no traction, the gap between gears seems huge, but down shifting quickly is possible, this is what I used to do with my li'll white leafer.
You have to be quick so the car doesnt loose momentum, and you need to do it sooner than you think or it will drop off the revs in first and bog down. So if in second and the revs die at 2000 say, shift down at 3000 instead. Normally this would mean over revving in first, but you will loose momentum in the shift which will mean it will then be just about right in first gear. Dont come fully off the throttle either, back off a bit from foot to the floor, but try and rev match it for when you select first, so lift the throttle a bit so the engine doesnt scream but the engine wants to be a 4500ish when you hit first for minimum loss of power.
Another trick that works is to climb in second, but try and stay on the loose stuff so it means the tyres can keep spinning and yet your speed down. The keeps the revs up and stops it bogging down. Used to do this running dumper tyres which gave too much traction for 2nd on really steep muddy climbs and works well.

Last edited by badsykes on Fri Jun 07, 2013 9:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Thx for the informative post...With 2.0 petrol is black or white and to be grey someone needs a little experience ... On my truck i have Toyo Open Country AT tyres..
What max speed you recommend for shift on the fly with manual hubs on Frontera A 2.0i ?

Unfortunately on the 2.0ltr sport year you would have to stop to engage 4 wheel drive or you would end up stripping the transfer box. Even with manual hubs!!! :thumbup:

I will present my technique of driving...Good or bad..During a trial circuit when going down the hills that are very short distance i let the car in inertia and put the gear box in 0gear (deadpoint or 0 point) and only use brakes pressed little from time to time..I shift in a gear (usually 2nd) and accelerate a little when the car will reach a bottom of the hill and i need to climb short distance hills..With the car still drived by inertia , press clutch and acceleration and switch in 2nd gear...I accelerate until i feel the car has enough power to climb the hill.At the top again remove any gear (0gear or dead point) and let the inertia drive the car (of course me is steering) until next point when i need power..

Thx bobby so i will just keep the "book" way of engaging the 4x4..I don't want to make unnecesarry destruction to the car..

So long as you have engaged 4wd, which will have locked the autolocking hubs, you can select between hi4 and hi2 without stopping, so long as you havent rolled backwards and unlocked the hubs, I would just recommend dipping the clutch between shifts. Manual locking hubs are a more positive lock though and are recommended if you are offroading more seriously.
As for coasting in neutral on decents and braking, I would say this is bad practise and will not get the best from your car...
I would sooner use the engine braking (however minimal it is on a 2.0i) and then brake over the top of it...The engine rotation will help to prevent the wheels locking and the car sliding, and if it gets away you can just accelerate out and rebrake again. Be out of gear is paramount to being out of control in my opinion.

This is quite a good read too :wink:

http://www.4wdworld.com.au/Driving-Techniques.html

Greg: Now that you tell me some arguments i agree with you is a bad practice to "coast" the car...I have red AVM's on my car now.The autohubs gave me some problems when ascending one of them got loose and and because of this the car didn't climb so i had to let go backward...Autohubs i am not sure on them.

Drift: Thx for both links...

well in mine i normally start in 2nd low if i can get the revs up
if not first low is allways a goodun

and even in the duck i am amised how well it does climb with all its extra wight on it