I don’t care what any else says, the wife is right. Listen guys, the wife is always right.
Think about the work principle… geez.
This was a rather confusing caller, but the gist of it was a disagreement about the best route to the top of a hill. His route was 3.1 miles and very steep (60 degrees??!!??), while hers was 3.1 miles (also!) but a gentle grade. I can only guess that his route was nearly level except for one cliff to climb, while hers was a steady grade for the whole distance.
So which would be better? I would think that a steady, gentle grade would be easier on the car than trying to climb one very steep section (I don’t believe for a minute it’s 60 degrees… perhaps 60 percent?) But, there’s too little information to make a definite ruling on it here. If the total road miles are the same, and the change in elevation is the same, it should boil down to which way is more efficient and less wearing to the car. I would guess that it would be her route.
No, Crash, wives are not always right, any more than husbands are always right. Strange thing to say.
Either 60% or 60 degrees is a pretty steep climb.
With what little information is given here, it sounds like he thinks its fun to do a motorcycle hill climb with a car, and she has a different viewpoint.
This reminds me of a Texas joke. The last words of rednecks usually are, “Hey, guys, watch this!”
A steep highway hill is about 7 or 8% (trucks have to drive very slowly and runaway ramps are normally provided), the steepest hill I every skied down was about 60% (you can reach out and touch the ground with your hand when you are standing upright and if you fall you will not stop until you hit something or get to the bottom). A 10% grade would be extreme for a car/truck.
There are a few 15% grades on highway 99 through the interior of British Columbia - they really suck. But I don’t think they are extreme. Maybe 20% is, but 15% is just a pain. Especially when one’s brakes fade to nothing. With a 180 degree hairpin turn at the bottom. With a 1000ft cliff. With no shoulder or guardrail.
You don’t know squat about dangerous highways. Here’s a dangerous highway.
http://www.carinfacts.com/img/deathroad2.jpg It’s Bolivia by the way.
Canada Shmanada
Well for some reason the address only partially printed in the last message. The address for the photo in Bolivia is: Dubya dubya dubya.carinfacts.com/img/deathroad2.jpg
There are some interesting roads in colorado too (guard rails are for wimps):
That link works, Rick. Many board programs truncate the link display, but the link is actually complete.But, on Firefox when I hover the cursor the entire link is shown at the bottom. Yeah, that is a hair raiser of a road.
I am in a small mountain village in Mexico. There are some really steep streets. So, how do you measure the % slope? That would be interesting. I suppose measure 100 feet along the street, then note how much it has climbed, and do a simple % math?
There are big rocks all the way along the street. When someone parks there, someone jumps out and puts the rock down hill from a wheel to help hold it, sometimes more than one rock on one wheel. I normally use my parking brake all the time out of habit. So, when I park on that hill, I push on the parking brake firmly, then put the car in PARK, then turn the wheel so in worst possible case it runs into the closest building. My Sienna never even moves an inch when I do that.
About 5 years ago, I was walking down another street, much less steep. A Pepsi truck, an old one with single brake system had to stop behind a stalled truck, and the master cylinder apparently collapsed. The driver and assistant jumped; the truck came racing down the hill, and just before it got to me swerved and crushed to death a man I know. I went to his funeral and go to the annual Day of the Dead (November 2, Mexican Memorial day more or less.)
The cops put the men in jail until Pepsi came up with damage money, which is standard in Mexico. Later, I saw that truck in town again, I was furious, but it wasn’t long before it disappeared, Thank God.