How about a 4ft long, metal colored foam noodle spike- just about radiator height?
2 Likes
I compliment @HondaGuy70 for driving a manual transmission. I remember applying the parking brake to keep from rolling backwards on an incline. To start up, I would depress the accelerator and slowly let out the clutch I would press the accelerator further as I let out the clutch as I released the parking brake. The car I learned to drive was a manual transmission 1954 Buick with the parking brake activated by a foot pedal. The parking brake was released by pulling a knob.
Too many skills have been lost by automation:
- When I started playing the French horn, my horn teacher said that if I couldn’t transpose, I shouldn’t be playing the. French horn. Today, students of the horn use a program to transpose the parts.
- When I started to drive, my dad told me if I couldn’t shift gears, I shouldn’t be driving a car. Today, with almost all cars having automatic transmissions, working a manual transmission is a lost skill.
- In many public restrooms, the facilities are automatically flushed. I maintain that if you can’t flush a toilet, you shouldn’t be going to the bathroom.
3 Likes
Correct! Left foot on clutch 
The problem isn’t that some people lack the “skill” necessary to flush a toilet. The genuine problem that drove the move to automatic-flushing toilets is that some people choose–for unknown reasons–to fail to flush the loo.
1 Like
@VDCdriver I attended a consolidated country school that housed first grade through grade twelve. There was no kindergarten. I attended the school through 8th grade and was then transferred to a city school. The country school building was built in 1924. I started school in that building I 1948. In the restrooms, when one day on the toilet seat, it closed a valve to an overhead tank above the toilet. The tank filled and when one stepped off the toilet, it flushed. There was a big tank above the urinals that would fill up, then flush the urinals and repeat the process. This cycle occured once an hour. The city school I attended was built about the same time, but the facilities had manual flush handles. My guess is that in1924 and even as late as 1948, many students at the country school grew up in homes without indoor plumbing and weren’t used to flushing toilets.
I thought about how times have changed for me. In 1949, the incandescent light fixtures in the building were replaced with florescent lights. The florescent lights saved energy and gave more light than the incandescent lights. This past week, I rewired the lights in our church office and replaced the florescent tubes with LED tubes. These new LED tubes give more light and use less energy.
Also, in the 1924 school building, there was a horn loudspeaker in each classroom that was fed by a central radio. A radio program could be sent to one or more classrooms and we were all going to learn by radio. By 1948, the central radio system had fallen into disuse. When I retired from teaching at a university in 2011, all classrooms could access the internet and there was a projector attached to the system in each classroom.
The school bus I rode had a gasoline engine, manual transmission and hydraulic brakes. Todayd school buses have diesel engines, automatic transmissions, and air brakes. However, they are just as uncomfortable riding.
I used to drive my manual trans Corolla in steep-hill San Francisco frequently. Folks would stop right behind me on steep uphill redlights. Never had any problem, just used the parking brake handle. Right hand is free at that time. It would be more difficult if the parking brake was a foot pedal.
It’s true that the parking brake sometimes tended to slip a little or really steep hills. In that case I’d pull on the handle w/more force, & it would hold enough to let the clutch out. No experience w/ “hill assist”, maybe that is what is causing the OP’s problem? Maybe OP just needs a little more practice.
1 Like
You really should get your emergency brake adjusted correctly. especially that you have a manual transmission. If you ever have to park on a hill there is a chance it can pop out of gear and go rolling away. And on a hill place your tires in a direction so they would hit the curb and stop the vehicle. parking uphill, turn the front of your tires so they face out towards the road. parking downhill, turn the front of your front tires towards the curb.
1 Like
What is a hill assist?
When you’re on a hill and you take your foot off the brake pedal the brakes will hold a little while longer so it will not roll backwards.
1 Like
Back in the 1950s, Studebaker offered as an option a “hill holder” to prevent rolling backwards when stopped on an incline.
2 Likes
Now that I have heard of back in the day did know they wrer the same thing.
A woman I knew who ran a restaurant in a small town in northern Guatemala would find turds in the shower.
Never heard hill assist or hill holder. In the most desperate situations I’d wait for the people behind me to pass as 2 have suggested. In the next-most desperate situations I’d use the emergency. Then I’d put my right on both the gas and the brake, then engage the clutch.
1 Like
My parents owned a 1947 Dodge and later a 1949 Dodge with a fluid coupling between the flywheel and the clutch. On an incline, one could have the car in gear and the engine would not stall with the clutch engaged. All a person had to do was press the accelerator and then let up on the brake pedal.
Man I didn’t know there were this many comments, but yeah I never had a problem. That’s one of the first things you need to learn. Coordination between the gas and the clutch.
I remember the big hill by the police station with a stop sign. Driving the girls home from the restaurant late one night with the Morris, didn’t have to worry about roll back as much as getting going again. Holding the shift gear in first, grinding away, it took that little car everything it had to continue up the hill, to applause when we made it. Oh to be young again.
2 Likes
I know why I don’t like manually flushing a public toilet. I don’t want to touch the handle even though I will wash my hands. I’ll grab some TP to touch the handle if I have to manually flush. If there are other reasons I’m not familiar with them. BTW, I also refuse to touch the public restroom door handle if I have to pull to open it on the way out. I use a paper towel or the automatic door button.
1 Like
I push the handle down with my long sleeve, not my hand, I do the same for door crash bars. Never touch them. If we had supermaneyes though, we’d see all the little microbes dancing around and flush handles would be the least of our concern. It would drive us nuts though.
Mustangman beat me to it, I have very quick reflexes, as do my wife and son… I have more trouble using the e-brake, I just hit the gas and let out on the clutch really fast…
Find a parking lot that is on a slight hill (hospital/office building comes to mind) and back into the parking spot so that you will roll back against the curb/parking block (make sure no damage will happen to the rear bumper) and practice moving forward just a little, just need a little forward motion… Then once you move forward about 6 inches or less, practice taking off from being very close to the parking block… If you can move forward without rolling back to the parking block over and over again, then you will not roll back into the vehicle behind you… Practice, practice, practice… Rolling back into the parking block will not hurt anything, but you will feel it if you do roll back… You can find steeper inclines/hills to get even better and more confident…
I hope that answered your question on what/how me and my family would do somewhat…
2 Likes
I use my foot on the lever… lol
1 Like
I can tell you what i USED to do when I was a kid driving a '65 GTO with a modified engine and a 4 speed:
I used the parking brake as I previously described, then tried to keep them reasonably close behind me while I looked for the right place to turn right and go up a hill. In Pennsylvania, at the bottom of every hill there’s a lot of dirt in the road that washes down the hill in the rain. I tried to time it so that I’d speed up, turn right and stab the throttle as I was in the dirt and they were passing behind me. Extra points if their passenger side window was open.
4 Likes
What is all this talk of slipping the clutch to keep the car from rolling back or some fancy “Texas Two Step” (brake clutch, gas, brake gas, clutch brake, MORE BRAKES…)…
What is wrong with the way I suggested in Post #2? It, if anything is a manner of “Manual Hill Assist…”
What is wrong with your car being is first gear, the clutch fully dis-engaged, and the engine idling until the light turns Green, Then, as you would pull away on any flat ground just release the parking brake when the clutch engages? You just add a bit more gas to endure you do nto stall it…
So, to all you Naysayers that say the Parking/Emergency Brake will not hold a car on a hill while a stop light is Red had better bring that vehicle in for service, because it is required to, by law!
49 CFR § 393.41 - Parking brake system…
(1) Each singly driven motor vehicle not subject to parking brake requirements of FMVSS Nos. 105 or 121 at the time of manufacturer, and every combination of motor vehicles must be equipped with a parking brake system adequate to hold the vehicle or combination on any grade on which it is operated, under any condition of loading in which it is found on a public road (free of ice and snow).
The most common reasons for this to happen is the Brakes are Out of Adjustment; hence, the most common reason a hand brake does not hold a car on an incline is that the brakes are out of adjustment. Most hand brakes are self-adjusting, which means that they automatically adjust through use, so use it!
I know people who think that their car has an “Auto Manual” transmission because they have shifter paddles on their steering wheel and a “manual shift mode” on their shift lever and that means to them that they know how to drive a manual… And there are those who think that since the manual transmission has synchros, they do not need to use the clutch between shifts…
Learn to drive a manual transmission that will not lead to premature failure… The LINK is post previously…
1 Like