Risk of living on a steep hill

[Paul Dobbin]

We live in the mountains of North Carolina, where everyone live on a hillside.    A friend and fellow car nut has a

drive way of about a 15 degree slope that goes about 200 feet to a perpendicular street.    Recently he added a

nice 1952 Chevrolet Pickup to his collection and has been sorting it out an fixing the flaws.   Last Saturday he went

with us on our ride to Clayton Georgia and their Block Party, everything went just fine.

Sunday afternoon he decided to touch up some spots in the pickups bed.   As he decended from the running board,

the truck started to roll backwards.  He landed on his back on the ground as the truck picked up speed going down

the driveway, while NOT running over his feet.    As the truck picked up speed, the driver's door opened catching the first tree in the woods after crossing the street without incident.   It continued 30 feet into the woods before stopping.

The driver's door was nearly ripped off the tailgate and rear bumper were badly damaged while being pushed into

the back of the truck's cab,  all 4 fenders.  the roof, hood were all damaged.

The owners says stupidity and carelessness caused all this while the wheel chalks laid on the ground a few feet from

from where the truck was parked.    He was especially glad there were no cars passing by at the time.   A wrecker was able to extract it from the woods.   It was insured, and still drives well with the door strapped about 1/2 closed.

Wheel Chalks work, but only if you use them.

Edited March 23 by Paul Dobbin (see edit history)

[Layden B]

I grew up on a very steep hill. After seeing the results of several runaways, I always set the parking brake and transmission appropriately, wheel turned into the curb too. That is even in a level parking lot and in the garage.  Might be over-kill but works for me!

Oh yes, I cannot recall how many times I have seen a car up on the jack with the owner changing a flat and the parking brake was not set! Even worse is the car up on jack stands and someone underneath.

[Farmallregular]

No parking brake???  Left in neutral???

 

I also learned to drive in an area with lots of hills, and had how to park on a hill beat into us by the driver's ed teacher...try parallel parking on a steep slope with a 3 on the tree transmission.  We were also taught to turn the wheels into the curb, lots of fun with no power steering.

 

Wheel chocks (chalk is too soft) are a safety item to ensure the vehicle can't inadvertently move, but unless there's something wrong the vehicle should be able to hold itself in place even on a steep hill.

 

Keith

 

[Rusty_OToole]

Last time this happened to me, I parked my pickup truck in the driveway of a house I was looking at to buy. The parking brake failed, the truck ran backwards down the drive, across the street, and into a grass boulevard about 50' wide beside a river, with a stone wall and a vertical drop of 10' to the river.

 

The truck coasted straight across the street then the wheel cut itself hard left, for no reason I could see, and the truck came to a halt parallel to the river half way across the boulevard.

 

I was in the house at the time so did not see the fun but thanks to my guardian angel, or something, no harm was done and I drove out unaided.

[JamesR]

This reminds me of what happened to me when I was in my 20's. I had a cool and quick '71 Nova 2 door that I parked at a gas station ( right by the pump) to get gas. This was back in the late '70's with no pay at the pump. I walked in to the office to pay. The area where I was parked was flat, so leaving the car in gear or setting the ebrake after shutting the engine off wasn't necessary...right??

 

Unfortunately, the areas immediately surrounding the place I was parked were NOT flat. I came back out of the office and said, "Who stole my car?" because it was no longer there. Someone said, "Oh, it rolled down across the street." The tone in their voice was sort of like they weren't going to mention that fact to anyone unless asked. My Chevy ended up in a narrow ravine across the street with the front bumper resting on one side of the ravine and the rear bumper resting on the other side...so that all wheels were off the ground! No wrecks or big dents, though. Getting it out of the ravine was a challenge. The Nova still ran and drove, but I got rid of it not long after that.

[STEVE POLLARD]

We grew up on a hill with a steep driveway as well. I remember an incident where my grandparents almost flipped their 1962 Chevy II in our driveway. They were in their mid eighties at the time and Grandpa could not really look over his shoulder that well while backing up, so he depended on the driver's side door mirror. As you descend from the garage and start going down the driveway, the lawn is no longer flush with the driveway, so as you get to the bottom of the driveway, the lawn is actually 3 to 4 feet above the driveway.  Well, one day while Grandpa and Grandma were leaving, my mother, brother and myself were waving good-by, Grandpa started to drift onto the lawn, next thing, my mother is screaming at them to stop. They stopped just in time....if you could picture a tan 2-door Chevy II with two little Grandparents on a 45 degree angle, it was a sight to see ( reminded me of Joie Chitwood Dare Devils ) My Mom is 88 years old and still lives in the house, I remember that incident every time I visit her!

 

Here is a picture of my 1974 AMC, noticed the log of wood under the rear passenger side tire....🙂

 

[Max4Me]

I am so glad your friend is OK, but really sad about the truck. You are so right about the necessity for wheel chocks. When my kids started driving I also taught them how to change a tire, even though they had AAA roadside coverage. You never know. Along with tire changing instruction they were given portable wheel chocks to keep in the car. I also told them if the chocks weren't in the car they were to use a rock, piece of wood, or whatever they could find on the roadside to block a wheel. But in any case they were never to jack a car up unless something was in place to block at least one wheel. It made me feel good one day when my daughter said she yelled at her boyfriend for trying to change a tire without blocking a wheel, so she blocked a wheel for him!  ( SOMETIMES they listen!)

[Andy J]

Reminds me when my wife and I were on our honeymoon in the late 70's in the Smokey mountains near Gatlinburg,TN. I had an immaculate '68 Chevy Caprice that we were in on the trip.We were driving along a country road and suddenly,there's a sign that says"put transmission in low gear and apply brakes." Never having driven in the mountains before,I topped the hill and put the transmission in low gear as suggested. The car continued to pick up speed,so I applied the brakes and they hardly had any effect slowing us down at all.I then stood on the brake pedal and we began to slow down as the hill flattened out a little. That scared me so bad that I was shaking.We found some flatter ground to ride around and sight see.I don't care for the mountains to this day!

[Layden B]

Andy,

Must not be too many runaway truck safety ramps in Mississippi! 

Got a bunch of them here in California.

[60FlatTop]

I am a flatlander. Glacial compression and scarification. Smoothed out around 20,000 years ago. (Glacial geology is another hobby of mine). But my yard has a pretty good grade. I always park my cars around the lot as if they were going to get away. I have quite a few clusters of deciduous shrubs that I actually point my car towards, nothing heavier than a lilac, nothing lighter than a rhododendron. I figure they are enough to hang the car up but not badly damage it.

 

There has never been a really big incident yet but the awareness is always there.

 

I was working on my Chevy Avalanche front suspension today. Wheel cock at the rear, resting on a jack stand, a floor jack with slight pressure about a foot from the jack stand. I had to turn the front wheels for better access. I stood on the narrow running board tread and reached to unlock the ignition. "Well, this ain't too smart" I thought. And I got right inside and sat in the driver's seat.

 

Fully aware that in the event of a mishap the first two works out of my mouth would be "I thought", the two most dangerous words in the English language.

 

I have lived my life hidden in the shadows of non-events and never received recognition for it. In fact some have said I never did anything!

[Jim Bollman]

When I first read the title, I thought it would be getting up the drive. That is as much my fear right now as going down.  I'm having problems getting the mechanical brakes on a Crosley I have been working on to work well enough that I trust going down my drive but also wondering if I will have enough power to come back up. I have had a couple of different Crosleys make it, but when I get the brakes working they drag too much.  Here is a picture of my lower drive. this is where it turns and goes up for another 200-300' with less slope.  About 100' total rise. When making this turn going down when there is ice and snow or I'm driving one of my old cars I hope I make the turn because it goes 30' or so down into a ravin.  The road end is a deadened road but across the road is more woods and more drop off. I do have a circular drive around the house end of the drive that has some up and down to it too, so I have a test track before I need to try making the big drop.

 

Edited March 23 by Jim Bollman (see edit history)

[zepher]

I am in the process of looking for another house to move to and I always look for houses that don't have too much of a driveway slope and whatnot.

 

But, an operational parking brake is one of the first things I take care of on any car I buy.

And whenever I park, flat ground or not, I set the parking brake and car is in gear.

Any time the car is in the air for any reason whatsoever, I have wheel chocks in use.

 

Operating Class A equipment in my youth taught me to always use wheel chocks when working on or servicing equipment.

[TAKerry]

Its smooth rolling hills where I am. I like to visit the mountains but could not stand to live there. I hate all of that up and down stuff, LOL. I spent about a year working in NEPA and it was over a couple big hills every trip out, not fun in my mind. 

We did a local job and before the real drive was cut in the access was straight up a slight hill. When it froze over in the winter it was nearly impossible to get up it, again not my idea of fun.

[DFeeney]

There is a "Lesson"  to be learned from reading these post.  Once you become comfortable around a situation  with potential danger you become complacent around it.  It is not the beginner who ends up hurt.  Most of us on the forum are experienced.  Let's remember    to be careful with our projects and endeavors.  

[28 Chrysler]

Wasn't there a Packard at Pebble Beach that rolled a bit and got real wet?

[69merc]

14 hours ago, zepher said:

But, an operational parking brake is one of the first things I take care of on any car I buy.

And whenever I park, flat ground or not, I set the parking brake and car is in gear.

Me too! Mercurys like mine automatically release the parking brake when it's put in gear, which I enjoy. My 2003 Mercury also had this feature. In fact our DD a Subaru Outback does it too. 

[prewarnut]

7 hours ago, 28 Chrysler said:

Wasn't there a Packard at Pebble Beach that rolled a bit and got real wet?

That was the Hilton Head Concours. They needed 3 sets of experts to retrieve: a tow company, divers, and gator experts.

[37S2de]

It has been almost 35 years since these photos were taken and it still breaks my heart to look at them.  The ‘58 356A Porsche was my daily driver in the late ‘80’s. The car had a tendency to jump out of first gear.  Normally I backed into the garage and left the transmission in gear in reverse.  The driveway up to the garage took a right angle turn to get into the garage and was quite steep.  The floor of the garage itself had a very slight slope.

 

For whatever reason, on this particular day I pulled into the garage frontwards, left the car in first gear and went into the house. It wasn’t 45 seconds before I heard the crunch.

 

My insurance company was not happy.  A suitable rear clip was located in California, shipped to Louisiana, and the local Porsche dealer’s body shop welded it in.

 

That tree fell to my chainsaw as soon as I pulled the car away from it.

 

Tom

[8E45E]

22 hours ago, prewarnut said:

That was the Hilton Head Concours. They needed 3 sets of experts to retrieve: a tow company, divers, and gator experts.

Craig

[zepher]

I also carry wheel chocks in the trunks of each of my prewar cars although their parking brakes work great.
Same with a fire extinguisher, just in case.

[8E45E]

Hair-raising Hudson hill episode:

Craig

[Xander Wildeisen]

I thought about posting a picture of the airborne Hudson. Still can’t believe that really happened, and just when you think things can’t get any crazier.🤪

[dodge28]

This incident was told to me by my co worker mechanic . His neighbor was working , lying under the car jacked up with a scissor jack. The wife came out the house and shouted, " phone call for you"   The moment he creeped out from under the car the jack collapsed. Mysterious ? Some times things happens and there is no logical explanation. 

[Xander Wildeisen]

Phone call for you, was the signal for the neighbor to pull out the jack stands. They have been spending a lot of time together.🤔