Quote:
Originally Posted by DifferentPointofView
If you find that it down shifts all the time going up a hill, the best way is to GAIN speed just before you go up the hill, and maintain that throttle until you get to the top, then neutral coast down, or EOC down the hill.
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I'm not sure that I'd agree that's the best way. I'll agree with gaining speed before you hit the hill, but I'd go into the hill with a set engine load in mind that will having you hitting the summit at a slower speed. The less traffic the lower that summit speed can be. If you let you speed bleed going over the hills and then recoup it as the road dips down you keep your power curve far far flatter and I would think that would be more optimal.
From a LOD perspective, where my regular flat stuff is all in the 30s, ideally lower 30s, moderate hills try and restrict LOD to 50, bigger 60, major 70. Grade and length of hill both have to be factored in, along with how much of an obstruction you might be.
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For my slushbox strategy, I:
- restrict EOCs to under 1000' where I'm coming to a top if tranny's warm
- frequently shift to neutral whenever a coast opportunity is there
- sometimes use the manual shifter option to force upshifts sooner
- if not manually upshifting I lift off at 62 to force 5th gear upshift
- try to get into 5th quick and stay there, 62kph to shift in, 50 shifts down
- accelerate at 50 LOD in lower gears, with grade opportunites in 5th
- switch off for lights over 20 seconds
- downshift for mild DFCO when traffic slows up
- rarely let SWMBO drive, although it's hers, she drives my stick Accord!
The biggest thing for me is getting into 5th efficiently, my sweet spot is from 60 to 90 kph, if I can't get into 5th in urban areas (where I drive most of teh time), I P&G because 4th is at least 15% worse for FE.