I went to Hollister this weekend with some friends. On our way to the upper ranch there was a totally smashed up truck being pulled on a trailer out of the place. When I asked the poor fellow where it had happened, he pointed out that “Truck Hill” had pulled one over on him. So being the curious type and owning a Land Rover I figured I’d go take a look at this so called “truck hill” and see for myself what the big deal was.

I had never been to that area of the upper ranch so I pull out my trustee map and look for truck hill to find out it is rated as a single black diamond trail. I start feeling very confident at this point. After all, my LR3 and I are very acquainted with several black diamond trails at Hollister SVRA. What can possibly be so different about this one, right? The other vehicle in the group with me was a small Nissan truck 4X4 stock and it turned out to not have enough clearance on the brake over angle so instead of pulling him through every sharp crest on the trails we decided to park it and everyone jumped on mine. So with a loaded to the hilt LR3 with 6 people (some quite the big boys) and gear, we head to truck hill.

When we got there I took a moment to look at this famous portion of the trail known as truck hill. Aptly named, it is a very steep hill with more than a few pot holes about ¾ of the way up where other vehicles have obviously started loosing traction and spun the tires down to a hole ( never mind tread lightly). While it is indeed intimidating and extremely steep, it seemed to be fairly well packed dirt and so I figured I could at least give it a try. I have changed my stock tires with Goodyear Silent Armors 265/60/18 and they have done superb on the trails every time.


**** Pay attention because there will be a test of your off-roading knowledge at the end****

Now, rather that trying to be stupid about it and having a very clear picture still in my head of what the other truck looked like on that trailer after trying this hill, I opted on the side of caution. I can see this is going to be a bit difficult but I can not see what could have possibly gone SO wrong with the other poor fellow to have completely destroyed his truck. So I figured grass/gravel, low range and locked in first gear should bring me up slow enough that I can get a real feel for how my traction is doing. I did not want to depend on building momentum and risking loosing control of the truck. The plan was simple. We go up slowly until we either make it or the LR3 stops. If we stop moving forward, I just gently bring the LR3 back down in reverse. Simple right? Oh, but I couldn’t have been more wrong!!!!

Up we go. We started to loose traction in a couple of rough spots on what felt strangely enough like sugar sand but the traction control went to work and we continued the uphill battle. At about the ¾ mark on the way up this thing, my left rear tire went into one of the before mentioned pot holes and the LR3 stopped all forward movement after a valiant struggle to get out of it. No biggie; I was fully expecting this to happen at some point. So I figure let off the brake pedal and allow the truck to coast backwards just clear of the hole and restart the climb at a different angle, hopefully missing the hole next time. As the LR3 gently moved back and out of the hole I reapply my brakes. All of the sudden rather than gently stopping like I would have expected it to, it begins to slide BACKWARDS and SIDEWAYS. After a short but very scary slide, the LR3 finally stops again but I am now facing at a very dangerous diagonal angle rather than straight up the hill. All of the sudden I have one of those enlightening moments when hundreds of scenarios run through your head in a split second and I now realize EXACTLY what happened to the other truck that had been totaled in this same spot earlier that day.

***** Ok boys and girls, it is test time. What would you have done at this point? *****

You see, what I didn’t know about this trail is that what had looked like a fairly packed dirt up hill was in fact a trail full of ruts and pot holes filled over with enough sugar sand to make this a VERY dangerous ascent that will test the very limits of the traction on your truck. I realize that asking my friends to get out of the truck is not a very good idea since at this particular stretch I find myself in, it is so steep and so loose that they would easily loose their footing and hurt themselves badly as they roll to the bottom. So I do the only thing I could do, as crazy as this may sound to some of our readers. I put the truck in reverse and gave it gas!!!! You see, the only way I can get this truck safely down hill is if I retain the ability to steer and I can only do that if the tires are allowed to rotate in the same direction as the movement of the truck with in this case is backwards. So, reverse, low range, snow/gravel and down we go. As soon as I let go of the break pedal and gave it gas, the LR3 straightened itself out of that precarious angle as if by magic and began a semi-controlled decent using only the engine break to slow us down. Though faster than I would have prefered, I was able to steer and we made it back to the bottom a littleruffled but safe.

Just as soon as we got back down I had a thought. So right there and then I opened up the owner’s manual and looked over the section on Hill Decent Control (HDC) and there it was staring at me in bold black letters… the HDC works also IN REVERSE******. You know, I have been out with the wheels events from my local dealer several times and as much as they talk about the features on the rovers, they have NEVER mentioned that. Go figure!

Lessons learned, at the end of the day I was once again totally impressed with the capabilities of the LR3. It made it ¾ of the way up with way too much weight for that obstacle, with fully inflated tires (I should have deflated for that obstacle) and in too conservative a gear (I should have been probably in 2nd). I am sure that with less people and gear in the truck and with deflated tires I could have made it.

I now have an appointment with Truck Hill on my next visit to Hollister. I want to try out the HDC feature in reverse, perhaps go up a conservatively safe distance and then allow it to go back with HDC on to see how it operates in that situation. For those of you driving vehicles without HDC, my course of action was correct and probably the simplest way out of that situation. However, those of you with that yellow button on your truck, just push the darn thing and let the truck do all the thinking on how to get you back downhill safely!!! I will conquer Truck Hill on my next visit, but for now, Truck Hill – 2 SUVS – 0.

 

Sounds like you don't hill descent.

 

I always use Hill Decent when going down steep trails but since I had no clue it also worked in reverse, I had it turned off on that particular ocasion [sm=badidea.gif]. I have been too busy since posting last to get back out to Hollister but I will post again as soon as I get back over there.

 

I guess if I had it I would want to use it.
Sometimes I liked not having ABS brakes too.
I'm just old school.

 

Last time I was up at Hollister, it had been do a combination of light rain, hail and snow flurries.
I had been up with some of the other guys who had spent 3 days camping and playing and decided to go take a shot a few trails I had missed since I was late getting there. Truck hill was one of those trails I had to go look at, not really planning on running it because it was a little slick with all the moisture.
Long story short, I aired down a little, locked up and went for it, and yes, you are right it is quite steep and loose. The fun thing was, as I was going up, it struck me, I had no idea what was at the top of the very steep hill, which way to turn, should I stop and maybe loose momentum or what?
Well I made it to the top and luckily turned left and found a narrow trail which I was later able to turn around on. My desire was to drive down the face and try some other areas, so down I headed, that is where I made my mistake. I stopped and had a wild desire to see if I could back up the last quarter of the trail in reverse, stupid idea but what the hell. So I started back up the hill in revers till I heard and felt a loud thud, turned out I boke both the motor mounts ans drove back to Tonys shop to have Frank replace the mounts and a few other items before heading back down to Santa Barbara.
So I would suggest every body give that hill a run but keep it in drive and don't try to back up it.