Wheels spinning reverse uphill

Hey guys! I just bought my Tacoma (have been wanting one for ages - so happy) but when I came home to park it completly lost control & the wheels were spinning. I live on a steep hill and was reversing to parallel park. It only seems to go smoothly uphill in reverse when it’s in 4WD but I feel like that shouldn’t be the case? Any thoughts??

 

Welcome

Do you live on the Seattle waterfront by chance?

Is this hill pavement or gravel? Wet or dry?

 

Thank you!! I love Seattle but nope I’m in California. It’s dry pavement! Thought it was odd..

 

When the bed is facing uphill, there's no weight, and the path of power is out one of the two rear tires, usually the right rear, so it spins rather than moves the truck.

4WD makes parking hard, but this condition is very typical for light pickup trucks.

 

When I reverse on my uphill gravel driveway with a trailer, I usually put it in 4wd low. That gives me more control at low speed. I have a manual transmission though

 

Ohh okay I gotcha! Thanks for the quick reply

so keeping it in 4WD is pretty much my only option until I have more weight back there?

 

That makes sense with the trailer! It’s just odd to me this is happening when mine is automatic & on pavement.

 

Bishop's right, you are fighting physics with no weight on the drive axle. You can mitigate it some. I would be diligent about running the correct tire pressure that's on the door sticker. Service bays love to overinflate. In your case, erring on the side of slight under-inflation would be in your favor. You could also add weight into the bed, something you'll want to do for the winter months anyway. And there's nothing wrong with exercising the 4wd actuator.

 

Ooo okay thank you! Thats good advice. More of a reason to build out the back sooner haha

 

… or use the old mud and snow (winter) trick of putting sandbags up against the tailgate to add rear axle weight.

 

If you’re going to San Francisco, you better not parallel park on Filbert Street.

 

You wouldn't happen to live on Baxter Street in LA? When I went to my friend's parents' house in LA I experienced the same wheel spin. So I parked across the street.

 

Would this be a good case for using the rear diff lock or would it break something?

 

You have to be in 4lo to activate the locker, so it's unnecessary if just 4WD gets the job done.

 

<facepalm> Forgot about that LOL

 

All good. I thought the same, but caught it before typing.

 

Think first, type second? That line of thinking would deprive us all of so many laughs. lol

 

I park in Laguna Beach side streets that are steep enough to do that. I think the bigger tires helped when they went on.

 

If I stop to think, I sometimes can't get started again.

 

Great advice here. Thanks