Manual Parking Question! Truck walking forward slowly while in gear without parking brake

Always use 1st or reverse. It will easily roll in higher gears. And if the hill is steep enough it will still roll in 1st.

 

I haven’t tried it, but I’m surprised a newish taco would creep in 3rd gear. How steep was the incline?

I learned at a young age to use the parking brake. My 4 cyl jalopies didn’t have enough compression to keep the truck stationary on even the smallest of inclines.

 

Nope, you want a lower gear so if it moves, it moves much less.

OP, totally normal. When not running and without the parking brake, engine compression is all that's holding the truck in place. Over time, the compression of each cylinder will bleed off through the rings, allowing the crankshaft to move until the next cylinder compresses and then slowly bleeds off, repeat.

 

I was taught to put it in first when the truck is pointing uphill, reverse when pointing downhill. Supposedly that gives the greatest resistance. Not sure if this is true.

 

Supposedly the reason is so the engine wouldn’t crank if you left the ignition switch on and drive on down the road. The engine would spin backwards if it started to roll. I imagine if that ever happened alcohol was involved or it was an old VW Beatle.

 

Happened to me with my 1993 pickup-truck. But I was in a parking lot and on the way back to the truck saw it rolling backwards -

I literally dove through the window and pulled the brake - stupid thing for me to do with a child nearby but I caught it in time.

I believe someone reached into the open window and dropped the brake just for kicks. Even to this day I ALWAYS engage that brake even in my automatic trans.
In fact I 'bout burnt up my sisters brake on her 2006 Corolla last month after I borrowed it and set the brake, she never uses it and couldn't figure out why it was so sluggish...

 

you just answered your own question and never really had a problem. Just put it in first and parking brake. Done. No more rolling. Not sure how this is so complicated

 

Most people saying first or reverse but, for clarity, you want to pick the shortest gear available to you when parking. On a 3rd gen V6 Tacoma, that’s 1st gear at a ratio of 3.98:1 vs reverse which is 3.39:1.

So you should always park it in 1st.

 

If facing downhill use reverse, if facing uphill use 1st. Most mechanical resistance + reverse rotation.

Only time to not use brake is in a long term storage situation when the shoes can stick.

Only time not to leave in gear is when vehicle is being trailered to avoid repeated pounding on the ring and pinion and other components.

 

There was a time when I was a teenager that proper driver's license tests were done where I live. You actually had to know how to drive well in order to pass. Most took the test with a manual transmission. If you didn't park in 1st with the park brake on before turning off ignition it was an automatic fail.

 

Try first gear. The lower the gear the harder it is to turn the engine.

 

I always parked in R or L if the transmission had one.

 

fun fact, many Saab manual transmissions would only allow key removal when the vehicle was placed in reverse.

also, 3.98:1 vs 3.39:1 is still plenty of resistance either way...

 

This, ladies and gentlemen... is how we end-up with Automatic transmissions.


Self-Driving-cars maybe a good thing in the not too distant future!

 

Automatic transmissions don’t help. My first job ever was making booze deliveries for a local liquor store in my hometown. I was 17 and had a pretty new driver’s license. I was driving their crappy Chevy Luv pickup and that truck had a lot of issues. There was a problem with a seal between the transmission and crank case where ATF could seep in every once in a while and the truck would blow a very thick white smoke screen out the back. One day while making a delivery, I was driving up a steep hill and the truck started blowing another smoke screen. It was very thick, and I could just make out a blinking red light shining through the smoke, so I pulled over, put it in Park and pulled the parking brake. Well being a dumb teenager, I got out and went back to meet up with the cop but luckily he didn’t mind. We started chatting about what was wrong with my boss’s truck when all of the sudden there was a ratcheting noise that was speeding up coming from uphill behind me. The cop jumped in his car and started backing up, and I tried opening the truck door but forgot the handle gets stuck so I jumped through the window and tried to tighten up the parking brake but it didn’t work and the truck was coasting backwards even faster with my legs dangling outside of the window. I grabbed the wheel and turned it into the curb and the truck finally stopped. When I got out, I walked back to the cop and all he said was “good, now let’s start that over again”.

Well, I was pretty mad at my boss by then for making me drive such a crappy truck for work that I helped the cop make a list of all the broken things to be included on his fix it ticket.

 

Not saying it isn't. But if you're gonna do it, you may as well do it in the best way you can.

Also 1st will theoretically be a little nicer to the return spring and the shifter bushings in the long term than reverse.

 

i suspect this parking space isn't as flat as you make it out to be.

I'm an R guy in all situations.

only time i use the parking brake is when i park on a slope.