Driving a Manual Trans Downhill

My father and I were talking about this the other day and I just wanna know what you guys think/do. I have a manual trans in my taco and when I go down hills I like to shift out of gear and let gravity accelerate my car and take me down hill, using my brakes to control my speed if needed. I drive like this to save gas. My father likes to leave it in gear and let the trans control the speed down hill. He does this to extend the life of the brakes. Also he was a truck driver for 20+ years so it's just ingrained in him.

How do you go about driving your stick downhill?

 

I leave it in gear, or maybe even downshift a gear.

 

Yup

 

how do they know im coasting in neutral? is there a neutral detector i dont know about?

 

What if your driving a prius...they wouldnt be able to hear you...

 

Depends on the grade/length of a hill. I always figured if I'm doing 2k rpm versus 1200rpm the lower rpms would burn less gas. If I'm going down the side of a mountain I'm downshifting to save the brakes. I'd rather burn a little more gas than lose my brakes and fly off the edge of a mountain. But then again here in the DC 'burbs I don't have to worry much about mountains. Don't have to worry much about hills for that matter either.

 

Then shouldnt all Prius going downhill get pulled over for coasting in neutral?

 

no because I've never heard of a cop actually enforcing that law.

 

If you went down all the hills around here with brakes only and not downshift , your brakes wouldn't last long .

 

Im just being an asshole, i really could care less lol

 

I should have specified a little more... a hill to me may not be the same as a hill to some of you out on the west coast... If I'm on the highway and I see a 1/2 mile of straight downhill ahead of me I'll take it out of gear and coast down the hill instead of leaving it in gear

also there is a stretch of road on my way home from school that is about a mile long and a gradual downhill.. I can stay our of gear and maintain 35-40mph all the way down instead of leaving it in gear @ 2500 RPM's

 

haha ya i was bein a ass to sorry lol good point about the shifting thing. some laws i wonder why they even bothered to create ya know?

 

bahahah next there gonna start givin tickets for your shades being to dark

 

I dunno about you guys, but I coast in neutral a lot

 

Pointless

 

well Im getting better mpg then most on here hand calculated, so I think its working

 

I average 18.5 MPG in my 4.0 V6 DCLB 4x4

 

Last 500-600 kms I got 23.8 still with the stock air filter, and stock oil, and only 1500 kms on the motor

 

You have the I4

 

ya but with a good filter and the truck broken in I will be 25-26 easy. Thats pretty good IMO.