Gear or neutral at park?

daniellgr said:
HA! Once took a trip between Sutherland and Calvinia, through the backroads. About 100 km odd from anywhere on a very dusty dirt road came across two rocks in the road about half way up a hill and wondered who was in trouble. After about 20 km, on each hill, there were the two rocks. Then finally, there was the vehicle, a Datsun bakkie, loaded to the hilt. Stopped to see what was going on and the family appeared out of the bushes, grandpa, grandma, 4 kids. Apparently what happened the previous night already, the vehicle ran out of petrol and would die on them every time they hit an uphill. So they would stop, someone would hop out find two rocks, chuck the wheels and then the family would push it to the top of the hill, and they would then all hop in and repeat. Needless to say the rocks stayed behind in the road at each stop.

At day break the pa and brother took off to walk to Calvinia to get petrol, not knowing that they were in for a 70 km walk. At midday ma and sister with a 3 month baby took off to look for water.
Solved the problem with 20L of petrol off my roof rack, and then found out that no one in the family could drive. So my wife drove the bakkie, until we came across the ma, sister and baby, where upon everyone first had some water and food to eat and then off we went again, about 30 km further we came across pa, and brother totally exhausted. We ended up escorting the family all the way to Calvinia.

(Mid summer, with temperature outside sitting at 37 degree C).
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Sounds like something someone would contrive for fictional work.
 
LazyLion said:
1) I thought we were talking about parking in driveways and at home
2) Don't park in the middle of the road.
3) Take your brick with you
4) Have you driven in Joburg lately?
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Oops, I thought it was whenever you stopped and left/exited your car.
The cars stopped in the yellow verge.
And create another danger inside the vehicle?
Nope, too far away. :p
 
Bond said:
Sounds like something someone would contrive for fictional work.
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No, It turned out that the family were on their way to a funeral ----- left in a hurry from Ceres without checking how much petrol was in the tank. A small mistake that could have led to a much larger tragedy.


The point of me telling this story is that it is not always obvious as to what leads someone to place rocks behind the wheels and therefore judging such actions without knowing the circumstances is possibly unwise.
 
daniellgr said:
HA! Once took a trip between Sutherland and Calvinia, through the backroads...
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Was in that area last week. After SALT at Sutherland, on gravel to Fraserburg and Carnarvon, then gravel to MeerKAT/HERA, then the back roads to Williston and Calvinia, across to Clanwilliam and down on backroads to Citrusdal, Ceres and Montagu. Almost all gravel.
 
MickeyD said:
Just got my new Focus (back then) back from the dealer after the first service. Parked it in front of the garage, in neutral, handbrake up.

Hour later my kids come in joking that our car "crashed".

Naturally I was very upset, called the dealer. next thing the dealer principal was here... also started with the leave in 1st gear, etc. and I said that it is not what the Ford manual says (I checked while waiting). Showed it to him. They took it away and repaired the damaged for free.
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That's because leaving it in gear when parked on inclines, over time, can bugger your gearbox up.
 
Guys if your car's handbrake fails leaving it in gear won't necessarily stop it from rolling in any direction. Especially on steep inclines. It will however not move as fast as it would having it in neutral which is kinda a solid point. You know not turning it into a rolling missle.

Leaving your car in gear with the handbrake on doesn't put nearly as much stress on the gearbox as driving it does so I'm not with Solarion on that theory. Just leave it in the smallest ratio and pull the handbrake up. Better safe than sorry.
 
What would happen if you leave it in gear and another cars crashes into yours. Wouldn't cause unnecessary damage to the gearbox and engine?
 
Arthur said:
Was in that area last week. After SALT at Sutherland, on gravel to Fraserburg and Carnarvon, then gravel to MeerKAT/HERA, then the back roads to Williston and Calvinia, across to Clanwilliam and down on backroads to Citrusdal, Ceres and Montagu. Almost all gravel.
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A great trip! :D

See my PM ....
 
LaraC said:
What would happen if you leave it in gear and another cars crashes into yours. Wouldn't cause unnecessary damage to the gearbox and engine?
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There is a chance that there will be more damage. BUT, having your car roll off in an unpredictable direction is much more risky .
 
LaraC said:
What would happen if you leave it in gear and another cars crashes into yours. Wouldn't cause unnecessary damage to the gearbox and engine?
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Consider it like this. If your ignition was switched on for some reason it might just start.
 
Moosedrool said:
Guys if your car's handbrake fails leaving it in gear won't necessarily stop it from rolling in any direction. Especially on steep inclines. It will however not move as fast as it would having it in neutral which is kinda a solid point. You know not turning it into a rolling missle.

Leaving your car in gear with the handbrake on doesn't put nearly as much stress on the gearbox as driving it does so I'm not with Solarion on that theory. Just leave it in the smallest ratio and pull the handbrake up. Better safe than sorry.
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That is where Sinbad's point about turning the wheels comes in. ....
 
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