Steep driveway costing me my marriage

[Adsibob]

15 hours ago, Happy Valley said:

Which way does the driveway face in the morning? This can massively effect ice melting. If it is in the shade all day then ice could be constant in a harsh period in the winter. 

 

Seem to remember you are in the London area so winter temps are generally pretty high in comparison to most of rest of the country.

This is more reassuring. The driveway faces East, and it’s not at all in the shade. So other than very early morning starts, it shouldn’t really get too icy hopefully. And yes, London… quite polluted but of London as well.

[Thorfun]

I know someone who lives in a London house that is quite a way below road level. they have a shallow sloping drive and then retaining wall and steps down to the front door. it seems to work well.

[SteamyTea]

Can you get a residence disabled parking bay painted on the road outside your house.

There must be one member of the family that would loose an leg, or just be a bit wheezy in the moorings.

 

I have noticed down here people are putting traffic cones outside their houses.  Its a great idea, I move them and park.

[Adsibob]

15 hours ago, Thorfun said:

I know someone who lives in a London house that is quite a way below road level. they have a shallow sloping drive and then retaining wall and steps down to the front door. it seems to work well.

Shallow being the operative word. Ours isn’t very shallow. I blame the architect who designed this. And myself for blindly following his lead. 

[Thorfun]

6 hours ago, Adsibob said:

Shallow being the operative word. Ours isn’t very shallow. I blame the architect who designed this. And myself for blindly following his lead. 

we've all been there. my point was a +1 for building a retaining wall and filling in to create a shallower drive as my friend's drive would be very steep without the retaining wall and steps down to the front door.

[joe90]

7 hours ago, Adsibob said:

Shallow being the operative word. Ours isn’t very shallow. I blame the architect who designed this. And myself for blindly following his lead. 

We have all been there, with so much going on fir a full build it’s difficult to focus on everything, hindsight is a wonderful thing 🤷‍♂️
 

[Onoff]

On 14/09/2022 at 01:04, Adsibob said:

divorce

 

Wish I had a really steep drive.

[SteamyTea]

47 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Wish I had a really steep drive.

Just been to a funeral.  Guy whose wife had just died had already buried two other wives.

Asked what happened to the first two, "food poisoning" he said.

"What happened to this one" I asked.

"Broken neck" was his reply.

"How did that happen" I asked.

 

"She would not eat her lunch"

[Temp]

What car is your wife driving? Even a three year old Fiesta has hill start assist these days. Is it turned off?

[Adsibob]

4 hours ago, Temp said:

What car is your wife driving? Even a three year old Fiesta has hill start assist these days. Is it turned off?

It is a Ford Fiesta, but it’s 10 years old, almost 11. Titanium Trim 2012 registration.

I’m pretty sure it does not have any sort of assist. It’s a genuine manual car.

[SteamyTea]

13 hours ago, Temp said:

What car is your wife driving? Even a three year old Fiesta has hill start assist these days. Is it turned off?

I did my driving tests in High Wycombe.  Lots of hill starts there.

I could change a clutch in an MGB in about an hour and a half.

[Temp]

On 16/09/2022 at 21:51, Adsibob said:

It is a Ford Fiesta, but it’s 10 years old, almost 11. Titanium Trim 2012 registration.

I’m pretty sure it does not have any sort of assist. It’s a genuine manual car.

 

Perhaps get her a newer one. Our 2018 manual has hill start assist and a manual handbrake so you can still do them yourself if you want to.

[SteamyTea]

29 minutes ago, Temp said:

Our 2018 manual has hill start assist

How does that work, does it slip the clutch or use a combination of brakes and semi-automatic clutch engagement.

[ProDave]

23 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

How does that work, does it slip the clutch or use a combination of brakes and semi-automatic clutch engagement.

My Subaru Forrester has what they call a "hill holder"  not something you can turn on or off.

 

If you apply the brakes while the clutch is down (as you are coming to a stop) then release the brake pedal, the brakes stay on until you lift the clutch (as you are starting off)  It is in effect doing what a proper driver does with the handbrake when doing a hill start.

 

One one previous car, the valve unit that does this started leaking so rather than replace it, so I just got my local garage to remove it.

[Kelvin]

16 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

How does that work, does it slip the clutch or use a combination of brakes and semi-automatic clutch engagement.

 The way hill hold works on manual cars is via an incline sensor where if it detects you are on a hill it engages the brakes. It then uses a combination of other sensors to work out if the engine torque and wheel speed is enough to defeat the incline so it disengages the brakes. Other systems do the same thing where you have the clutch pedal fully depressed and foot on the brake. When you lift off the brake pedal the brakes remain engaged as you lift the clutch up to the biting point where it disengages the brakes. The original system was developed in the 1930s using a ball bearing in the brake line to detect the incline and lock the braking system. 

[markc]

I remember the first Nissan Cabstar we got will hill assist, we fitted a crane to it. I took it to do a demo, parked on a hill, got out and put the jacks down and performed the lift perfectly. Problem occurred when I lifted the jacks again and the “auto brakes” were now not engaged and the truck set off down the hill. Luckily I jumped in the cab and stopped it before hitting anything

[Temp]

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

How does that work, does it slip the clutch or use a combination of brakes and semi-automatic clutch engagement.

 

No it's just an anti roll back. If you are in forward gear it doesn't let you roll back. I think if you are in reverse it doesn't let you roll forward but I cant recall testing that.

 

Basically you just put it in gear drop the hand brake and drive away. 

[SteamyTea]

13 minutes ago, Temp said:

Basically you just put it in gear drop the hand brake and drive away. 

Does it slow down the traffic light GP start?

 

I usually pull away at tick over, even on a normal hill.  1 in 10s are a bit different, then 1200 revs maybe.

I wish I still had autos, they are so much easier, seems strange when I drove in town I had autos, and London is pretty flat, now I am in the land of extinct volcanoes, I have a manual.

[Temp]

14 minutes ago, Temp said:

 

No it's just an anti roll back. If you are in forward gear it doesn't let you roll back. I think if you are in reverse it doesn't let you roll forward but I cant recall testing that.

 

Basically you just put it in gear drop the hand brake and drive away. 

 

Just been out to test it and I'm wrong.

 

It appears to work by keeping the handbrake engaged for a few seconds. So the sequence is..

 

Put foot on foot brake.

Engage gear

Release hand brake.

You then have several seconds to move your foot from the foot brake to the accelerator during which the car doesn't roll.

 

 

 

 

[Ferdinand]

58 minutes ago, Temp said:

 

Just been out to test it and I'm wrong.

 

It appears to work by keeping the handbrake engaged for a few seconds. So the sequence is..

 

Put foot on foot brake.

Engage gear

Release hand brake.

You then have several seconds to move your foot from the foot brake to the accelerator during which the car doesn't roll.

 

 

 

 

 

IIRC that's one option for starting off in snow to stop too much torque on the wheels causing wheelspin.

 

The other option being start in 2nd or 3rd and slip the clutch.

[Kelvin]

1 hour ago, Temp said:

 

Just been out to test it and I'm wrong.

 

It appears to work by keeping the handbrake engaged for a few seconds. So the sequence is..

 

Put foot on foot brake.

Engage gear

Release hand brake.

You then have several seconds to move your foot from the foot brake to the accelerator during which the car doesn't roll.

 

 

 

 

It’s as I described above. It actuates the braking system. Some will hold it on the brakes until the car detects that you’ve moved off. Most just hold the brakes for a few seconds. My MY19 Jimny will hill hold for 2 secs. 

[Temp]

1 minute ago, Kelvin said:

It’s as I described above. It actuates the braking system. Some will hold it on the brakes until the car detects that you’ve moved off. Most just hold the brakes for a few seconds. My MY19 Jimny will hill hold for 2 secs. 

 

Sorry I missed your post above. Makes sense.

[ProDave]

Just put chocks behind the wheels when she is parked.

[AliG]

Our driveway rises 2m over approximately 18m before flattening off in front of the house. That is about half as steep as yours at 6 degrees.

 

I find it quite steep and slippery and worry about liability when it is wet or there is snow/ice. It only snows two or three times a year here and the first time it snowed just a few millimetres the car slid straight out onto the road before it stopped. Non 4wd cars struggle to get up the driveway if there is any snow on it at all. It may not snow much but with that steep a slope I would just be worried about it being wet.

 

I would be quite concerned about a delivery person or visitor slipping on such a steep drive.

 

How does it affect the accessibility of the main entrance? Is it flat at that point? I would be curious as to what building control had to say.

 

The car issue is easily fixed by buying an automatic or EV which we'll all have eventually.

[Adsibob]

9 hours ago, AliG said:

Our driveway rises 2m over approximately 18m before flattening off in front of the house. That is about half as steep as yours at 6 degrees.

 

I find it quite steep and slippery and worry about liability when it is wet or there is snow/ice. It only snows two or three times a year here and the first time it snowed just a few millimetres the car slid straight out onto the road before it stopped. Non 4wd cars struggle to get up the driveway if there is any snow on it at all. It may not snow much but with that steep a slope I would just be worried about it being wet.

 

I would be quite concerned about a delivery person or visitor slipping on such a steep drive.

 

How does it affect the accessibility of the main entrance? Is it flat at that point? I would be curious as to what building control had to say.

 

The car issue is easily fixed by buying an automatic or EV which we'll all have eventually.

we have very comfortable steps next to the driveway that lead from the pavement to the front door, so there is no chance a delivery person would choose the driveway over the steps. The driveway is fine to drive in and out of in rain. BCO wasn’t the last bit interested. We actually got our BCO certificate last week. 
i think the main issue is ice, but I think when it gets icy (not that common in London, maybe a week or two a year) we will just not use the driveway. But even with ice, I reckon one could manage by gritting it.