Hi All,

This question is for those who've taken their Hybrid on steep inclines for long periods of time. My family and I were planning on going to Big Bear and was wondering who might of taken this road and won't mind sharing their experience.

Thanks in advance.

Anthony

 

Never driven to Big Bear, but I've done a fair bit of mountian driving in Colorado. When you first hit the inclines, your SOC will fall pretty quickly to 1-2 bars because it's a shock to the car. You will find that the CVT revs to 4k+ RPM and you will slowly gain back your SOC under forced regen. As you keep driving in the mountains, the car will rely less on assist and more on the ICE and your SOC won't drop down as much. I wish there was a way to let the car know that you're going up something longer so it should avoid blowing it's juice on the first climb.

If you drive normally (and don't worry about going up the pass at 75mph), you will have no problems.

 

I have been up to Arrowhead/Big Bear about a half dozen times in our 2006 civic hybrid. The car handles 3 passengers with luggage easily up the incline. No worries.

 

Thanks Soldierbot for the reassurment

did you use your low gears at all? Would it be recommended to do so?

 

I use the lower gears a lot in going downhill the mountains, but "second" can be a little interesting. When you don't have a full battery, second will help you hold your speed without braking. However, once your battery is full, second doesn't do much of anything and the car will pick up speed pretty quickly (which I found to be a little surprising the first time it happened).

Once that happens, low will still help some to keep your speed down. I've used low up to 50mph or so without any problems, and I'm pretty sure it could go quite a bit faster. However, there isn't much friction from such a small and efficient engine so you are more dependent on the friction brakes than I like to be.

 

Like Kristian mentioned above, once the battery gets a full charge low gear will not help with slowing the car down. On one trip down the hill I reset the B trip meter and by the time I pulled into my driveway, in Beverly Hills, I was averaging over 70mpg for the 100 mile return.

20 miles downhill does great things for you mpg

 

WOW!!! 70mpg... I'm lookin forward to heading up there now.

 

Resetting in the mountains is fun (in a very geeky sort of way). I've gotten over 2,000mpg (0.3L/100km) on a very choice 14 mile stretch of downhill pavement. Just remember to average it with your trip up the mountain afterwords to keep things in perspective

 

I know exactly what you mean.

I would recommend shifting to S or L. It depends on where you are going, I've never been there so I can't advise. Where I have driven(Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska) S works best for avoiding drain on those really long hills and it's easy to knock it right back into D without hitting the "release button" to shift between them. Driving in anything but D will obviously make an impact on your FE/MPG, but in short amounts it can definitely be used to protect the batteries. If I see a really big incline coming sometimes I shift into S to 'pre-peak' the rpms, this avoids assist (saving charge in turn) and generates a little charge. About five seconds into the climb, I shift back into D to lower the rpms down to a reasonable and efficient amount.

I would not recommend using S on a rainy day with OEM Dunlop tires. Don't ask.