Before departing from Cary, I asked him for some tips towing with a manual transmission. His words of wisdom were: 'don't stop on a hill.' Well, I wish that the construction crew in Rapid City knew about that.
We had just started up a not insignificant hill on our way to Mount Rushmore. The car in front of me began to slow down and finally stop. I said to my sister: "Cary said not to stop on a hill!" The flagger had stopped us. Now the 2009 manual transmission Subaru Forester has a feature called 'hill assist.' Much to my surprise, the hill assist worked on this incline with the 560 attached! I was able to get started without any difficulty. I was a very happy camper. I am not sure it would have worked on the 10% grade I did in the Tetons nor do I want to find out but I was impressed.
Anyone who has read some of my previous posts knows that I was a little nervous about towing with a manual transmission. I have to say that the Forester did great! Once I became comfortable going highway speeds in 4th and sometimes 3rd gear, everything went fine. Going up the 10% incline in the Tetons in second at 40 was fine (admittedly a little stressful) once the guy in front of me got going. Not sure what his problem was but at one point he slowed down to 25 and I thought I was going to stop.
The only drawback is that it does not have a low enough reverse to get the 560 up the slope and into my garage. I have a 19 foot driveway that rises about 3 to 4 feet to the garage. Believe it or not (with the help of my sister) I was able to back up the camper so that I had a clear shot of getting it into the garage. I managed to get the camper onto my driveway but when I tried to get the car and the camper up the driveway into my garage, I smoked the clutch. Camper will be stored until I figure something out.
We had just started up a not insignificant hill on our way to Mount Rushmore. The car in front of me began to slow down and finally stop. I said to my sister: "Cary said not to stop on a hill!" The flagger had stopped us. Now the 2009 manual transmission Subaru Forester has a feature called 'hill assist.' Much to my surprise, the hill assist worked on this incline with the 560 attached! I was able to get started without any difficulty. I was a very happy camper. I am not sure it would have worked on the 10% grade I did in the Tetons nor do I want to find out but I was impressed.
Anyone who has read some of my previous posts knows that I was a little nervous about towing with a manual transmission. I have to say that the Forester did great! Once I became comfortable going highway speeds in 4th and sometimes 3rd gear, everything went fine. Going up the 10% incline in the Tetons in second at 40 was fine (admittedly a little stressful) once the guy in front of me got going. Not sure what his problem was but at one point he slowed down to 25 and I thought I was going to stop.
The only drawback is that it does not have a low enough reverse to get the 560 up the slope and into my garage. I have a 19 foot driveway that rises about 3 to 4 feet to the garage. Believe it or not (with the help of my sister) I was able to back up the camper so that I had a clear shot of getting it into the garage. I managed to get the camper onto my driveway but when I tried to get the car and the camper up the driveway into my garage, I smoked the clutch. Camper will be stored until I figure something out.
