2009 Manual Transmission Subaru Forester

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.

 

Sounds like either you need a new house

 

That's right, Jean. If your camper doesn't work with your house get a new house.

 

I thought a lot of subaru's now have a feature that prevents you from rolling back while starting in first gear. Usually the hand brake gets used a lot while starting on steep hills. I also give it a lot of gas and drop the clutch! Pulling the trailer with a stick shift is quite pleasant. You don't have to listen to an automatic shifting back and forth as you climb hills.

 

Is that feature what you call 'hill assist'?

 

Yes, that is what 'hill assist' does. On an incline, with the clutch depressed, you can actually feel the brake pedal engage briefly. It is just long enough for you to put your foot on the gas pedal and lift the clutch to get the car moving forward in 1st gear. Really nice feature that I did not have on my 2001 forester. Was really pleased that it worked in the above situation.

 

That's really neat, expecially with a trailer!

 

Since the break was engaged, the break controller probably engaged the breaks on the trailer as well.