Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1918-06-27
ERROR IN CLIMBING
Going Up Hills "on the High
Gear" Is Bad Practice.
FOOLISH AND INJURIOUS idea
Veteran Wheelnan Declares Every
"Smart" Driver Puts Car Into Low
Gear Before Motor is Slowed
Down By Heavy Load.

Add to the list of rrieyous errors of
motoring the practice followed by
many drivers of climbing all hills ION
the high gear" This is one mistake
of which pilots are guilty, simply be-
cause they seem 20 think there is some
special merit In the avoidance of gear
changing. On the contrary, it is a
foolish idea ard injurious to cars.
While all modern cars ascend almost
all grades with ease on high, still there
Is limit to the pulling power of the
most powerful machines, and road con-
ditions are inevitably encountered
which make change to the lower gear
| advisable as well as imperative.
Plan of "Smsrt" Driver.
Oue veteran wheelman, who has
| toured from coast to coast on several
occasions, in discussing this feature
of motoring recently, declared that ev-
cry smart" driver puts his car into
4 lower gear before its motor, with the
throttle wide open, is slowed down by
the heavy load to a point at which it
operates. Otherwise he will injure its
bearings and stress its parts unduly.
Four-cylinder low-speed motors indi-
cate where this point is reached, he
added, by running jerldly, with each
individual explosion apparent to the
operator, while motors with six or
more cylinders give much less evidence
of overlooking, but still require the re-
lief Of change to lower gear when
their speeds become sufficiently re-
duced.
When slowed down under full throt.
tie to their lowest operative speeds,
all motors waste fuel inordinately.
Incidentally, they run much more eco
nomically when permitted to speed up
to a reasonable point by being thrown
into lower gear.
Changing Gear.
Where the maintenance of car speed
is an object the change from high to
intermediate gear should be made
when the speedometer has dropped to
Is miles per hour with full gas being
supplied to the motor, for on the lower
gear nearly double this speed can then
be obtained No exact rule as to when
to change gears can be formulated to
apply to all cars or conditions.
Many drivers let the speed fall to
eight or ten miles an hour before
changing, and at this very low speed
every explosion of a four-cylinder mo-
tor racks the bearings detrimentally.
With motors of more cylinders the
point of changing to lower gearmay
safely be lower than the above, but
time and fuel are both wasted under
such conditions.
Blame Bad carburetion.
Time was when the irregular action
or failure to run on the part of mo-
tor could be attributed in nine cases
out of ten to faulty ignition. I'M
proyement in ignition apparatus has,
however, made such vast strides that
this situation is changed, and bad car
buretion is now to blame for u much
improper running of engines.
Fuel of low grade and adequate
heating of the fuel mixture, rather
than lack of improvements in car
buretors, are responsible for this con-
dition. Still, ignition systems of mod
ern cars do occasionally give trouble,
and those of older cars bother much
more frequently.
1t matters little how badly motor
may miss, until it is thoroughly
warmed up, or until 1t is known that
the insulation of the spark plug ends
is perfectly clean. Here the missing
should not be attributed to faulty
ignition, but to lack Of vaporization
of the gasoline, to uneven distribution
of the mixture to the cylinders or to
some similar cause.