Parking on an incline

[ridgelinef4i]

When I park my trailer in my driveway it sits on a grade where the trailer is higher then the truck. Its not a severe grade but enough to cause difficulty when shifitng in and out of park. I get a big clunk, which I think is just the pin coming out of Park in the transmission. I do set the parking brake and have tried chocking the wheels of the trailer but still get this... any suggestions on how to stop this? Am I damaging the tranny?
Thanks

[MBlount]

When I park on a hill I put the transmission in neutral, set the parking brake, release the regular brakes until the slack in the parking brake is taken up, and then finally put the transmission in park. I don't know if it helps any, but I don't get the transmission clunk this way.

[MikeT]

When I park my trailer in my driveway it sits on a grade where the trailer is higher then the truck. Its not a severe grade but enough to cause difficulty when shifitng in and out of park. I get a big clunk, which I think is just the pin coming out of Park in the transmission. I do set the parking brake and have tried chocking the wheels of the trailer but still get this... any suggestions on how to stop this? Am I damaging the tranny?
Thanks

After scaring the bejeebees out of myself one day after parking on a very steep boat ramp, I modified my parking method.

I stop the truck shift into Neutral.
I set the parking break while maintaining pressure on the foot break.
I slowly release pressure on the foot break until I am sure the break will hold.
I then shift into Park.I have never had the hard clunk when shifting out of park while following the above prcedure.

If you are pulling a trailor and park on a hill, follow the above procedure. Then tire chock the trailor and truck tires. I would then get back into the truck and shift back into Neutral, release the break and let the truck settle against the ckocks. Then set the parking break and shift back into Park. If you do this, you should be golden.

[brianluv2ski]

[QUOTE=MikeT;270443]After scaring the bejeebees out of myself one day after parking on a very steep boat ramp, I modified my parking method.

I stop the truck shift into Neutral.
I set the parking break while maintaining pressure on the foot break.
I slowly release pressure on the foot break until I am sure the break will hold.
I then shift into Park.I have never had the hard clunk when shifting out of park while following the above prcedure.


I get the same clunk just parking on an incline without a trailer.. Does this cause any damage?

[Pug]

Yep.
And 2X what Mike said.

I park daily in a sloped driveway, and using the method he described, I believe, has kept my RL out of the service bay.

[Lingered_I]

You should never let the parking pawl take the weight of the vehicle. That`s a 10 cent part that will cost you over $1000 to fix if it breaks because you rode 4000lbs on it.

[livefaith]

Wow. I've had it happen a lot with or without my trailer. Good info to use in the future.

[shovelhd]

Using the parking brake keeps the cables and linkages freed up, too.