Rolling back on a hill you can't climb, put it in neutral, or?

[Toothgnasher]

The offraod cruise button? Are you referring to the hill decent button?..

There are two buttons, confusingly, in the same position on the control panel. Some Wranglers and Gladiators had the Hill Descent button; some have the Select Speed (aka off-road cruise control).

Hill descent only works on hills; Select Speed is meant for any situation.

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[Toothgnasher]

Always in 4lo…… let the engine control your speed where applicable. Braking as necessary.

But take note: Depending on how ‘steep‘ the hill is……..Your engine braking might be TOO SLOW for a safe decent (4lo, 1st gear, for example). Not something you’d experience often and mostly going forward. Hard to explain…. Your front wheels will PLOW forward (No steering) and the ass-end of the vehicle gets ‘light’ and will want to go ahead of you. The safest way …although, extremely uncomfortable for the driver… is to go faster down the hill. Shift into 2nd gear and hope that’s a more controlled decent.

This reminds me of a trip we took that was covered with thick ice & snow with deep ruts you stayed in. It wasn’t even a hill climb. It was a gradual upward trail about 1/4 mile long. Our momentum was reduced the farther up we went and about 3/4 the way up….we lost all forward movement. You couldn’t even stop and hold it there, it just started sliding backwards. OMG….talk about seat sucking. All I could do was hold on….in neutral, and let those deep ruts control where you went. Sliding backwards a good long distance and not doing anything to fight it.
As mentioned, it wasn’t steep, just gradual and eventually came to rest. But that was one of the worst feelings I’ll never forget!!

Oh yeah, sliding backwards on ice down a hill is a seat pucker, for sure.

 

[JAsh1967]

I’ve done very limited snow wheeling but sand I’ve been in too much for my liking.

So you're saying sand is coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere? I mean, you could always leave SoCal for someplace with less sand and more snow. LoL

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

So you're saying sand is coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere? I mean, you could always leave SoCal for someplace with less sand and more snow. LoL

I could move to somewhere like Michigan but the rest of my family in O Hi O would probably disown me.

 

[JAsh1967]

I could move to somewhere like Michigan but the rest of my family in O Hi O would probably disown me.

Oh come on, Ohio isn't real, it can't hurt you!

 

[Bandit’s Lair]

Oh come on, Ohio isn't real, it can't hurt you!

Off Topic: Funny story there. I went back to visit family up there around 07 I had some leave time after a course in Missouri so we drove over to Columbus. I stayed with an Aunt who had a townhouse near the OSU stadium. Little did I know it was Michigan/OSU game day and my ex wife and I were walking around the village shopping area there. I was wearing a navy blue long sleeve shirt. If looks could kill Ida been a dead man. It dawned on me eventually.

 

[3TDJEEP]

There are two buttons, confusingly, in the same position on the control panel. Some Wranglers and Gladiators had the Hill Descent button; some have the Select Speed (aka off-road cruise control).

Hill descent only works on hills; Select Speed is meant for any situation.

Jeep replaced Hill Descent Control with Select Speed Control for automatic transmission models with the release of the JL Wrangler in 2018. So Hill Descent never existed on the Gladiator.

 

[RudeJeepin]

As other have said, use reverse. You never know when you'll need a little blip of the throttle to help correct/control your angle.
Slow and steady whenever possible. Experience is the only way to truly get better.

My advise is aways be in gear going downhill, no matter the direction.

 

[Mad Mac]

I highly recommend watching the following video... Lot's of other great info for new Jeep owners....

Old Jeep owners, too.

I am embarrassed to confess
that I have had my 2021 JTR
acquired in 2023 for more than three years
unaware of how to make the most
of all these features.
The 500 page owners manual
was somewhat off putting.
Thank you so much for this video.

My 1998 Sahara TJ, acquired in 2014,
which I still have, had all I wanted,
or so I thought.

The JTR features hill holding,
first employed
in the 1936 Studebaker President
as we all remember,
before becoming available to the masses
in the 1980's Subarus.
One difference is
the Subaru would hold indefinitely
as long as the clutch pedal is held down
while the JTR and most modern vehicles
only hold for a few seconds at best
when letting off the ABS brakes.
And that's not all.

Now we don't have to buy a Land Rover,
the first to have descent control.
We have it with the JT Rubicon.
But wait, there's more.

The 2007 Rubicon was the first vehicle
to have a sway bar disconnect.

There are probably things I'm forgetting
but I want to get out in the dirt
and try some of this new found knowledge
before I forget.

Take it easy and enjoy the drive.

 

[Antrmo]

There are two buttons, confusingly, in the same position on the control panel. Some Wranglers and Gladiators had the Hill Descent button; some have the Select Speed (aka off-road cruise control).

Hill descent only works on hills; Select Speed is meant for any situation.

Okay I will check to see which one I have on my 20 20 sport s. But do both work for the situation being talked about? Going backwards downhill in reverse and for low. Is this a model thing or new generation of gladiator and Wrangler thing?

 

[Gvsukids]

Okay I will check to see which one I have on my 20 20 sport s. But do both work for the situation being talked about? Going backwards downhill in reverse and for low. Is this a model thing or new generation of gladiator and Wrangler thing?

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/what-is-this-button.34999/

https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/anyone-use-this-button.44752/

 

[S JEEPN]

I had a neighbor that mentioned when riding dirt bikes in the hills never go up anything you would not ride down works with most things.
I do not know how todays traction, anti skid and all that would do in the situation of backing down a slope the off road cruise mode would do its best the only issue i could see is if you need sudden acceleration to straighten you out it would be no better than having it in neutral making me more likely to trust just having it in the same 4wd low or high mode you used to try and climb it. in the past you keep it in gear backing due to the break proportioning valve or bias in the system that puts more applied force onto the front brakes since the weight shifts forward when braking to limit locking up the rear wheels. That trait can be helpful to lockup and slide the front around on most trails and hills it would just stop you from controlling your direction.

 

[Toothgnasher]

Okay I will check to see which one I have on my 20 20 sport s. But do both work for the situation being talked about? Going backwards downhill in reverse and for low. Is this a model thing or new generation of gladiator and Wrangler thing?

The Select Speed would work in the situation being described; I was just pointing out that Hill Descent was a different function/button that, in this case, would do the same thing.

 

[Toothgnasher]

Jeep replaced Hill Descent Control with Select Speed Control for automatic transmission models with the release of the JL Wrangler in 2018. So Hill Descent never existed on the Gladiator.

My '19 Wrangler would argue that. Hill descent 100% exists in at least '18 and '19 models. I do not know definitively when it was replaced with Select Speed, but they coexisted.

 

[3TDJEEP]

My '19 Wrangler would argue that. Hill descent 100% exists in at least '18 and '19 models. I do not know definitively when it was replaced with Select Speed, but they coexisted.

Interesting, thanks for the correction.

Did a google search and this popped up from the Wrangler forum:

Based on member feedback and window stickers, this is what is currently known about which models get Selec-Speed and which get Hill-Descent..
• 2021 JL Wranglers -
Selec-Speed Control for the 2.0 turbo, the 3.0 diesel, and the 392.
Hill-Descent Control for the 3.6.
• 2018-2020 JL Wranglers -
Hill-Descent Control for all trims and engines.
• 2021 JT Gladiators -
Selec-Speed Control for all trims and engines.

Looks like 2022 is when they all went to Selec-Speed. It's unclear which option the 20 Gladiators had although I read on this forum that the Gladiators never had the older Hill-Decent.

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