can you put auto trans in reverse going forward downhill to slow down

I read in Harry Lewellyn's book that you can put some auto trans in reverse to slow down going downhill,

Can you do this in an xj

Any bad effects

Maybe if it is a life or death situation, I have not had an auto in many many many years but I would think long and hard about doing it as a normal practice unless you own your own tranny and engine shop. Gee, the more I think about the more it gives me the willies.... about the only situation I could think of that it would not rip the drive train up would be on a heavy snowy slope with lots of slippage, geeze thats a terrible question.... :rattle:

My guess is you could do that -- once.

If that's the kind of advice he's giving, I think I'll skip that book. Does he clarify that to do that it should be done from a stop, or when crawling VERY slowly? What you're doing is using the torque converter as a fluid brake. It's going to build up a lot of heat very quickly. Even with an automatic, shifting from forward to reverse on-the-fly is going to do harm.

Had a dump truck fixing to T bone me at an intersection. No way out going forward, shifted into reverse going about 20 MPH in drive. Got out of the way of the dump truck, but most of my tranny was laying in the pan, two or three good handfulls of small pieces and metal chips.
Have on a very few occasions, when I´m fixing to tobogan down an ice covered slope, used reverse as a last resort. Really messes with the steering or whatever steering you had before shifting into reverse. After a few trials, I gave up the technique. Most any other technique was more productive. I´ve sometimes used this technique when driving tracked vehicles, doesn´t work nearly as well with wheels.
Have on a few occasions, while doing a tranny pressure test, shifted from drive to reverse (at very low speeds) with all the wheels off of the ground. Which would sometimes peg the pressure gauge, which can´t be a good thing.

Never did this move with an XJ, but I tried it with my 79 Chevy. i was travelling down a steep hill and went to shift into neutral. Missed and hit reverse instead and all the truck did was stall out. Take the advice given by the guys here. Its a last resort manuver (your life or your Jeep's)

I do not know who gave you that advice; but it do not sound like it is something I would try. On the flip side of it heavy equipment (Buldozers, front end loaders the like have automatic and shift from forward to reverse and reverse to forward while moving without letting up on the excelarator. But then again the move much slower and more important they were designed to do that.
The XJ???

He must have got that idea from someone who owns a tranny shop :laugh3:

I did it accidently when I was like 15 in an olds cutlass going around 20MPH. ack in park. There were some very strange sounding noises initially followed by the engine stalling. Luckily for me it worked fine again but the incident left skid marks in my underwear while I contemplated what my parents were going to do to me for destroying the tranny.

I would NOT recommend droping the tranny into reverse unless you have made a complete stop or your tranny is still under warranty.

Ok i'll take the flaming. I have done it a few times. but i know the limits i was being lower don a hill by strap during a jambo I was a guide for. the hill was licker than ice and i realy didn't give it any gas but just the little tension helped alot since my XJs on the porky side compared to most.do i recomed doing this not unless you fully understand what is happening and what can happpen if you mess up.

i say go for it, the world can always use more parts xj's :laugh: if you want to slow your roll going down hill, the aw4 can be shifted to 1-2 gears when in the acceptable speed range

as long as the wheels are locked up when you shift nothing will be hurt. like on a muddy hill bobsleding down and lock the brakes and shift into reverse spin the wheels to stop. i have done it before, just make sure the wheels are locked up.

I know a guy who works at a stone quarry he some times drives a 1 ton utility truck down in to the bottom, a very steep slope. He puts his truck in reverse and rolls down the hill giving it gas every now and then to slow it down.

I tried it last night going down my rather steep driveway. Works fine at 2mph. It's the same as putting it in drive just after you've backed up and are still rolling a bit. It's not a technique that you would want to use at much more than a crawl.

Race car drivers regularly floor the gas when they spin backwards to try to slow down faster. Of course, this doesn't make it a GOOD idea, nor does it even directly apply to what you are refferring to. Besides, we don't have 700 hp to spin the tires with either.

The problem is this: if you have to stop so fast that you contemplate putting the car in reverse - the problem you're going to run into to (no pun intended) is traction. You going to be sliding your tires. Do you really think that spinning your tires backwards is going to add traction? Maybe it would heat them up and make them more sticky - but what is the likelyhood that it could do that enough to help? Besides, chances are you're just going to stall the engine and/or blow the tranny. In that case, you're left with fewer options for avoiding the accident, especially if you lose power brakes and steering when you stall the engine. So, I'd venture to say that it's a terrible idea, but maybe there is something I missed.

EDIT: for those of us with insurance on the jeep... insurance probably isn't going to fix a blown tranny because we "put the truck in reverse to avoid the accident" - even if we managed to save the rest of the truck that would be have been destroyed by the accident. Just a thought...