Shifting into "Park" @ 30 MPH...

In case you've ever wondered what would happen if you threw your vehicle into "Park" at, say, 30 MPH, let me tell you exactly what happens...

We had bus stuck on a steep hill, his rear end was stuck on the pavement lifting his drive wheels ever so slightly off the ground.

I drove in my '97 Jeep Cherokee to a fire company member's house, where he gave me a pair of 5' long heavy-duty planks (like 3" thick, 12" wide) to try to get the bus some traction to get unstuck.

I opened the rear of the Jeep, put the planks in the back...

And as I returned to the scene, I applied the brakes, and one of the two planks slid forward - directly between the two front seats - and into the floor mounted shifter. WHAP - from DRIVE to PARK in an instant.

The rear wheels locked, and I started skidding immediately, but I was surprised, I didn't think I was going that fast and I pumped the brakes a bit - no effect. Then I realized that the vehicle had stalled - and only then did I put it all together and realize what had happened.

The damage seems to be limited to the fact that I really have to put it HARD into park to get the key out and it's no longer "locking" in drive position, the lock pont for drive is a little closer to "2". I'm told that there's a cable to be adjusted, I've got to deal with that.

But the spray of metal and oil I would have expected didn't happen, I bet there's some interior damage, but at 167,000 miles, there comes a time to say "good bye" to any vehicle, I'll run it until it does not go (this is the 3rd transmission anyway, the 97 Jeeps seem to devour tranmissions.

One of the reasons I prefer a truck, even if that wall between the cab and bed are thin sheet metal it is still a wall there which prevents whatever I'm carrying from hitting me when I have to slam on the brakes when someone cuts me off.

It might not be as bad as you would think.

My friend was on an L.A. freeway, cruising along at 60 mph, when her Siberian Husky reached from the back seat, between the front seats, and shoved the gearshift into PARK.

The noise was tremendous, but she shifted back into Drive as quickly as she could react, and headed for her mechanic. He said he couldn't find anything wrong. He said he thought the flywheel (?) was moving fast enough that the teeth couldn't engage.

She drove it for another five or six years before her brother blew the engine out of it.

Sue

I used to work for GM at their proving ground, and the engineers that worked for Hydromatic (GM's transmission division) told me that the vehicles are built to take a shift into Park on the go, and that it was a part of the standard road testing.

Ken K.

Well, then they did their job. Man, what a slam-bam noise it made. I gotta get that lock position re-set, though, it's driving me nuts (get it? DRIVING me nuts? I crack myself up).

A side effect of locking the rear wheels, either by shifting into "park," or applying the parking brake, is what we used to call a "dynamite turn." At slightly higher speeds on pavement, or even slower speeds on water/sand/gravel/etc, soon after the rear wheels lock the rear end of the vehicle will begin to come around, and you will be sliding backwards. We used to do it on narrow two lane roads if we needed to make a rapid u-turn. We would slow to 25-30, put the right side tires off of the pavement, slam on the parking/emergency brake, spin the steering wheel to the left, counter-steer as the rear of the vehicle came around, release the parking brake (used to hook the release handle to the window crank- dating myself here I know- with a big rubber band), hit the gas, and shazam, we are now rocketing off in the other direction. Do not try this yourself, unless you are willing to get stuck a few times, and maybe slide into something, until you master the technique...

I heard stories about people from other countries (polish jokes) who were under impression that "r" stood for rockets and when going really fast they would put transmission into that gear. That's what I heard from my friends when I got my first car

I accidentally threw my old F350 dumptruck into reverse doing ~30mph a few years back. It popped out of gear and instead of throwing it back into fourth I put it in reverse. It locked the rear wheels up and sent me slidding sideways with a 1500 lb. set of pre-cast stairs in the back. Lets just say I was more careful after that.

I really need to be careful though as the car I drive now is a six speed and all my trucks are only four or five speeds.

I've gone into R while going 30mph down the road on accident before also in JEEP. It blipped the tires then rolled to a stop ont he side of the road.. I put it back in P, started it up again and off I went no problems.

OBG, is that what used to be referred to as a "Rockford turn"?

Sue

Could be. A quick 180, no matter what it is called (we were doing them well before Jimmy Rockford came on the tube). IF you do it right...

Yep, the Rockford Turn. quite a good stunt.

Slamming into park with the wheels spinning could end up shearing the locking pin in the tranny. Sounds like maybe you bent it or something.