Hey Everyone, first off cool foru, I always been a Saleen Speedsteer,Corvette guy but I just purchased a 2000 Chevy Blazer LS (2DR) and I love the car..its awsome..good power..cumfy etc... I live in L.A and recently took it to vegas....any who ever is familiar with the route from L.A to Vegas is the uphill parts....everytime I hit one I went from 80 and the car would go down to 55-60 mph barely...even one point I presed the throttle all the way down made RPM jump a little but nothing close to redline ( do these cars ever redline seems impossible which is kind of cool weird way) I noticed there is 3rd gear next to drive and 2nd...what do you guys do drop it 3rd??? but I heard thats if your towing..sorry if this sounds stupid but hey this is what I get for being sports car guy my whole life....or should I just go easy on throttle cruise it at 50mph until hill is over hahaha, but on normal freeway car is awsome..go's 85 with no trouble... If it makes diff car only has 57k miles..

 

Black 2000 Chevy Blazer LS 2dr

 

You "should" put it in third when going up a hill, towing or not, as this is better on thetranny. Its difficult for the truck to go into and stay in overdrive when going up a hill, but I don't know the details on why. I just know from trial and error since I live in the mountains. Third works a lot better on a hill. You get more power from putting it in thirdtoo.

 

The only real time it is advisable to drop an auto trans down into a lower gear manually is if the transmission is 'hunting' for the proper gear. If you notice that the transmission is shifting itself between 3rd & 4th gear often, then you should drop it down into 3rd. Once the grade flattens out a bit, you should be able to put it back in OD and drive on.

 

^^^ Agreed, the automatic transmission should be able to find the right gear on its own (ie. should drop into 3rd if needed). If you were towing something then I would say you should put it in 3rd gear on hill climbs.

 

I feel you guys but the car doesent downshift on its own like normal cars (ex accord, camrys sentra, cars i rented in past ) it just stays at low rpm like 1800-2300 cant remember exactly and gos at 50mph...I been hesitent to drop it 3rd gear because I heard its good only for towing and you shouldnt drive fast when you drop it to 3rd....and when I say hill..its not monster hill but when you driveing you notice your car is slowing down unless you floor it and with a blazers case It doesent have much effect......If anyone drove from Los Angeles to vegas in a blazer they know exactly what I mean I appreciate all the replys guys keep on coming if you got more suggestions...

 

I would put it in 3 if the RPMs are that low. I don't think its good to travel up a hill when RPMs are around 2000 or lower. Here in Steamboat, we have 7% grades on the mountain passes, which may be more steeper than what you're traveling. When I go up, I put it in 3 and usually go 50, no faster than 55, and is around 3000 RPMs.

 

Your truck should downshift when prompted by increased throttle. If it doesn't, then you have a problem somewhere...

So what you are saying, 2000CaliBlazerMan, is that when driving uphill, your truck will not downshift even at full throttle?

 

I Do see the Rpm shoot up from 2200 to 2700 but the car wont still move unless I am on full throttle all the way and it still slow....Mechanical car is in awsome condition only got 57k miles...clean as a whistle....I guess they cant go really fast when it comes to route to vegas hills....elevation is 4000 i think if i remember the sign correctly....I guess in future drives I will just go easy on the gas peddle and cruise at 50mph so I wont put no presure on the tranny while everyone passes..me...thats the sad part hahahahae even kia's and priuses....

 

You should be able to keep up with normal traffic flow and be fine on the transmission assuming nothing is wrong with the transmission or something. I mean you should be able to pass people (while doing like 70mph) up a slight grade of say 5%. I have had no problems with lack of power or the lack of downshifting automatically while driving up and down hills. It is a truck and unless it is loaded down real heavy it should drive like a normal car.

The other thing is, is this a 4cyl. or V6 engine? If it is a 4cyl, then this might be normal but I would still think that is would kick down to 3rd gear and be screaming at like 3k-4k RPM's. If it is a v6 then you probably have a problem with either the engine not running quite right or something in the transmission is werid.