Yeah, I used to spend two or three days a week going all over East Yorks, I think I must have tried every alternative there was.
An honourable mention should also be made for Garrowby Hill on the A166, between Stamford Bridge and Wetwang (what a brilliant place name 
) , that was do-able when loaded but didn’t half work the engine hard on my old Scania 
Zac_A:
You need a decent few hp to get up there if you’re loaded, my old (underpowered) Scania 420 32T could just manage it empty, but not with any load in it.
Very few people had 420s when I started driving, they were literally the equivalent of a 650 V8 now. 320 was more like the most common. Used to do it fine albeit slowly at 38T with a Leyland Roadtrain with a whopping 290BHP. Everything on the road can get up that hill, you just have to select the right gear which for some may just end up being 1st and going up slower than walking speed.
Zac_A:
An honourable mention should also be made for Garrowby Hill on the A166,
When I was doing my driver training at Driffield I’d often travel that way back to camp after a weekend at home. Great fun hooning up there on my RD250/400 hybrid with the worlds loudest expansion pipes fitted! Probably not much fun to those in earshot who were most likely rolling their eyes though. 
Conor:
Zac_A:
You need a decent few hp to get up there if you’re loaded, my old (underpowered) Scania 420 32T could just manage it empty, but not with any load in it.Very few people had 420s when I started driving, they were literally the equivalent of a 650 V8 now. 320 was more like the most common. Used to do it fine albeit slowly at 38T with a Leyland Roadtrain with a whopping 290BHP. Everything on the road can get up that hill, you just have to select the right gear which for some may just end up being 1st and going up slower than walking speed.
Agreed, bhp figures don’t mean much, for grunt you want huge but instantly available torque at low revs preferably from a large capacity engine, that 290hp Roadtrain was presumably the 14 litre ■■■■■■■■ an engine IIRC correctly that gave some 90% of its considerable maximum torque from around 800rpm, plus you were in charge of the gears and clutch engagement at all times and very little else interfered.
The problem these days is the percentage of load imposed on the drive axle compared with GVW, ie a 10 ton drive axle @ 32 tons on 4 axles was putting around 30% of the GVW through those drive tyres.
@ 44 tons on 6 axles that drive axle even if its got the full 10 tons imposed (not always, i use an axle weigher regularly) is driving less that 25% of GVW through the drive tyres, plus dragging an extra 2 undriven axles around, plus umpteen traction systems which whilst helping keep the shiny side up in normal driving can be a detriment to hard/steep/slippery conditions.
Hence the jiggery pokery any driver has to use now to impose as much weight as possible onto the drive axle in such circs, using such actions as switching off traction control and selecting manual override on the gearbox and last but by no means least transferring as much weight as possible onto the tractor itself then to the drive axle, done right the drive axle weight can be increased up to around 15 tons and slightly more plus lessened the drag effect on up to 3 axles, you’ve also made the drivetrain as driver controllable as possible and denied the vehicle the ability to cut engine power itself by disabling TC/ASR.
As always these things need to be learned and the intricasies of one’s particular vehicle explored and fixed in memory long before they are needed, too late trying to learn how to drive your wagon in a situation like the above.
Conor:
Zac_A:
You need a decent few hp to get up there if you’re loaded, my old (underpowered) Scania 420 32T could just manage it empty, but not with any load in it.Very few people had 420s when I started driving, they were literally the equivalent of a 650 V8 now.
We must be talking about different 420’s I reckon
Here’s my old trusty workhorse from those days, it’s a 32 tonner
EDIT: it had a 3 over 3 with a range changer and gear splitter, plus the crawler, so with 13 forward gears it wasn’t short on gear options, but for Sutton Bank it made your gear selection more crucial than with a 16 speed box. I always felt you lost a lot of flexibility with having fewer options. Anyway, what I might have saved in time by taking the shorter road, was wasted by far higher fuel consumption, and I was never up against the clock on that job so I more frequently saw the bank when descending.
Zac_A:
We must be talking about different 420’s I reckonHere’s my old trusty workhorse from those days, it’s a 32 tonner
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Yeah that’s at least a generation after the 83/93/113 and the odd 82/92/112 still on the road that were around at the time I was driving that Roadtrain.
I’m with Conor on this one, I’m afraid. I started in 320-380 44-tonners when only “intermodal” work could go 44t. 420 for a 32-tonner is WAY over the 10 hp/tonne “ideal world” most of us only dreamt about then! (I’m talking around 2000ish, by the way)
I know that area well, but it was coming out of a chicken factory/slaughterhouse in the village of Cullingworth in the Calder Valley that nearly did for me. The fact it was a 4 Series 360 Scania dragging a fully loaded reefer wasn’t the problem, when faced with a similar hill, it was the snow and ice that did it. Tag axle up, high-ish gear/low revs and it went up on the second attempt. As said above, bugger all to do with horsepower, and everything to do with torque and traction - it was a 12-litre lump.
It looks like he’s got so far up and lost traction and tried to turn around , it happened to me with a midlift CF but the midlift wouldn’t lift, i was empty and ended up reversing back down again no traction at all , i reversed into a farm entrance which was facing downhill i just managed to get around , i used the caravan route after that which is quite tight and not the best with a derated CF
Yes, It’s all to do with traction. I tried to go up with a step frame trailer; there was nothing on the front because the very light load fitted nicely on the main bit. Realising I would need to ascend Sutton Bank I asked for some ballast weight to be put on the front. The garage had some IBC’s full of water which they used for test weights. Two would have been admirable, but the TM said No.
Off I went, all was fine till just after the left hand hairpin when traction was lost and it started hopping and bouncing backwards.
Luckily the diff lock and crawler gear solved the problem, and I could imagine those following were riving their clutches out trying to keep up with my slow progress
I live quite near the top of Sutton Bank and use it regularly. He’s facing uphill if he turns right.
I’ve turned artics round on Sutton Bank twice, once in the turning area on the first slope and on another occasion I got up that but couldn’t make the second one. I reversed into the farm entrance on the hairpin and went down again.
Part of the problem with Sutton Bank is that you can get up it in the dry no problem, but if its raining its a different matter. Trouble is it can be dry at the bottom…and raining or snowing at the top! I remember years since approaching it from the top in a blinding snowstorm one night heading to Thirsk (in my car) and by the time I got to the bottom there wasn’t a snowflake to be seen!
Looks like the driver lost traction(probably an auto) didnt have the nous to select manual and ballsed it right up trying to turn around. The rear under run bar looks well wedged into the grass bank. Did the driver get it out under its own steam or did “Trucking Hell” come to the rescue 
Suedehead:
Looks like the driver lost traction(probably an auto) didnt have the nous to select manual
Surely the biggest problem is the midlift is down?
Suedehead:
Looks like the driver lost traction(probably an auto) didnt have the nous to select manual and ballsed it right up trying to turn around. The rear under run bar looks well wedged into the grass bank. Did the driver get it out under its own steam or did “Trucking Hell” come to the rescue
Perhaps it’s an auto box that the manual setting is deactivated as many are these days
drover:
Suedehead:
Looks like the driver lost traction(probably an auto) didnt have the nous to select manual and ballsed it right up trying to turn around. The rear under run bar looks well wedged into the grass bank. Did the driver get it out under its own steam or did “Trucking Hell” come to the rescuePerhaps it’s an auto box that the manual setting is deactivated as many are these days
Yes and even if it does have manual option in standard form the bloody thing defaults to auto in Dafs unless thats been programmed out by the dealer.
Unless you make use of and learn all quirks of whatever vehicle you are driving when not needed, its too late to start learning at a time like that.
Juddian:
drover:
Suedehead:
Looks like the driver lost traction(probably an auto) didnt have the nous to select manual and ballsed it right up trying to turn around. The rear under run bar looks well wedged into the grass bank. Did the driver get it out under its own steam or did “Trucking Hell” come to the rescuePerhaps it’s an auto box that the manual setting is deactivated as many are these days
Yes and even if it does have manual option in standard form the bloody thing defaults to auto in Dafs unless thats been programmed out by the dealer.
Unless you make use of and learn all quirks of whatever vehicle you are driving when not needed, its too late to start learning at a time like that.
Absolutely i bet most steering wheel attendents don’t even bother to try it out.
Look forward to the driverless ones attempting similar 
How can an auto box fail to negotiate a steep hill?
stu675:
How can an auto box fail to negotiate a steep hill?
first of all ,the computer decides to change gear .then the gearbox has a meeting to decide which gear is going in next, they eventually make the decision but this particular gear is too tall sooooooooo the gearbox has another meeting . all the time these meetings are taking place the wagon is losing momentum . eventually the bloody thing stalls and the chump in the drivers seat looks like a right wally. (dont ask how i found this out) . look at the hill ,put it in manual mode ,select a gear that will get you up the hill and leave it there until your confident that the motor will pull a higher gear. this is in a daf but i suspect other marques are similar .i mourn the loss of my manual box .
stu675:
How can an auto box fail to negotiate a steep hill?
The 64 thousand dollar question no one asked the people who designed the bloody thing.
As syramax has answered correctly, because speed drops faster than the reject gearbox from hell can cope with…and if our hero behind the wheel isn’t ready to dump the weight off the mid lift as soon as its possible then even if the gearbox (auto or manual overridden) can cope the hill climb might still fail through lack of traction.
[emoji2] (un)fortunately I’ve not had the pleasure of such hilarity. [emoji106]
stu675:
How can an auto box fail to negotiate a steep hill?
Quite easy it just decides to change gear at the worst possible moment.
