1996 Pontiac Firebird Owner's Manual - Page 198

Turn Signals When Towing a Trailer When you tow a trailer, your vehiclemay need a different 'turn signal flasher and/or extrawiring. Check with your Pontiac dealer. The arrows on your instrumentpanel will flash whenever you signal a turn or lane change.Properly hooked up, the trailer lamps will also flash, telling other drivers you're about to turn, change lanes or stop. When towing a trailer, the arrows on your instrument panel will flash for turns even if the bulbs on trailer the are burned out. Thus, you may think drivers behind you are seeing your signal when they are not.It's important to check occasionally to be surethe trailer bulbs are still working. ' THIRD (D) instead of AUTOMATIC OVERDRIVE (0) (or, as you need to,a lower gear). Or,if you have a manual transmission with FJFTH (5) (or SIXTH (6)) gear and you are towinga trailer, it's better not to use FIFTH (5) (or SIXTH) (6) gear. Just drive in FOURTH(4) (drive in FIFTH (5) if you havea six-speed manual transmission) or, as you need to, a lower gear. Parking on Hills You really should not park yourvehicle, with a trailer attached, on a hill. If something goes wrong, your rig could start to move. People can be injured, and both your vehicle and thetrailer can be damaged. But if you ever have topark your rig on a hill, here's how to do it: 1 Driving On Grades Reduce speed and shift to a lower gear before you start down a long or steep downgrade. you don't shift If down, you might have to useyour brakes so much that they would get hotand no longerwork well. On a long uphill grade, shift down and reduce your speed to around 45 mph (70 km/h) to reduce the possibility of engine and transmission overheating. If YOU are towing a trailer and you have a automatic n transmission with Overdrive, you may prefer to drive in 1. Apply your regular brakes, but don't shift into PARK (P) yet, or into gear for a manual transmission. 2. Have someone place chocks under the trailer wheels. 3. When the wheel chocks are in place,release the regular brakes until the chocks absorb the load.. ' 4. Reapply the regular brakes, Then apply your parking brake, and then shift to PARK (P), or REVERSE (R) for a manual transmission. 5. Release the regular brakes. 4-37