2007 CADILLAC ESCALADE ESV Owners Manual

Your Driving, the Road, and
Your Vehicle............................................ 322
Defensive Driving...................................... 322
Drunken Driving........................................ 323
Control of a Vehicle.................................. 326
Braking...................................................... 326
Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS).................. 327
Braking in Emergencies............................. 329
Locking Differential.................................... 329
Road Sensing Suspension......................... 329
StabiliTrak
®System................................... 330
All-Wheel Drive (AWD) System.................. 332
Steering.................................................... 333
Off-Road Recovery.................................... 335
Passing..................................................... 335
Loss of Control.......................................... 337
Off-Road Driving........................................ 338
Driving at Night......................................... 354Driving in Rain and on Wet Roads............ 355
City Driving............................................... 358
Freeway Driving........................................ 359
Before Leaving on a Long Trip.................. 360
Highway Hypnosis..................................... 361
Hill and Mountain Roads........................... 362
Winter Driving........................................... 364
If Your Vehicle is Stuck in Sand, Mud,
Ice, or Snow.......................................... 368
Rocking Your Vehicle to Get It Out........... 368
Recovery Hooks........................................ 369
Loading Your Vehicle................................ 370
Towing........................................................ 376
Towing Your Vehicle ................................. 376
Recreational Vehicle Towing...................... 376
Autoride
®................................................... 378
Towing a Trailer........................................ 379
Trailer Recommendations.......................... 392
Section 4 Driving Your Vehicle
321

Your Driving, the Road, and
Your Vehicle
Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about driving is:
Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety device in
your vehicle: Buckle up. SeeSafety Belts: They
Are for Everyone on page 38.
{CAUTION:
Defensive driving really means “Be ready
for anything.” On city streets, rural roads,
or expressways, it means “Always expect
the unexpected.” Assume that pedestrians
or other drivers are going to be careless
and make mistakes. Anticipate what they
might do and be ready. Rear-end
collisions are about the most preventable
of accidents. Yet they are common. Allow
enough following distance. Defensive
driving requires that a driver concentrate
on the driving task. Anything that
distracts from the driving task makes
proper defensive driving more difficult
and can even cause a collision, with
resulting injury. Ask a passenger to help
do these things, or pull off the road in a
safe place to do them. These simple
defensive driving techniques could save
your life.
322

Drunken Driving
Death and injury associated with drinking and
driving is a national tragedy. It is the number
one contributor to the highway death toll, claiming
thousands of victims every year.
Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to
drive a vehicle:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
Attentiveness
Police records show that almost half of all motor
vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most
cases, these deaths are the result of someone who
was drinking and driving. In recent years, more
than 16,000 annual motor vehicle-related deaths
have been associated with the use of alcohol, with
more than 300,000 people injured.Many adults — by some estimates, nearly half
the adult population — choose never to drink
alcohol, so they never drive after drinking.
For persons under 21, it is against the law in
every U.S. state to drink alcohol. There are good
medical, psychological, and developmental
reasons for these laws.
The obvious way to eliminate the leading highway
safety problem is for people never to drink
alcohol and then drive. But what if people do?
How much is “too much” if someone plans
to drive? It is a lot less than many might think.
Although it depends on each person and situation,
here is some general information on the problem.
The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of
someone who is drinking depends upon
four things:
The amount of alcohol consumed
The drinker’s body weight
The amount of food that is consumed before
and during drinking
The length of time it has taken the drinker to
consume the alcohol
323

According to the American Medical Association, a
180 lb (82 kg) person who drinks three 12 ounce
(355 ml) bottles of beer in an hour will end up with
a BAC of about 0.06 percent. The person would
reach the same BAC by drinking three 4 ounce
(120 ml) glasses of wine or three mixed drinks if
each had 1-1/2 ounces (45 ml) of liquors like
whiskey, gin, or vodka.It is the amount of alcohol that counts. For
example, if the same person drank three double
martinis (3 ounces or 90 ml of liquor each)
within an hour, the person’s BAC would be close
to 0.12 percent. A person who consumes food
just before or during drinking will have a somewhat
lower BAC level.
There is a gender difference, too. Women
generally have a lower relative percentage of
body water than men. Since alcohol is carried in
body water, this means that a woman generally will
reach a higher BAC level than a man of her
same body weight will when each has the same
number of drinks.
The law in most U.S. states, and throughout
Canada, sets the legal limit at 0.08 percent. In
some other countries, the limit is even lower. For
example, it is 0.05 percent in both France and
Germany. The BAC limit for all commercial drivers
in the United States is 0.04 percent.
The BAC will be over 0.10 percent after three to
six drinks (in one hour). Of course, as we have
seen, it depends on how much alcohol is in the
drinks, and how quickly the person drinks them.
324

But the ability to drive is affected well below a BAC
of 0.10 percent. Research shows that the driving
skills of many people are impaired at a BAC
approaching 0.05 percent, and that the effects are
worse at night. All drivers are impaired at BAC
levels above 0.05 percent. Statistics show that the
chance of being in a collision increases sharply for
drivers who have a BAC of 0.05 percent or above.
A driver with a BAC level of 0.06 percent has
doubled his or her chance of having a collision. At a
BAC level of 0.10 percent, the chance of this driver
having a collision is 12 times greater; at a level of
0.15 percent, the chance is 25 times greater!
The body takes about an hour to rid itself of the
alcohol in one drink. No amount of coffee or
number of cold showers will speed that up.
“I will be careful” is not the right answer. What if
there is an emergency, a need to take sudden
action, as when a child darts into the street? A
person with even a moderate BAC might not be
able to react quickly enough to avoid the collision.There is something else about drinking and driving
that many people do not know. Medical research
shows that alcohol in a person’s system can make
crash injuries worse, especially injuries to the
brain, spinal cord, or heart. This means that when
anyone who has been drinking — driver or
passenger — is in a crash, that person’s chance
of being killed or permanently disabled is
higher than if the person had not been drinking.
{CAUTION:
Drinking and then driving is very
dangerous. Your reexes, perceptions,
attentiveness, and judgment can be
affected by even a small amount of
alcohol. You can have a serious — or
even fatal — collision if you drive after
drinking. Please do not drink and drive or
ride with a driver who has been drinking.
Ride home in a cab; or if you are with a
group, designate a driver who will not
drink.
325

Control of a Vehicle
You have three systems that make your vehicle
go where you want it to go. They are the brakes,
the steering, and the accelerator. All three
systems have to do their work at the places where
the tires meet the road.
Sometimes, as when you are driving on snow or
ice, it is easy to ask more of those control systems
than the tires and road can provide. That means
you can lose control of your vehicle. See
StabiliTrak
®System on page 330.
Adding non-GM accessories can affect your
vehicle’s performance. SeeAccessories and
Modications on page 396.
Braking
SeeBrake System Warning Light on page 235.
Braking action involves perception time and
reaction time.
First, you have to decide to push on the brake
pedal. That is perception time. Then you have to
bring up your foot and do it. That is reaction time.
Average reaction time is about three-fourths of a
second. But that is only an average. It might
be less with one driver and as long as two or
three seconds or more with another. Age, physical
condition, alertness, coordination, and eyesight
all play a part. So do alcohol, drugs, and
frustration. But even in three-fourths of a second,
a vehicle moving at 60 mph (100 km/h) travels
66 feet (20 m). That could be a lot of distance in an
emergency, so keeping enough space between
your vehicle and others is important.
And, of course, actual stopping distances vary
greatly with the surface of the road, whether it is
pavement or gravel; the condition of the road,
whether it is wet, dry, or icy; tire tread; the
condition of your brakes; the weight of the vehicle;
and the amount of brake force applied.
326

Avoid needless heavy braking. Some people drive
in spurts — heavy acceleration followed by
heavy braking — rather than keeping pace with
traffic. This is a mistake. Your brakes may
not have time to cool between hard stops. Your
brakes will wear out much faster if you do a lot of
heavy braking. If you keep pace with the traffic
and allow realistic following distances, you
will eliminate a lot of unnecessary braking. That
means better braking and longer brake life.
If your engine ever stops while you are driving,
brake normally but do not pump your brakes.
If you do, the pedal may get harder to push down.
If your engine stops, you will still have some
power brake assist. But you will use it when you
brake. Once the power assist is used up, it
may take longer to stop and the brake pedal
will be harder to push.
Adding non-GM accessories can affect your
vehicle’s performance. SeeAccessories and
Modications on page 396.Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS)
Your vehicle has the Anti-Lock Brake System
(ABS), an advanced electronic braking system
that will help prevent a braking skid.
When you start your engine and begin to drive
away, ABS will check itself. You may hear a
momentary motor or clicking noise while this test
is going on. This is normal.
If there is a problem
with ABS, this warning
light will stay on.
SeeAnti-Lock Brake
System Warning
Light on page 237.
Along with ABS, your vehicle has a Dynamic Rear
Proportioning (DRP) system. If there is a DRP
problem, both the brake and ABS warning lights
will come on accompanied by a 10-second
chime. The lights and chime will come on each
time the ignition is turned on until the problem is
repaired. See your dealer for service.
327

Let us say the road is wet and you are driving
safely. Suddenly, an animal jumps out in front of
you. You slam on the brakes and continue braking.
Here is what happens with ABS:
A computer senses that wheels are slowing down.
If one of the wheels is about to stop rolling, the
computer will separately work the brakes at each
front wheel and at both rear wheels.ABS can change the brake pressure faster than
any driver could. The computer is programmed
to make the most of available tire and road
conditions. This can help you steer around the
obstacle while braking hard.
As you brake, your computer keeps receiving
updates on wheel speed and controls braking
pressure accordingly.
328