2007 CHEVROLET TRAIL BLAZER Owners Manual

Your Driving, the Road, and Your Vehicle. 306
Defensive Driving...................................... 306
Drunken Driving........................................ 307
Control of a Vehicle.................................. 310
Braking...................................................... 310
Anti-Lock Brake System (ABS).................. 311
Braking in Emergencies............................. 313
Locking Rear Axle..................................... 313
StabiliTrak
®System................................... 313
All-Wheel Drive (AWD) System
(TrailBlazer SS)...................................... 318
Steering.................................................... 318
Off-Road Recovery.................................... 320
Passing..................................................... 321
Loss of Control.......................................... 322
Competitive Driving................................... 323
Off-Road Driving (Except SS).................... 323
Driving at Night......................................... 339
Driving in Rain and on Wet Roads............ 340City Driving............................................... 344
Freeway Driving........................................ 345
Before Leaving on a Long Trip.................. 346
Highway Hypnosis..................................... 347
Hill and Mountain Roads........................... 348
Winter Driving........................................... 350
If Your Vehicle is Stuck in Sand,
Mud, Ice, or Snow................................. 354
Rocking Your Vehicle to Get It Out........... 354
Recovery Hooks........................................ 355
Loading Your Vehicle................................ 356
Adding a Snow Plow or Similar
Equipment.............................................. 362
Towing........................................................ 362
Towing Your Vehicle................................. 362
Recreational Vehicle Towing...................... 362
Electronically Controlled Air
Suspension System................................ 367
Towing a Trailer........................................ 368
Section 4 Driving Your Vehicle
305

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 20.
{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.
306

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
307

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.
308

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 systemcan 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.
309

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.
Adding non-GM accessories can affect your
vehicle’s performance. SeeAccessories and
Modications on page 386.
Braking
SeeBrake System Warning Light on page 208.
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 the brakes; the weight of the vehicle;
and the amount of brake force applied.
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. The brakes may not have time
to cool between hard stops. The brakes will wear
out much faster if you do a lot of heavy braking.
310

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 vehicle’s engine ever stops while you are
driving, brake normally but do not pump the
brakes. If you do, the pedal may get harder to
push down. If the 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 386.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 the engine and begin to drive
away, ABS will check itself. You might 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 209.
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/retailer for service.
311

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, the computer keeps receiving
updates on wheel speed and controls braking
pressure accordingly.
312