1996 Buick Park Avenue Owner's Manual

Tbrn Signals When Towing a TrailerThe arrows on your instrument panel will flashwhenever you signal a turn or lane change. Properlyhooked up, the trailer lamps will also flash, telling otherdrivers you’re about to turn, change lanes or stop.When towing a trailer, the arrows on your instrumentpanel will flash for turns even if the bulbs on the trailerare burned out. Thus, you may think drivers behind youare seeing your signal when they are not. It’s importantto check occasionally to be sure the trailer bulbs are stillworking.Your vehicle has bulb warning lights. When you plug atrailer lighting system into your vehicle’s lightingsystem, its bulb warning lights may not let you know ifone of your lamps goes out. So, when you have a trailerlighting system plugged in, be sure to check yourvehicle and trailer lamps from time to time to be surethey’re all working. Once you disconnect the trailerlamps, the bulb warning lights again can tell you if oneof your vehicle lamps is out.4-36Driving On GradesReduce speed and shift to a lower gear before you startdown a long or steep downgrade. If you don’t shiftdown, you might have to use your brakes so much thatthey would get hot and no longer work well.On a long uphill grade, shift down to THIRD (3) andreduce your speed to around 45 mph (70 km/h) to reducethe possibility of engine and transaxle overheating.Parking on HillsYou really should not park your vehicle, with a trailerattached, on a hill. If something goes wrong, your rigcould start to move. People can be injured, and bothyour vehicle and the trailer can be damaged.But if you ever have to park your rig on a hill, here’show to do it:1. Apply your regular brakes, but don’t shift intoPARK (P) yet.2. Have someone place chocks under the trailer wheels.3. When the wheel chocks are in place, release theregular brakes until the chocks absorb the load.4. Reapply the regular brakes. Then apply your parkingbrake, and the shift to PARK (P).5. Release the regular brakes.