When I am driving down a street and I am approaching a GIANT hill is it ok (while still moving) to take it from "over Drive" to say a lower gear like 1 or 2.....or do i just leave it in Over drive....and reamber this is an automatic!

 

Nothing wrong with that at all. It's perfectly safe to manually shift your auto, so long as you are not revving the gears out past redline, or leaving it in a lower gear for extended periods of time (you can burn out a gear).

As long as it's just for chugging up a hill, or making a pass, or whatever, it's fine.

~HH