Cruise Control

[Old_Salty]

Set the cruise, sit back, relax and enjoy the drive.

[richfaa]

EGT will very with conditions. You will not see high EGT under normal driving conditions in moderate terrain execpt when in regeneration then you will see a increase of 400/500 Degrees while in regen. If you are towing at 62 mph on average terrain your EGt should be @ 800/900 degrees. If you regen it may increase to 1100 1200 degrees during regen.

On a long hard pull like fancy gap if you have the CC set a 62 mph it will try to maintain that speed resulting in higher boost and EGT temps.At 1300 degrees the tips of the turbo blades a white hot and you do not want to keep them there very long. We have our guage set to alarm aat 1200 degrees at which time we back off to a EGT below 1200 degrees.

Many turbo failures are due to EGT temps held to high for to long. Be sure you are looking at pre turbo EGT temp,,Ford for example monitors 2 EGT's but neither are pre turbo.You need to install the sensor pre turbo.

We will go over the top of Fancy gap at 45MPH and below 1200 degrees EGT.Could do a lot faster..but Diesel motors are expensive.

[washley1]

I use it all the time.I found on the long downhill grade crossing the Rockies west of Denver that CC combined with tow haul worked very well. There was some upward creep in speed, but what I did was reset the cc 5 mph lower than my target speed and it worked like a charm.

[richfaa]

TH works well on downgrades.It acts like a jake brake and keeps you at speed. Actually once you experiment with the TH on a Downgrade you do not even need the CC.

[Bigboomer]

Yep, we use the CC all the time. Usually between 60 and 65. Works wonders on the hills maintaining speed up hill and braking going down. I find the Ally 3000 does not down shift as much with the CC on.

[Hooker]

Always, except on hills.

[Recumbent]

Use it as much as safe driving will permit, mostly open roads and no steep grades.

[Glass Guy]

Use the cruise control when ever I can, even on long stetches of road where the speed limit is 35 mph on the way to and from the campground that radar cops patrol all the time.

[BusyCarol]

We use CC except on steep up/down. We do not have the luxury of tow haul and we were told by a Ford Expert on towing that we were NOT to use Overdrive at all while towing. We had some transmission slippages (even on our old trailer) and although it runs us at higher RPMS with overdrive off the engine has performed flawlessly since we quit using it.

Our next truck hopefully will have a jakebrake/tow-haul feature but that is for after the money tree starts growing in the backyard!

[tim43]

Use it all the time in concert with TH & the exhaust brake . Ran the unit 240 miles coming back from the western NC mountains to the sand hills. Averaged 12.2 MPG pulling the rig. Kept it under 62 where the posted speed was 65.

[rving2us]

We use CC as often as safety will allow. Since we moved up to the Dodge 3500 towing has been a more enjoyable part of traveling..

[1retired06]

With the 6.7, leave in Cruise Control all the time

[jackel1959]

Use it as much as practical and as road/traffic conditions permit. I enjoy and feel most comfortable towing at 60-61 mph and always have the exhaust brake and tow haul selected when towing. I seem to get better mileage and have developed a system for passing by bumping the cruise up 2-3 mph then once I clear, pass and re-enter my previous lane I will bump it back down to my original speed when I have enough distance to feel comfortable in front of the vehicle I just passed.

The cruise works fine on upgrades as long as they are not too steep and the transmission will downshift just as it would without cruise to maintain the set speed. If the cruise cannot maintain the speed within 10 mph below the set speed, it will kick off (did the same thing on my Ford). For this reason, if I know there is a steep (6% or greater), winding or long uphill I will kick the cruise off and ascend the grade.

On the downhills I have found I can set the cruise at 5-7 mph below the desired speed and the cruise will maintain my target speed. For example set cruise at 53-55 to maintain 60 on a 6% downgrade. But more often than not I feel more comfortable without the cruise on the downhill side and rarely use it there.

Jack

[Garpo]

I use it as much as I can but road conditions and traffic density play a big factor in its use. The three speeding tickets I received in my life were all given when cruise control was not being used. So, I my case, it does help keep a constant legal speed.

[whitebb]

I almost never use cc as I have found that (are you ready for this) I get better MPG, I get around 12 to 13 on the average, and on long straight flat area get 15 MPG. What I have found is cc will down shift to keep RPM and that's uses more fuel. Plus I don't have the tyranny trying to shift, as I control that with a little more fuel and stay in same gear. As you know there is a lot of answers to this subject. I use the manual shift for long down hills as I use the tyranny to maintain speed and don't need to use the truck brakes. The tow mode will down shift each time you press brake down, Some time it will lower you down to a real low gear and then motor starts screaming. I like manual shift for that situation. Just remember lots of folks have different answers for this subject. Good luck.

[WeBeFulltime]

I routinely use cruise just as I did for 20 years in a big rig as long as there is no snow/ice.

[DQDick]

I use the cruise on the steep down hill sections also. i've found the cruise and the tow haul along with the exhaust brake do just as well or better on cruise than I can do manually shifting although manually shifting can be fun on a long day.

[steelpony5555]

Both my trucks have been Dodges and I have found to stop it from down shifting on grades I have to get to the sweet spot which is around 67-68 mph. If I set it below 65 mph my truck would down shift on some of the slightest grades. If I set it above 65 it would take a fairly long or steep grade. I have the exhaust brake on and Tow Haul on. It's all about the RPM's, that 5 mph difference makes a change in the RPM's which means if the RPM's are even a little bit higher it will take more for it to down shift. I know some folks just ain't comfortable towing at higher speeds but all trucks got that sweet spot where the power is just right as is the RPM's.

[Hooker]

Sure I use it, that's what it's for. The only times I don't use it are if it's very hilly.

[Dogman131]

I always use it when practical.