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Old 04-03-2012, 05:25 PM   #1
c214dick
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Towing in OD or not

We made it home yesterday from Florida w/o any mishaps. It has been a year since I towed Monty and found it like riding a bike or being an elephant, one doesn't forget.

I did find that I changed my towing strategy a little and am wondering how the other MOCers do it.

When fairly level, I do use cruise and OD but keep it around 60-62. If I find myself climbing I cancel the cruise and use the accelerator to adjust my speed. This seems to eliminate the need for the transmission to downshift. When I find myself doing steep grades or continuous up and down I shift to 3rd, out of OD, and cancel cruise. I found that on a 6% on Monteagle, Tn I was able to maintain 55-60. I kept it at 55 unless I had a slow moving vehicle in front and still had enough to pass.

In OD my RPMs were 1900 @ 60-62 mph. In 3rd my RPMs jumped to 2800 for the same mph but 2500 @ 55 mph My transmission does not offer a tow/haul mode and my engine is a 5.9 HO Cummins.

How do the rest of you do it? As usual, thanks in advance.
 
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Old 04-03-2012, 05:42 PM   #2
jkpruitt
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I am pulling a 2006 344RET with 2008 F-250 SB-CC PSD with an automatic. I put it in tow mode and let it do it's thing. It shifts in to overdrive all the time around 55 MPH. Should have bought a Ford...
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Old 04-03-2012, 06:21 PM   #3
c214dick
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Them's fighten words jkp.
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Old 04-03-2012, 07:26 PM   #4
stiles watson
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Older trucks regardless of brand do not have the tow/haul that works like the newer ones. I drive the 2011 F350 much differently than I did my 2002 Ford. It has more power and better tow/haul management. It also has build in down hill gear down so that I do very little breaking on the down slope.

Sounds to me like you are getting to know your truck and making it work for you. congrats on a good trip.
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Old 04-03-2012, 08:42 PM   #5
HamRad
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Dick,
I have a 2002 Ford 450 PSD. It is the 7.3 diesel engine and I have 4.88 gears with the standard automatic transmission. I do not have the tow haul feature.

I drive with the OD on with the cruise on except when climbing mountain grades. I turn the cruise off before the thing starts looking for a lower gear. The OD will drop out when the grade gets severe enough to start slowing the rig down. At that point it will also drop to a lower gear.

When I towed with my Ford 250 PSD the tranny would start hunting for lower gear just going up an overpass! I'd have to take the cruise off to keep it from doing that. I've never had the 450 do that. The 250 and 450 had the same engine and tranny. The only difference is the 4.88 rear end gears. I sure wish I had the "tow haul" feature. Later, Dennis
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Old 04-04-2012, 01:36 AM   #6
Ishler
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I would think that anything that minimizes transmission "hunting" is a good thing, it reduces the strain on the transmission. That said I do remember on my 05 Dodge that if I lugged the engine too much the egt's would start to climb forcing a downshift.
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Old 04-04-2012, 02:40 AM   #7
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Dick, I use the tow/haul mode on the Allison all of the time when the unit is hooked up. When I get up to the speed I want and set the cruise, the tranny will shift into over-drive as soon as it detects that my speed or grade isn't going to change. It simply stays in each gear just a little longer to help the engine produce the power to get the rig rolling. If I stay at 59 mph in a 55 speed zone for example, for the type of terrain here around the Great Lakes, it will stay in over-drive all day and get me a little over 12.5 mpg. Of course, hills and mountains are a whole different story! I basically leave it in the tow/haul mode and let it do it's thing because, my engine and tranny combo works well together as I am sure most now days do.
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Old 04-04-2012, 02:49 AM   #8
camper4
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I use cruise every where it is not too mountainous. I use the manual shift option in mountainous terrain. I just like being able to anticipate six or eight degree downhill grades. Makes me feel better.
I generally travel at 60 mph. On anything but flat roads the tranny stays in 5th and doesn't usually go to 6th in the tow mode. In the non tow mode it shifts to 6th gear often.
I like the tow mode because it is aggressive in downshifting when braking.
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Old 04-04-2012, 04:21 AM   #9
DQDick
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I use the cruise without the tow haul almost all the time. My manuel says to use tow haul only when it's hunting for gears and with the big diesel that almost never happens. When it does I either go manual or use the cruise with tow haul engaged. On the other hand, I use the exhaust brake all the time. Talked with several Dodge master mechanics and they agree, that's how the new ones should be driven.
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Old 04-04-2012, 04:29 AM   #10
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It sounds as if the tow/haul mode is worth its weight in ??? As mine is an 03 I don't think it was made available, by Dodge, until 04, figures. If and when my Dodge dies and I decide to "keep on truckin" I will have a new experience re-learning how to tow.

I appreciate the comments. Keep them coming. What about my observation regarding RPMs?
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Old 04-04-2012, 05:00 AM   #11
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Old 04-04-2012, 05:07 AM   #12
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I do not have the option of disabling the OD. But I do use tow/haul whenever the Monty is hooked up. And I use cruise whenever I am on relatively level to gently rolling roadways. The tow/haul minimizes the unshifting/downshifting of the transmission.
When towing, mine usually does not shift into OD (with tow/haul) until I hit about 62-63.
The cruise control is a reactive device rather than a proactive device. By that, I mean it can only react to a change in speed rather than anticipate a change. So when I am driving in cruise and see a hill coming up, I will put my foot on the pedal and slightly increase the speed as I near the hill. By hitting the hill at 2-3 miles over the cruise setting, it will often just settle back to that setting without downshifting out of OD.
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Old 04-04-2012, 06:35 AM   #13
c214dick
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I do the same Bill when in cruise. If the incline is minimal and I see it b4 it's too late, I can also increase my speed by using the accelerator and than just coast back down to the cruise setting. If I feel some resistance to the accelerator I know it will probably downshift so I cancel the cruise and just use the accelerator. Once the climb is done I just "resume" the cruise.
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Old 04-04-2012, 07:33 AM   #14
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GM says to use the T/H whenever the GCW is 75% or more of the GCWR.
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Old 04-04-2012, 11:16 AM   #15
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Old 04-04-2012, 12:08 PM   #16
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I tow in cruise when the opportunity presents itself. By that I mean that as long as the engine isn't "lugging" and/or "laboring" then I leave it in cruise. But as soon as either lugging or laboring presents itself I take it out of cruise.

Orv
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Old 04-08-2012, 03:33 AM   #17
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At times a farmer will haft to use a 200 horse power tractor to do a 100 horse power job. John Deere tells them to "Gear up and throttle back". In other words use the highest gear you can that will get the job done. Deere says it is more fuel efficient. Isn't that exactly what we wont?
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Old 04-08-2012, 05:59 AM   #18
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I set my cruise at 68mph and let the truck do the rest. I leave it in drive with the tow haul mode engaged along with the exhaust brake engaged. Truck will climb most rolling grades without the need to downshift. In the higher mountain passes, I cancel the cruise and use my foot to adjust the speed. If I find my speed is right between two gears and the tranny starts "hunting", I will use the tap shift and down shift a gear to hold it there. Each truck runs a bit different, but this is what I have found what works best for me.
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Old 04-08-2012, 08:41 AM   #19
klash
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I guess there aren't two rigs out there that will have the same numbers. You simply have to listen to your engine, watch your RPM, engine and trans temperature and also stay within the law.
Not too sure where you are from. We tow from BC in Canada, south through WA, OR, CA and down to Yuma, AZ. The law in CA is that all trucks and autos with trailer the speed limit is 55 mph. Unless you have an unlimited supply of money, you had best obey the law. We have been doing this for 40 years, and I have found that 55 works best all around speed to travel, it is easy on the machinery and easy for me. We have made 8 trips around the continent, 300,000 miles, 39 states and all 10 provinces.
We have a 2007 Montana, 2955 RL, and road ready we are at 12,500 lbs.
We tow with a 2011 GMC, duramax diesel, 1 ton, short box, single rear wheels, crew cab, a totally awesome tow machine.
I do 90% of our towing in cruise control, the duramax and Allison transmission are built to take it. I got to the Manual mode on the shift selector, and then with the button on the end of the shift selector you can then tap up or down 5 gears. The 5th and 6th gears are both overdrive and they handle the load very well on level ground. At 55 mph towing in cruise and in 6th gear the rpm is 1,350. If I see a slight rise ahead, I will tap down into 5th and the rpm will go up to 1,550. If we come to some heavy duty hills or mountains, I take the truck out of cruise and then tap down to 4th. We do find some mountains where we are down to 3rd, and then the rpm will be much higher.
The nice thing about the new GMC's is the exhaust brake, and we find that coming down the mountains I will use the manual shift and either 4th or 3rd for the really steep ones. I think it must confuse the drivers behind us, because we rarely have to use the truck and trailer brakes.
Being Canadian our fuel is sold by the litre, but I still relate to the Canadian gallon, which of course is larger than the US gallon. We typically get 13 to 15 miles to the gallon. When we were heading south in October of 2011, we had some tail winds from Sacramento to Redding, CA and we actually got 19 miles to the gallon. Our duramax is rated to tow 17,900 lbs so we have lots of reserve towing capacity. We are very serious about our overall weight, because I believe that one can very easily overload our trailers, and that can cause things to break. Safe journeys and enjoy the great lands we live on.
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