Overdrive on or off when pulling weight?

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Snake15eyes1998

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From my understanding. I figured I would add to this. When your transmission constantly shifts in and out of gears, that's what wears them out faster. For a transmission to shift smooth from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd etc. It slips to some degree. Overtime, wearing the transmission out. Especially when your transmission does that while towing something. The less your transmission shifts, especially while towing. The better off you are. If you go to monster transmissions website. They have 3 stages for most of their transmissions. 1st stage is OEM, factory shifts. Stage 2 is hard, firm shifts, stage 3 is tire screeching shifts. It's actually better for a transmission to shift hard and firm into each gear, vs smooth shifting. But as everyone else has said. Never tow with O/D on. It should always be off. 3rd and 2nd gear should be the only gears you work with. I manually downshift to 2nd all the time. When driving on the freeway, it's 3rd gear/ O/D OFF. I don't have a care in the world for what my fuel mileage is while towing. When she needs gas. I fill her up, and go on my way. I also have the 1 ton cooler in my truck. I have no way of knowing what my Trans temp is. But my light has never come on. I have 35x12.5x20s with 3.55 gearing, I drive with O/D off all the time, even when I'm not towing, but only in the city. Once I hit the freeway, I allow her to use 4th and 5th gear. Right before I get off, I hit the button, she downshifts into 3rd, I hit it again, and she stays there. With those 35s, she constantly shifts in and out of 5th gear while city driving. Drives me nuts, O/D off in the city, and she stays in 3rd most of the time. Unless I'm stopped of course. Been doing this for awhile now. Love the way she drives now and shifts.
 
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From my understanding. I figured I would add to this. When your transmission constantly shifts in and out of gears, that's what wears them out faster. For a transmission to shift smooth from 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd etc. It slips to some degree. Overtime, wearing the transmission out. Especially when your transmission does that while towing something. The less your transmission shifts, especially while towing. The better off you are. If you go to monster transmissions website. They have 3 stages for most of their transmissions. 1st stage is OEM, factory shifts. Stage 2 is hard, firm shifts, stage 3 is tire screeching shifts. It's actually better for a transmission to shift hard and firm into each gear, vs smooth shifting. But as everyone else has said. Never tow with O/D on. It should always be off. 3rd and 2nd gear should be the only gears you work with. I manually downshift to 2nd all the time. When driving on the freeway, it's 3rd gear/ O/D OFF. I don't have a care in the world for what my fuel mileage is while towing. When she needs gas. I fill her up, and go on my way. I also have the 1 ton cooler in my truck. I have no way of knowing what my Trans temp is. But my light has never come on. I have 35x12.5x20s with 3.55 gearing, I drive with O/D off all the time, even when I'm not towing, but only in the city. Once I hit the freeway, I allow her to use 4th and 5th gear. Right before I get off, I hit the button, she downshifts into 3rd, I hit it again, and she stays there. With those 35s, she constantly shifts in and out of 5th gear while city driving. Drives me nuts, O/D off in the city, and she stays in 3rd most of the time. Unless I'm stopped of course. Been doing this for awhile now. Love the way she drives now and shifts.
 
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When you are hauling a trailer with an automatic, is it a good idea to manually shift through the gears? I have hauled the big U-Haul with my 02 5.9 4x4 to Denver I-70 West Bound across Kansas twice now and was able to keep the OD engaged, but that was household furniture, not what I would call loaded down. I will be hauling a 26' Keystone Springdale TT. It sounds to me like OD is out of the question. I can do that, I just wanted to get a clarification on changing gears.
 

MikeT

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Does your transmission shift arm have the "Tow/Haul, OD Off mode" button at the end of the arm? If so I would put in tow/haul mode and let the transmission decide what gearing it wanted. If your going across Kansas again it probably would be OK and you would get better fuel mileage. If your going to be in the mountains OD off would probably be best. I use tow/haul whenever I'm towing.

Mike
 

RoadRamblerNJ

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Yes. A larger one than factory. I had the guy put me a bigger one in when he rebuilt my motor. I can get a pic tomorrow but it's not a huge one, but it's bigger than stock I'm pretty sure

Also, while on the subject of heat, I notice when pulling my camper my truck runs a bit hotter than normal. Is this normal? It never goes past the mid mark, it just gets slightly closer to it than normal
Normal and perfectly OK.
 

RoadRamblerNJ

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very cool! what band is your son in?

our's had 62k when we got it, and we had about 130k ish when we finally stopped touring. those miles rack up quick
Band was called Deal Casino, out of Asbury Park, NJ. They did two tours of US with a band called Bad Flower. Toured Europe last year, made no money, 2 guys got married, put there balls in wifey's purse and POOOOF! No more band! Sorry OP, Off topic appology.
 
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Band was called Deal Casino, out of Asbury Park, NJ. They did two tours of US with a band called Bad Flower. Toured Europe last year, made no money, 2 guys got married, put there balls in wifey's purse and POOOOF! No more band! Sorry OP, Off topic appology.
I had a friend who used to play with SouthSide Johnny and the Asbury Jukes in the 70's.
 
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