TOW/HAUL and OVERDRIVE Explained!!

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Riccochet

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I just towed 1000 mile round trip and Tow/Haul does not lock out 8th gear, nor does it disable MDS, on my 2017. It does hold gear longer around town, though. Honestly, I had zero issues towing my boat. It only went in to 8th on the highway and quickly dropped gears when needed. No lugging at all.

I averaged 15.7 MPG towing my boat. Something my 2013 w/ the 6 speed could never do. It used to average 11-12 MPG on the same trip.
 

69GWC

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If I have mine in tow haul I have to hit 75+ ( empty) before it will shift inti 8th gear, I thought it was locking it out but I wss just not going fast enough..lil
 

Ratket

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In the 2500”s it locks out 6th... and Aupon initial engagement it drops the truck to 4th.
I don’t know how I would feel about having a truck tow in “6th or 8th- the top gear -over drive gear” guess it depends on ur altitutde,terrain,and driving environment.
 

Jarhead57

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If I have mine in tow haul I have to hit 75+ ( empty) before it will shift inti 8th gear, I thought it was locking it out but I wss just not going fast enough..lil

Damn, now I gotta test that...:roflsquared::roflsquared:
 

SyN

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Question: Is it somewhat recommend when not towing or loaded heavy when city driving to be in tow-haul mode (so no lugging is done)?

From tons of reading I believe I am going to start driving with the exhaust break in Auto most of the time. Seems this adds a few extra benefits.
 
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Ratket

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^ even when in tow haul my 2500 6.4 will still “ lugg” real low. At like 15 mph it will still get up into 4th unless I really climb on the throttle. When you
Say engine brake, do you mean exhaust brake? If so I know guys who leave it on 24/7 on their diesels.
 

Bigdavetx

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I’ve towed medium- pulled my son’s small car on a trailer 400 miles and heavy- with my 30’ tt.

Pulling medium except for traffic I couldn’t tell I was towing. No tow/haul and performance was excellent. No lugging, no hunting for gears. MDS came on and off as normal. Love my Hemi.

Pulling heavy tow/haul on cruise set to 65 engine and transmission did all the right work, no matter hills, etc. made 65 at all times. Sometimes the RPM got higher than I usually see, but there was always a gear/RPM for 65. When I say heavy, I mean 8000#.

The post at the beginning is excellent covering many questions I had about heavy towing.
 

Fitz-0518

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Great thread. Glad to see new activity. Still trying to understand what the best tow mode is for the 2018 2500 6.4 66RFE. We always us tow mode button when towing our 8600 lb wet trailer. Around town, no towing we put the trans in 5 or 6 gear using gear set on shift stalk. Stops MDS from engaging.
1. What would be the effect or good bad if when towing we also set the trans in gear 6.
2. We "never" want MDS to engage. By using tow mode only, is MDS disabled.
 

Bigdavetx

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Yeah, towing heavy last week my MDS never came on and I didn’t expect it to! MPG was +/- 10 about what I expected. I was concerned I’d need a bigger truck with my travel trailer but I feel now that for the short term I can use the setup I have and not worry about something blowing up. BTW, the Timbren got installed half way through the trip and made a HUGE difference.
 

Deeuubee

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I use tow/haul in my 17-1500 - 5.7 all the time. Almost always at or over gvwr. Engine braking is the main benefit for going down long steep grades. Definitely helps from over heating the brakes. Hold the brake peddle until it downshifts the release brake peddle. It will stay in that gear until you tap the gas or reach level ground.
On a really steep hill, I've held the brake peddle down in engine braking mode and it stepped down another gear. Never tried it in regular drive mode.
 

2003F350

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In the 2500”s it locks out 6th... and Aupon initial engagement it drops the truck to 4th.
I don’t know how I would feel about having a truck tow in “6th or 8th- the top gear -over drive gear” guess it depends on ur altitutde,terrain,and driving environment.

It does not on my Power Wagon. Then again, I have 4.10 gears.
 

62Blazer

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Bought an 2016 Power Wagon this winter (6.4 Hemi and 66RFE). 5th and 6th gears are overdrive

- tow/haul mode appears to lock out 6th gear...with tow/haul activated it will not shift into 6th gear, and if cruising down the road and you turn tow/haul off it will almost immediately upshift into 6th. Different makes and models will be different. On my old '03 Chevy 2500HD 6.0L gas and 4 speed auto (4th was OD) it did not lock out OD. On '01 Chevy 1500 tow/haul would lock out 4th (OD), not sure how the newer ones are.

- tow/haul noticeably changes the shift points and shift firmness. This was both on my current Power Wagon and my old '03 Chevy 2500HD

- the "manual" mode does not really allow you to control the shifting, just tells the transmission what the highest gear it can shift into

- The Power Wagon really likes to try to lug around at low speed. On recent trip that involved a lot of single lane slow speed hilly driving I found it really annoying. Started regularly putting it down into 1, 2 or 3 to prevent this.
 

buckeyexx

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I just returned from a 2200 mile round trip from Ohio to Florida and back. Driving my 2015 ram 6.4 hemi and was towing my camper weighing in at around 5500-6000 lbs depending on how much water I had in the tanks. I can definitely tell you my truck did not shift into 6th gear nor did my mds kick in one time while in tow/haul mode. This was hilly, mountain, and flat terrain. It was probably a 50/50 split between 4th and 5th gear depending on my speed and the up and down hills. I averaged 65-70 mph and my fuel mileage averaged anywhere from 8.5- 9.5 mpg (hand calculated) and 10-10.5 on the evic.

I was impressed with the way the truck handles and is exactly what I would expect a truck with a gas motor with the 6.4 to get.


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62Blazer

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I just returned from a 2200 mile round trip from Ohio to Florida and back. Driving my 2015 ram 6.4 hemi and was towing my camper weighing in at around 5500-6000 lbs depending on how much water I had in the tanks. I can definitely tell you my truck did not shift into 6th gear nor did my mds kick in one time while in tow/haul mode. This was hilly, mountain, and flat terrain. It was probably a 50/50 split between 4th and 5th gear depending on my speed and the up and down hills. I averaged 65-70 mph and my fuel mileage averaged anywhere from 8.5- 9.5 mpg (hand calculated) and 10-10.5 on the evic.

I was impressed with the way the truck handles and is exactly what I would expect a truck with a gas motor with the 6.4 to get.


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This above emphasizes one point that some people don't consider about the 6th gear or MDS...if you are towing a certain amount of weight the truck may never shift into 6th (or whatever the highest gear is) or activate MDS simply because it wouldn't have enough power to maintain that speed. I've driven a Chevy Suburban with cylinder deactivation that had a big display that clearly showed if it was in "V4 mode" and it would never go into V4 mode on the freeway if you were cruising above 60-65 mph. Have to assume that is simply because the engine wouldn't have enough power to pull the truck. Keep in mind aerodynamic drag goes up exponentially with vehicle speed....simply increasing speed from 55 mph to 65 mph causes aerodynamic drag to go up by 30%.
 

buckeyexx

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Yep and your last sentence says it all when towing a travel trailer. It just magnifies it. The weight I was pulling was nothing for the truck but put a huge mass like a camper behind it and the aerodynamics take an even bigger hit. If I were pulling a flatbed it probably would have been a different outcome all around. Maybe the mds kicks in or it goes into 6th but I doubt it.


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Slayer1962

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2020 ram hemi, eco mode comes on even at 75 mph on the parkway. I did not pay attention the couple times I towed my boat ( about 5200 lbs with trailer and fuel)
The truck tows nicely I definitely noticed the shifting. It winds up a bit more in each gear
 
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