Grand Mesa
Senior Member
Living within a high mountainous area I utilize both the tow haul and the cruise control on my 2016 Power Wagon to control my speed while ascending and descending the multitude of steep mountain passes which are located around here.
This is my first automatic truck for nearly 40 years and I have always used my manual transmission lower gears versus burning up the brakes to control my downhill speed. I just returned from a quick 1,300 mile trip to the Texas panhandle from western Colorado while pulling a 4,000 pound trailer.
While descending a 50 mph zone on the east side of the 10,135 foot high North Cochetopa Pass between Saguache and Gunnison, Colorado I had my cruise control set at 46 mph with the tow haul on. The truck was holding the 50 mph speed limit and the slower cornering by automatically downshifting to lower gears as it has done multiple times before while I adjusted the cruise control speed setting. I like this feature a lot due to I can watch the road and especially for the stupid deer whom run out into it.
Further down this pass the road becomes straight and the speed limit increases to 65 mph, but the steady grade is still around 6%. Not the steepest or even mildly challenging downhill grade that I drive, but it is steep enough to get a truck easily out of control while towing. I increased the cruise control to 62 mph to compensate for the higher 65 mph speed limit, however, the transmission stayed put in a lower gear and the RPM increased to as high as 6,500. I turned off the tow mode in an attempt to make it shift to a higher gear and increased the cruise control to 75 mph. I saw the ECO light come on, but it still stayed in the lower gear and the RPM increased further to near the 7,000 gauge limit. My speed increased to 65 mph and so I applied the brakes turning off the cruise control and slowed the truck down to 45 mph. The truck finally shifted into a higher gear.
I didn't have any instances of this happening again over the five mountain passes in the return trip across the same stretches of highway.
This is my first automatic truck for nearly 40 years and I have always used my manual transmission lower gears versus burning up the brakes to control my downhill speed. I just returned from a quick 1,300 mile trip to the Texas panhandle from western Colorado while pulling a 4,000 pound trailer.
While descending a 50 mph zone on the east side of the 10,135 foot high North Cochetopa Pass between Saguache and Gunnison, Colorado I had my cruise control set at 46 mph with the tow haul on. The truck was holding the 50 mph speed limit and the slower cornering by automatically downshifting to lower gears as it has done multiple times before while I adjusted the cruise control speed setting. I like this feature a lot due to I can watch the road and especially for the stupid deer whom run out into it.
Further down this pass the road becomes straight and the speed limit increases to 65 mph, but the steady grade is still around 6%. Not the steepest or even mildly challenging downhill grade that I drive, but it is steep enough to get a truck easily out of control while towing. I increased the cruise control to 62 mph to compensate for the higher 65 mph speed limit, however, the transmission stayed put in a lower gear and the RPM increased to as high as 6,500. I turned off the tow mode in an attempt to make it shift to a higher gear and increased the cruise control to 75 mph. I saw the ECO light come on, but it still stayed in the lower gear and the RPM increased further to near the 7,000 gauge limit. My speed increased to 65 mph and so I applied the brakes turning off the cruise control and slowed the truck down to 45 mph. The truck finally shifted into a higher gear.
I didn't have any instances of this happening again over the five mountain passes in the return trip across the same stretches of highway.
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