Towing With OD?

so is it yay or nay?

Lets say ~1500 lbs and you're on the highway and it's relatively flat. Tranny doesnt change gears at all.

Obviously when there's hills or feeling the shifts, you go to 4. But OD with a load?

 

If the truck keeps down shifting leave it in fourth. Its harder on the tranny if its constantly shifting. Sometimes I try to keep a constant speed in overdrive and than down shift into fourth manualy without moving the gas pedal. If the speed begins to increase in fourth I'll just leave it there.

 

I think as long as your on straight stretches your ok however when you hit the hills go to "4"

 

The manual says towing in 4th gear only. I have a light utility trailer and sometimes I'll leave it in drive, but if it's loaded or I were towing anything larger, I would use 4th as recommended.

 

When on a long stretch I use overdrive.

 

Situation you described you are fine in overdrive, however, you should anticipate any changes and respond by manually shifting it down to possible stay in 4th.

 

I use OD on long flat or down hill stretches. Towing 4,500 pounds it really doesn't downshift all that much on flat ground.

 

At least for manual transmissions, I think it's also a matter of stopping/safety/control. If you're in 4th, the engine will begin compression braking immediately upon lifting your foot off the gas, whereas if you're in 5th it'll continue coasting. The same is true for going downhill, it's just control on tap.

 

I used "D" for almost the entire stretch from mt shasta down to bakersfield on hwy 99 towing probably about 3000 (between bed load, car dolly, and my loaded up 280z. As long as it's not searching for gears it should be perfectly fine. I also got about 16+ mpg.

 

x3