Uphill gear hunting eliminated by TSB

Well I've got 1,400 miles now post-TSB and in addition to remedying the 3 items addressed in the TSB (R/P to D delay, hanging in gear in cruise, and 2 to 3 flair), my uphill gear hunting issue has been completely eliminated! I'm pretty happy with the way it drives now as this was my biggest complaint!

There was some uphill gear hunting immediately after implementing the TSB, but after the learning period it is completely gone. My truck will stay in a lower gear while climbing. I can even slow down significantly after the truck downshifts and it will not upshift again if I'm in a steep climb.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I think it helped that the 1,400 miles I put on after the TSB were primarily highway miles in the mountains. I left it in D (rather than S mode) and haven't turned ECT on since the TSB update. What's funny though is now cruise control hunts a little bit, whereas prior to the TSB, cruise didn't hunt at all. That's fine with me though because when I'm in the mountains I prefer to drive without cruise on. I still also occasionally hang in a lower gear in cruise control, but it's rare and it only happens in cruise.

Fuel efficiency seems to still be on par, but seems like there's been a minor hit (1-2 mpg) only at highway speeds in mountainous terrain. I suspect this is because it now uses 6th gear less. Seems like there's a reluctance to switch into 6th gear, which is fine by me because it's worthless.

Anyway, I apologize for starting another TSB thread, but was curious if others have noticed a much improved driving experience due to a major reduction in gear hunting.

 

For about 3 days after the update, my truck would hold 5th gear uphill with cruise on. Now though, it's back to downshifting unnecessarily to 4th gear on the exact same hills. If I don't use cruise control I don't have any issues.

 

I'm fine with the downshifting and I think that's totally normal for this truck on hills. It has to downshift to get to the higher RPM range that produces the necessary torque. The need to downshift on hills can't be resolved through transmission updates... it's an issue of not having enough low end torque. The fact that it downshifts on hills doesn't bother me at all.

My issue was actually with upshifting on hills. I'd be cruising along at 60mph up a hill in 5th gear and it would downshift to 4th to get more power and immediately start accelerating up the hill with no increase in throttle. So, I'd let off the throttle a bit to maintain 60mph and it'd immediately upshift and start losing speed. So, I'd increase throttle and it'd downshift again, only to upshift 1-2 seconds later. I'd get caught in this loop of upshift-downshift every few seconds when traveling up a long, steep grade.

However, now once it downshifts I can let off the gas to maintain speed and it won't upshift. So, the shifting loop is broken. I can maintain the same gear now when climbing a long, steep grade rather than having the truck continuously shifting between 2 gears for the entire climb.

This is HUGE for me, but if you aren't driving in the mountains or very hilly terrain you might not even notice it. I used to keep it in S3-S4 in the mountains and now I don't have to use S-Mode at all.

 

This whole transmission/shifting situation would drive me absolutely crazy. So what is the full fix, different gears to account for the apparent lack or torque?

 

Drives me absolutely crazy. Waiting on Nitro Gears to get the 4.56 made.

 

You get the TSB? Mine used to drive me crazy but now it's great. Will hold 4th for miles in a climb now instead of trying to upshift. Made a HUGE fucking difference for me. It did take several hundred miles post-TSB though.

I'm slightly concerned that if I don't drive in the mountains for several weeks it'll forget what it's learned and revert back but it's such a huge improvement that I doubt it.

 

Me too .........................

 

GO GET THE TSB!!!

 

Mine was built July 30th it doesn't hunt for gears