Low speed trail gear selection in automatic V6?

I usually take my truck through fire roads and light trails to get to dispersed camp spots. I am not going over anything too rough. I do occasionally encounter some trails that are a little more challenging.

I grew up driving stick and it's honselty the best. I bought an auto for the long haul and so the girl can drive. It's also easier in traffic. But when I get on any trails, with obstacles and climbs/decents, the auto lacks the control I want. Do you keep it in D or just 4 to not go into OD and let the trans figure it out? Does anyone use all the gear selections the auto trans has to offer?

 

Keep in mind, you are driving an auto. It will never have the same control of a manual and vise versa.

But if you want control similar to a stick, drive the auto like a stick. Use the individual gear selection to limit shifting to a higher gear. No point in not using what you have.

If i'm being aggressive and need the rpms to stay high (centrifugal supercharger), i'll cruise around in 2nd or 3rd depending on how fast i'm going. Otherwise, it will shift and drop rpm.

 

I have played around with using the gear select and I felt like a new driver learning stick - rough shifts.

Does the torque converter work in each gear and at low speeds? I'm wondering why leaving it in 4 causes so much heat whole if I select a low gear, trans temp stays constant.

 

When I run with Tacoma’s,or even some other makes,on a rocky trail,or obstacles, we go to S2 and 4lo..steep downhills go to S1.

I run 4hi on fire roads no obstacles.

I have always had manuals and quite a learning curve going to a gen3 and automatic, esp since I had my gen1 5speed new off the showroom floor for 16yrs..

 

It's a learning curve for me. Even though I have had this auto for many years, we just started going to more remote camping areas. I want to make sure I don't mess anything up.

With this auto trans, I might get a fan for the trans radiator to ease my temps when I'm loaded out and going slow uphill over terrain.

 

The technique for driving it off road isn't really any different than on-road, at least for me. I let it decide what gear to be in unless I feel it should be a gear lower, then, I either turn the OD off, or shift to 2nd or 1st ("low"). If it starts hunting for gears, force it into the lower gear and keep it there.

The only time I've ever had trouble with trans temps is when I was towing a 3000 pound trailer up steep inclines in the Sierras - I could feel the floorboards getting hot (but my dash light never came on). After that I got a trans cooler. An aux trans cooler certainly can't hurt, but unless you're towing heavier loads, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's perfectly natural for the temps to vary during different load conditions. The only reason people notice it is because they're using a scangauage or something. Your engine temp varies by quite a lot too, but your dash gauges don't indicate those small and normal temp variations because they know it freaks people out.

 

I noticed a difference in trans temps when I went to larger tires, 255/80/17's made me have to watch my temps.

Now I use Torque app on my android phone for monitoring the 2 different transmission temps available to my 2nd gen.

Putting the truck from D to 4 simply limits 1 gear, eliminating 5th gear (OD). This still allows the computer to guess what gear you want to be in, and it seems to always want low RPM and guess to high of a gear, leading to many gear changes. Heating the transmission. I have tested this out and its what feels like is happening to me.

You should be selecting a lower gear imo if on fire roads. I am usually in 2wd, 2nd and 3rd gear on fire roads. 2nd gear for corners, using the truck to engine brake when shifting to get the appropriate speed for the corner. Takes some practice as the auto shifts slightly behind when you select the gear. So you have to be looking ahead and really be paying attention. This is how I drive fire roads at up to 70KM/h in 3rd, sometimes shifting to 4th if its a long straight stretch. Watching RPM and shifting the truck when it wants a higher gear.

I run this way with all traction aids on, you easily know if you overcook a corner this way as the aids kick in and start letting you know right away. Like downshifting late and the back end gets a bit loose. It lets you know.

 

Having a scan guage, I notice the same thing. Was going up a trail near my house and I kept it in drive just to see how it felt. The truck was searching for gears if in D or 4, which shot temps up real fast. I didn't overheat but after 5 minutes I was around 170 with an ambient temperature of 50. The terrian had me at 15-25 mph. I assume that a long ride in the summer will see considerably higher temps.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll have to get used to shifting through the gears.

 

I have a '17 SR5 4Runner (4.0L V6 with the 5 speed selectable auto), and last summer I was towing my 3800+# travel trailer up in the Bishop CA area (the valley was over 100 degrees F) and there were a few first gear hills and the trans got up to around 230 for a few short periods, and was routinely just over 200, but even then (similar to my Taco pulling a smaller trailer) my dash warning lights never came on, even though that seemed "a bit hot"... I know I said before that the only time I "had trouble" but it was never really "trouble", just more like I got "concerned"...

Presumably, the engineers set the warning light to come on before damage occurs, and since no lights, it's likely fine, at least for short periods. I think you are over thinking the trans temp thing.