reverse clunk with tow

[tuschusk]

When I'm on a slope and I'm towing a boat (19 foot bass boat that weighs approx. 2500 lbs), I have a pretty hard time shifting out of park (especially when I want to roll backwards). It really clunks (feels like I'm jamming it in) when I put it in reverse, which I have to go through in order to get into neutral (to coast back) or into drive (to move forward). The problem just exists for the park to reverse exchange, I can shift out of reverse to something else fine. The truck shifts fine when I'm on level ground though. Yes, I have the brake pressed when I shift out of park, but it just feels like I'm jamming it into reverse because it's hard to do and then it clunks, but then from reverse to neutral and from neutral to 4th and everything else the shifts are fine. The truck has 1200 miles on it and I've only towed the boat once so far. Is my reverse messed up? Could it be a rear diff. fluid problem? Any ideas? Before I go to the dealer I'd like some thoughts so they can't snow me as much. Thanks.

[dilleyoshemp]

i had this happen to me when on some pretty steep inclines loading material from a loading dock, what i did was put it in park and engage the emergency break almost at the same time, what you should probably try doing before engaging park is putting it in neutral while holding the break down then engaging the emergency break, letting go of the break pedal let the truck rock forward or back, then engage park, this way the weight rests on the emergency break and not the transmission, i never had the problem with it being hard to shift into reverse after doing this, probably puts a lot of pressure on the breaks but better then the tranmission right, hope that helps

[Brons2]

Put the parking brake on before you put it in Park. Problem solved.

Your problem currently is that all the pressure is being put on the parking pawl. Not good for it.

[tuschusk]

Wow. Thanks a lot! I'll try that and I sure appreciate your quick responses. Thanks again.