Towing Question

JKB · 09-07-2004, 03:31 PM

I noticed that when I first started towing my 27" TT it got pretty decent mileage and pulled quite well. I discovered later that I was towing in tow mode with the gear indicator in "D" . The manual says not to tow in overdrive. First question, is "D" overdrive. On my last trip I pulled in 4th gear and noticed a huge differance for the worse, the truck when heading up a slight grade would require more throttle, but it would continue to lose speed until it finally downshifted to 3rd. The torque converter did not want to unlock. When I did the same thing in"D" the convertor would iasily unlock and ad 300-400 RPM and that would allow me to maintain speed. The torque converter seems to unlock just fine at 50-55 MPH but at 60 it is locked up hard. Question two, if there any harm in towing 5500 LB trailer in "D". On my last trip I managed to drink 3/4 of a tank and drove 130 miles, albeit at 70 MPH.

Jim

cali-titan · 09-07-2004, 08:29 PM

Don't do the "D"
Tow in Fourth gear, or you will end up with overheated transmition.
If the transmition jumps to a lower gear in an uphill, that is not bad, makes noise but nothing wrong with that... anyway, good luck.

JKB · 09-08-2004, 08:38 AM

thanks for the suggestion, I watched the tranny temp gauge very carefully and it did not move up at all. I did some tests last night and noticed that the torque converter in forth gear unlocks easily at speeds up to 55MPH, after that it will not unlock it simply downshifts. My guess is that it is designed to tow at speeds up to 55 in 4th gear after that if you need more torque it will force a downshift instead of locking and un locking the torque converter. I plan on the next trip to run at speeds between 50-55 MPH to see how weel it tows.
Jim

Titan Power · 09-08-2004, 06:24 PM

This last weekend I towed a loaded car trailer through the mountains. The load was approx. 5000lbs.

I turned the overdrive off, in tow mode. At 55-65, it pulled fine in fourth. If I had to slow due to traffic, I would have to add throttle until it downshifted to third to get up to speed again on the steeper grades. I found that if I shifted to third manually before the grade, I could maintain the same speed without adding much throttle. The truck pulled great. On one long, steep grade, I came upon a Toyora Tundra struggling to maintain speed. I pulled around and easily passed him. He gave me a funny look as my Titan surged past... then he saw the trailer! I didn't know towing could be that much fun.

Jason K.

JKB · 09-08-2004, 07:32 PM

Thanks for the tip, I will be towing again this weekend through the hills and will certainly give this a try.
jim

aztitan4x4 · 09-08-2004, 09:20 PM

I just came back from camping and pulling my trailer w/toys, about maybe 3k lbs. not much by any means. I notice that while pulling uphill in D w/tow mode on it would down shift to 3rd and maintain that gear until I fully backed out of the throttle then it would shift up to 4th then 5th, but when I manually selected 4th and made it downshift to 3rd using the throttle only, it would up shift back to 4th too soon, thus loosing power and my speed would drop until I pushed the throttle down to get it to shift back to 3rd. I found that the trans. would not hunt for the right gear near as much when I was in D as opposed to being in 4. I was under the impression that it should be the other way around. I dont know maybe I'm crazy but I would like to know if anyone else has noticed this...