rockies or smokey's
when pulling a fifth wheel though the rockies or smokey's should you use cruise control, or down shift manually
Forum Discussion
After 35 years of driving nothing but manual shift vehicles I guess that I am set in my ways. I like having control & seldom use cruise control except on light traffic flat highways.
Cruise control can't see a grade coming up ahead & speed up a little to get over it in top gear. Cruise control downshifts to a much lower gear on long downgrades resulting in a screaming engine as it tries to maintain set speed.
I prefer to put it in manual mode & control which gear is used myself for the downgrades. Let it get up to 2600rpm or so, a short burst of heavy braking to knock speed & RPM back down, let it build again, repeat. Shift back to auto tow mode near the bottom of grade.
I imagine the newer trucks are even smarter than my 06 but going uphill a little twitch of the foot will make it downshift sooner than it will on it's own.
Cruise control can't see a grade coming up ahead & speed up a little to get over it in top gear. Cruise control downshifts to a much lower gear on long downgrades resulting in a screaming engine as it tries to maintain set speed.
I prefer to put it in manual mode & control which gear is used myself for the downgrades. Let it get up to 2600rpm or so, a short burst of heavy braking to knock speed & RPM back down, let it build again, repeat. Shift back to auto tow mode near the bottom of grade.
I imagine the newer trucks are even smarter than my 06 but going uphill a little twitch of the foot will make it downshift sooner than it will on it's own.
