Overdrive lockout on ford e450
Does anyone know if it’s possible to wire in a switch to lockout overdrive? It would be great to be able to drop the tranny to drive in advance of a hill. I feel it would put off shifting to 3rd si...
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Older Fords (with the 4R100 transmission) had a plain overdrive off where the tow/haul button now is. It did exactly what it was advertised as doing: locked out overdrive, but didn't alter the shift points in any other way.
Tow/haul is much smarter overall; it does not disable overdrive, but does change the shift points around and enables some automatic engine braking by downshifting under certain conditions when the brakes are applied and also tinkers with some of the internal shift timing and programming to reduce excess heat buildup etc. (adjusting things like when the torque converter locks up).
If you really want it to downshift earlier, probably the best method is to tap the gas as you approach a hill on cruise to force a downshift. I'm not sure you'll find much difference in shifting down to third, though; my hunch is that it may actually not be shifting down to third, in most cases, though I obviously am not riding along in your RV and may be entirely wrong. I do know that my 4R100 rarely if ever shifts down to second on the highway. (Second, third, and fourth on the 4R100 are identical ratios to third, fourth, and fifth on the five speed transmissions. The extra gear was added between first and second on the four speed.)
Tow/haul is much smarter overall; it does not disable overdrive, but does change the shift points around and enables some automatic engine braking by downshifting under certain conditions when the brakes are applied and also tinkers with some of the internal shift timing and programming to reduce excess heat buildup etc. (adjusting things like when the torque converter locks up).
If you really want it to downshift earlier, probably the best method is to tap the gas as you approach a hill on cruise to force a downshift. I'm not sure you'll find much difference in shifting down to third, though; my hunch is that it may actually not be shifting down to third, in most cases, though I obviously am not riding along in your RV and may be entirely wrong. I do know that my 4R100 rarely if ever shifts down to second on the highway. (Second, third, and fourth on the 4R100 are identical ratios to third, fourth, and fifth on the five speed transmissions. The extra gear was added between first and second on the four speed.)
