When to downshift

Hybridhunter wrote:

NCMODELA wrote:
Thanks, I do not normally run at 70, I run at 62, and I don't expect to run in the hills as fast as in the flats. I was running it a little higher to get a good feeling of how the TV would react, just for my knowledge. How do I know if the Torque Convertor is locked or not? Is there a light on the dash?

Experience or a Scangauge II. You can tell a converter is locked partially by feel. When it is UN-locked, you can see the rpm vary at the same speed, because there is slip.

As for the shifting, GM's really try to hold a gear, and are a little more reluctant to downshift. I personally like to set my cruise at a certain speed, and leave it on when climbing. I don't like being a nuisance to other drivers when it's as simple as, well, doing nothing but maybe downshifting, but that's just me.

Once you familiarize yourself with how your truck behaves, you may want to manually drop a gear when it starts struggling. 4500 rpm is about perfect on a smaller V8, it's where the engine makes most of it's "torque" (or highest horsepower at the lowest rpm). 4500 certainly shouldn't do any harm.

I agree about experience. I had my thoughts but driving out west for a few weeks my experiences changed some of my thoughts. :)

It did not take long to learn RPM's were my friend. It just took the temp gauges in our case. We did get into one case where when in 1st gear we could not gain RPM's at WOT but that was our mistake on pulling the Old Priest Run into Yosemite.

Soon we were down shifting early going up and down in the big hills of the west.