rockies or smokey's

[1biker1]

when pulling a fifth wheel though the rockies or smokey's should you use cruise control, or down shift manually

[azdryheat]

I have a diesel and a 19,000 pound trailer. I disconnect the cruise and go to manual shift when in the mountains. 4th gear seems to be the go-to gear.

[topjimmy]

8 years of fulltiming towing a 14K 5er Never used Cruise and never will just put it in Tow mode and let it do it's thing

[Veebyes]

Must be my 30 plus years of vehicle ownership before getting my first automatic but depending on grade I am in the manual mode often especially on the downgrades.

As smart as the truck is, it cannot see ahead of itself & shift ahead of a grade one way or another. Easy enough to make it kick down a gear going uphill before the truck thinks that it is time.

I am another who seldom uses cruise control unless out on open mostly flat highway.

[Sunnysidebeach]

garyp4951 wrote:
I never use cruise towing in the mountains, and wonder why some do. I'm in no hurry, and its also hard on the power train.

I totally agree.

[Latner]

Splashers3 wrote:
Some of you will get a chuckle out of this, but I NEVER use my truck's cruise control when towing.....NEVER.

X2

[Lynnmor]

I don't want to be "that guy" by varying my speed, jerking on the brakes repeatedly and just being a pain to the rest of the traffic, so I use the cruise as much as practical.

[Splashers3]

Some of you will get a chuckle out of this, but I NEVER use my truck's cruise control when towing.....NEVER.

[StirCrazy]

I turn on the cruise control when ever I am towing on the highway. in the big mountians I use the tow haul but the rest just normal as all the tow haul in my ford does is hold shift points a little higher, all the other features of speed holding down hills and such work with the tow haul off.

Steve

[Veebyes]

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.

[gtnsmlr]

Auto pilots can't surf and cruise control can't climb hills...

[garyp4951]

Edd505 wrote:

garyp4951 wrote:
I never use cruise towing in the mountains, and wonder why some do. I'm in no hurry, and its also hard on the power train.

Not so in the newer diesels with the exhaust brakes. The ECM/TCM will hold the set speed & downshift as necessary & the CM's will not let the motor self destruct. As posted tap the brakes on occasion to slow & hit resume.

Sorry I should have said going uphill, and I always use tow haul with full exhaust brake.

[mleekamp]

PUt it in TOW MODE (usually on the end of your shift lever)...let the truck do the rest. No Cruise over mountains.

The TOW MODE will do engine/trans braking going down hills, and keeps it out of OD, and keeps gears longer...better towing experience, IMHO, over mountains.

[thomas201]

I like cruise and use it a lot. But, it is a dumb robot and it cannot think ahead. On secondary roads, that are twisty turny, that I have driven for years, I know what is coming next. Why let cruise top a mountain at 55, just so I can stand on the brakes for the 25 mph turn on the far side? Those big, long multi mile grades out west, cruise is great. Appropriate Technology for the task at hand. Now, if cruise could be slaved to GPS, and interpolate elevation change, and the customer could do a little programing, yes, then we could almost use it all the time. Might as well get self driving too!!!

[Edd505]

garyp4951 wrote:
I never use cruise towing in the mountains, and wonder why some do. I'm in no hurry, and its also hard on the power train.

Not so in the newer diesels with the exhaust brakes. The ECM/TCM will hold the set speed & downshift as necessary & the CM's will not let the motor self destruct. As posted tap the brakes on occasion to slow & hit resume.