Driving Ford V10, 6 speed

[EdInArk]

I don't use cruise control in hills, even small hills. I can do a better job of controlling RPM myself. When approaching a hill I try to get it downshifted before I start up. I go ahead and apply enough throttle to get it spinning around 3200 rpm then hold a steady throttle. I may hit the bottom doing 70 and be doing 50 at the top, but I don't care. We don't lose enough time slowing down for a short time for it to matter. I just hold a steady throttle and let it downshift as necessary and seldom turn over 4000.

The way I see it is that the cruise control will do its dangest to do what you told it to do. Tell it to do 62 and it'll slow a couple of mph then start hammering it to catch back up while accelerating uphill. You did, after all, tell it to maintain 62, and if it has to downshift several gears and do 4750 rpm to do it, it'll do that.

But drive it, and you can anticipate. Hill coming up? Speed up a little then hold it steady up the hill. Sometimes you're even gifted with a nice downhill stretch before you head back up. Use that to your advantage.

[Mike8253]

Originally Posted by EdInArk

I don't use cruise control in hills, even small hills. I can do a better job of controlling RPM myself. When approaching a hill I try to get it downshifted before I start up. I go ahead and apply enough throttle to get it spinning around 3200 rpm then hold a steady throttle. I may hit the bottom doing 70 and be doing 50 at the top, but I don't care. We don't lose enough time slowing down for a short time for it to matter. I just hold a steady throttle and let it downshift as necessary and seldom turn over 4000.

The way I see it is that the cruise control will do its dangest to do what you told it to do. Tell it to do 62 and it'll slow a couple of mph then start hammering it to catch back up while accelerating uphill. You did, after all, tell it to maintain 62, and if it has to downshift several gears and do 4750 rpm to do it, it'll do that.

But drive it, and you can anticipate. Hill coming up? Speed up a little then hold it steady up the hill. Sometimes you're even gifted with a nice downhill stretch before you head back up. Use that to your advantage.

What he said...

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by Ramona

I have never manually shifted gears on an automatic transmission. Anybody willing to give me the low-down? Thanks!

Well Waiter21 has a 4 speed so with PRND321 you can select exactly the gear you want, D being 4th. Doesn't really mean it will stay there, it will still downshift to prevent stalling and upshift to prevent redlining but will attempt to hold the gear you set to.

My 6 speed has PRND421 so I cannot select 3rd or 5th.

Maybe with getting a new steering column in the 2020 F53 it will finally get the column shifter from the Superduty with select shift gear selector:

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by EdInArk

I don't use cruise control in hills, even small hills. I can do a better job of controlling RPM myself. When approaching a hill I try to get it downshifted before I start up. I go ahead and apply enough throttle to get it spinning around 3200 rpm then hold a steady throttle. I may hit the bottom doing 70 and be doing 50 at the top, but I don't care. We don't lose enough time slowing down for a short time for it to matter. I just hold a steady throttle and let it downshift as necessary and seldom turn over 4000.

The way I see it is that the cruise control will do its dangest to do what you told it to do. Tell it to do 62 and it'll slow a couple of mph then start hammering it to catch back up while accelerating uphill. You did, after all, tell it to maintain 62, and if it has to downshift several gears and do 4750 rpm to do it, it'll do that.

But drive it, and you can anticipate. Hill coming up? Speed up a little then hold it steady up the hill. Sometimes you're even gifted with a nice downhill stretch before you head back up. Use that to your advantage.

I am pretty much the opposite, I know I could probably do better and anticipate but I normally just let the cruise keep me at set speed even over hills. Again though the 6 speed doesn't tend to rev past 4200 so it doesn't scream too bad.

The cruise has some built in buffer, it will allow a 5 mph speed decrease before increasing throttle to maintain speed up a hill so if its a small rolling hill it won't necessarily downshift. It also only increases the throttle at a certain rate, so if the hill is steep enough it will keep slowing down and at 10 mph below set point it will disengage. Down hill it allows 5 mph above set point before engine braking and downshifting.

This does pretty good for me up the point it starts disengaging then I know its time to go manual because the grades are too steep. I have also noticed in tow/haul it will shift more aggressively causing the cruise control to downshift sooner up a hill and maintain better but causing more rpm noise, where not in tow/haul it will be more mellow but will drop 10 mph sooner and disengage on a shallower grade.

[RRR]

[QUOTE=jharrell;4701849
...Things will get a lot more interesting next year when the 7.3L with 10 speed comes out.[/QUOTE]

Then everyone will scream that the transmission is always seeking.

[Ramona]

Originally Posted by jharrell

...though the 6 speed doesn't tend to rev past 4200 so it doesn't scream too bad.

Well, that's not been my (limited) experience, which was the impetus for my original post. Hills almost always take RPMs well past 4000 and these are not really big hills (for this area). Longer hills got me to 4750 RPMs and LOUD (CC)

So I need a new driving strategy. Fortunately, I've gotten good feedback here. Gonna try to control the RPMs myself without CC and maybe a little manual shifting.

Really chompin' at the bit though—next trip not for almost 3 more weeks

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by Ramona

Well, that's not been my (limited) experience, which was the impetus for my original post. Hills almost always take RPMs well past 4000 and these are not really big hills (for this area). Longer hills got me to 4750 RPMs and LOUD (CC)

So I need a new driving strategy. Fortunately, I've gotten good feedback here. Gonna try to control the RPMs myself without CC and maybe a little manual shifting.

Really chompin' at the bit though—next trip not for almost 3 more weeks

Maybe they changed something, but nothing I can do to get it above 4200 rpm on an uphill, down it will run up to 5000 before upshifting.

You can see it in the TFLvideo too before the tune it wouldn't downshift from 3rd going up the mountain because that would have caused it to go above 4200.

The V10 with the 6 speed is rated at max 320HP at 3900 rpm, while the 5 speed was 362hp at 4750.

Here is another from good old LVRVLUVR, notice how max's out around 4000:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfbYg3UaN9c

[Mike8253]

My general approach in the hills, especially on the downhills, is that you need to be more engaged in the driving process. You just can’t always be on auto pilot as nice as it is to cruise through beautiful areas and take in the scenery. On the uphills, especially when towing, you're going to want to be cognizant of speed, RPM's, and temps and manage all of them yourself. Downhills are all about holding speed, engaging engine braking and keeping your brakes cool. I'd rather be actively driving here than letting the CC dictate what's going on. The more you drive yours, the more you find the right combination for you. Just don't abdicate all your control to the machine.

[Ramona]

Originally Posted by jharrell

Maybe they changed something, but nothing I can do to get it above 4200 rpm on an uphill, down it will run up to 5000 before upshifting.

You can see it in the TFLvideo too before the tune it wouldn't downshift from 3rd going up the mountain because that would have caused it to go above 4200.

The V10 with the 6 speed is rated at max 320HP at 3900 rpm, while the 5 speed was 362hp at 4750.

Here is another from good old LVRVLUVR, notice how max's out around 4000:

Interesting Video. Thank you.
From the video. he says, " ...to get over 60 [mph], I had to add a Banks kit and everything else."...to the Ford v10, right?

Also, dosen't the Winnie 26HE (in the video) weigh about a ton less than the Newmar Bay Star Sport that I drive? Also, the video dosen't mention toad, does it? I'm towing a 2 ton Jeep. So there's about 3 tons more weight that I am pulling than the guy in the video and I don't have a "Banks Kit".

So, though interesting, not sure the video is very relevant to my situation.
Would love to maintain 60mph at 4000rpm up a steep grade...

[Ramona]

Originally Posted by Mike8253

My general approach in the hills, especially on the downhills, is that you need to be more engaged in the driving process. You just can’t always be on auto pilot as nice as it is to cruise through beautiful areas and take in the scenery. On the uphills, especially when towing, you're going to want to be cognizant of speed, RPM's, and temps and manage all of them yourself. Downhills are all about holding speed, engaging engine braking and keeping your brakes cool. I'd rather be actively driving here than letting the CC dictate what's going on. The more you drive yours, the more you find the right combination for you. Just don't abdicate all your control to the machine.

Yeah, gonna give that a try. I'm planning on taking it out of CC on hills (up and down) and only using tow mode on the down hills. We'll see if I can maintain 55ish and keep RPMs at or below 4200—I am not an experienced driver.
Sadly, won't be able to report back for some weeks but next trip has some biggy hills.

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by Ramona

Interesting Video. Thank you.
From the video. he says, " ...to get over 60 [mph], I had to add a Banks kit and everything else."...to the Ford v10, right?

Also, dosen't the Winnie 26HE (in the video) weigh about a ton less than the Newmar Bay Star Sport that I drive? Also, the video dosen't mention toad, does it? I'm towing a 2 ton Jeep. So there's about 3 tons more weight that I am pulling than the guy in the video and I don't have a "Banks Kit".

So, though interesting, not sure the video is very relevant to my situation.
Would love to maintain 60mph at 4000rpm up a steep grade...

The banks kit was for his 5 speed to maintained 60 I believe, he’s towing a large enclosed trailer I forget how much it weighed, think he had it setup to tow more than 5000.

I tow a 5000 pound Jeep and I’m right at 18k, but point is the six speed won’t go above 4200 with the pedal to the floor up a hill for me. You can see it too on the dyno results from 5 star which was on a heavy Tiffin, power peeks at 4000 and starts falling at 4200 by 4750 its dropped a 100 hp. There would be no reason to run the rpm above 4200 as it would have less power and more noise.

Interesting to know that your Baystar revs highier wonder when that changed, everyone was happy when the 6 speed came out that it didn’t go that high.

Looks like the 5 star tune does change the shift schedule to allow the highier revving according to the dyno, power doesn’t fall off until 5000.

[jharrell]

So here is another of his videos, you can really see it maxing at 4200 then shifting, this is what mine does, if you step on it it will rev to 4200 then shift:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLxX9gLS9qw

Hes pulling a triple axle trailer that weighs 7500 his gross combined is 22.5k which he shows his cat readout at the end.

Not sure what your running, but Newmar shows 16.8k unloaded for the 2813 plus a Jeep and your right around 22k so yeah depending on how your loaded your going to weigh more. Main difference I see between his and yours is the rear end, it 4.30 on the 18k and yours looks to be 5.38 so your going to be spinning higher rpm in 6th but otherwise it should still be shifting at 4200 unless they changed something in the shift schedule.

4200 is still loud but everyone says much better than 5000 of the 5 speed. Note LVRVLUVR did one of the first releases of the 5 star for the 6 speed and it didn't seem to make a difference in rev limiter, maybe thats different now based on their dyno showing 5000 rpm redline after the tune.

[Waiter21]

I have never manually shifted gears on an automatic transmission.

On my 4 speed: To disable the OD (4th gear) momentarily press the button on the end of the shift lever. This disables the OD (4th gear)


To shift to lower gears, move the gear shift lever from "D" to "2" (or "1" )


This forces the transmission to the lower gear i.e. If in "2", the transmission will not upshift to D or OD, but will downshift to 1st, if needed.

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by Waiter21

On my 4 speed: To disable the OD (4th gear) momentarily press the button on the end of the shift lever. This disables the OD (4th gear)


To shift to lower gears, move the gear shift lever from "D" to "2" (or "1" )


This forces the transmission to the lower gear i.e. If in "2", the transmission will not upshift to D or OD, but will downshift to 1st, if needed.

Oh wow, forgot back that far it only had PRND21 and no tow/haul only OD off my mistake. At least you can pick all the gears