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Mike8253 · 06-21-2020, 10:34 AM

I may be wrong, but I believe the "4" tells the transmission to automatically select non-overdrive gears only. Choosing "2" or "1" selects those gears only until you determine you can go back to automatic.
I normally use cruise on the flats and gently rolling hills, but when driving in steeper hills, I get out of cruise. I find that on these bigger grades that the cruise logic just waits too long to shift into 5th, and then almost immediately drops to 4th for the rest of the hill, with all the noise of 4th gear along with it. In many of those cases, had it shifted to 5th earlier, it could have maintained RPM's and made the crest in 5th. So I get out of cruise and manage gear selection myself.

wog099 · 06-21-2020, 02:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike8253

I may be wrong, but I believe the "4" tells the transmission to automatically select non-overdrive gears only. Choosing "2" or "1" selects those gears only until you determine you can go back to automatic.
I normally use cruise on the flats and gently rolling hills, but when driving in steeper hills, I get out of cruise. I find that on these bigger grades that the cruise logic just waits too long to shift into 5th, and then almost immediately drops to 4th for the rest of the hill, with all the noise of 4th gear along with it. In many of those cases, had it shifted to 5th earlier, it could have maintained RPM's and made the crest in 5th. So I get out of cruise and manage gear selection myself.

Thanks Mike. This makes a lot of sense, especially now that Mark has explained the two overdrive gears, 5th and 6th.
My normal driving is to keep it in "D" to be fully automatic, only use cruise on mostly flat roads so it won't continuously be 'overshifting' as you discuss; and I use tow/haul mode in mountains or big hills. For steep descents I tap the brake to make it downshift to where it will hold it back at a proper speed.
Next week I will start on our trip to Colorado and will do some actual research to prove your theories, but I think you have nailed it. My thought is that if you start out from a stop still mode and select 4th or 2nd gear, it will start out in 1st gear and not shift up over the gear you have selected, either 4th, 2nd or 1st. I'll try to remember to report back on my findings.
Thanks,

Mike8253 · 06-21-2020, 04:09 PM

Actually, I think if you have your shifter on 2nd, that's what it will start from. I haven't tried that on my current MH, but that's the way it was on my 2004 Georgetown.
Also, especially if you are towing, I recommend you just select Tow/Haul as your standard mode, as that seems to me the best overall gear management for these Class A's. Safe travels.

Habu77 · 06-23-2020, 08:49 AM

I agree with Mike 8253. If you are towing, use tow/haul mode all the time, with the exception stated below.
And like Newmar 2856, I also take my rig out of tow/haul during the descent of hills that are not of 'cautionary' grade so the transmission will upshift back into 5th, and then 6th. (Don't take it out of tow/haul in the middle of a 6% decline, of course). This works great for me, and I travel right on the cusp of 25,000 lbs.

nutman1977 · 10-23-2022, 04:09 PM

In the middle of the hills of Arkansas my engine light came on as I heard a load knocking from underneath. It’s as if my torqshift6 no longer wanted to downshift. We put the transmission in the M mode and manually shifted till we got back to Houston. The Adventurer 29b has 6k miles. Hopefully a Ford warranty service center can work on it soon.