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Tow / haul driving mode when pulling a trailer?

Vallee

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Does it make a difference driven in tow/haul mode, when pulling a trailer.
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DanielG

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It seems to me that it keeps the trans in a lower gear to keep the RPM's up.
 

powerboatr

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yes it holds gears longer and also provides more aggressive engine braking and downshifts than normal mode.
downshifts earlier also helps on the brakes. its not near as aggressive as the super duties but it is very helpful .
remember in normal , tow haul etc you can lock out higher gears manually as well to help keep rpms in the power range base don your loads, speeds and terrain.
 

Jeff1024

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yes it holds gears longer and also provides more aggressive engine braking and downshifts than normal mode.
downshifts earlier also helps on the brakes. its not near as aggressive as the super duties but it is very helpful .
remember in normal , tow haul etc you can lock out higher gears manually as well to help keep rpms in the power range base don your loads, speeds and terrain.
What he said. Plus it changes the transmission shift strategy to not skip gears. For example, in normal drive mode I rarely see 2nd gear with shifts usually going 1 -> 3rd. In Tow / Haul it always uses all 10 speeds.

Part of this may be due to the load on the truck, but the normal mode driving transmission strategy is 100% tuned for MPG. In normal mode I have been in 6th gear going 25 through my neighborhood. It's nice to change to tow haul so I have the best shift strategy for towing without as much concern for MPG and meeting CAFE requirements.
 

GEN14OWNER

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I rarely take my truck out of “Normal Mode”. I should, I just haven’t gotten around to it.

But today I had to tow my trailer so just out of curiosity, I put it in Tow/Haul Mode and was very surprised by the result.

It defiantly shifted differently. It seemed to wait longer (higher RPMs) before grabbing the next gear. Unnecessarily so it seemed.

But to my surprise, I gained about 2 MPG!

Not a “huge” difference but noticeable.

I’m wondering if anyone else has towed in Normal Mode and then tried Tow/Haul Mode and found the same thing....
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