Tow mode vs normal

[Samson16]

Did Calson get banned for some reason? I was acknowledging a nice “like” @sbreech gave me a few posts back and it looked like that might have occurred. ??‍

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[FaaWrenchBndr]

Dunno, don’t care. He could be a pain, but we all can.

so back to the topic, I use tow mode to keep the rpm’s up and the turbos from spooling as much.

 

[Samson16]

At one point I was going down a 10% grade and was in tow/haul mode using cruise control - a mistake, it turns out! I was watching the EV monitor and saw only regen mode, not additional braking, so I didn't think the brakes were being used. I eventually got a warning saying the brakes were overheating and the truck switched cruise control off

Thanks for sharing that experience. What was your speed set to?
I think our high voltage battery is small and when “full” the regen braking (using the electric motor as an electric generator to charge the battery) ceases. That leaves us with disc brakes and 3.5l V6 engine braking. Manual shift control seems to be favored here as the best option. Some skilled guys have swapped in Raptor steering wheels for the paddle shifters just for that reason. Well that and they’re just sweet ?

 

[garyp]

Thanks for sharing that experience. What was your speed set to?
I think our high voltage battery is small and when “full” the regen braking (using the electric motor as an electric generator to charge the battery) ceases. That leaves us with disc brakes and 3.5l V6 engine braking. Manual shift control seems to be favored here as the best option. Some skilled guys have swapped in Raptor steering wheels for the paddle shifters just for that reason. Well that and they’re just sweet ?

Probably 20 - 25 most of the way down; it was the Teton pass. Maybe tow/haul works in automatic for milder slopes, but this was too much?

 

[shalabama]

Probably 20 - 25 most of the way down; it was the Teton pass. Maybe tow/haul works in automatic for milder slopes, but this was too much?

I feel your pain. The only time my truck has ever felt overmatched was heading down Teton pass to Jackson towing 6200# RV.

 

[sbreech]

I tow a 24 foot, 6000 pound loaded airstream with my 2.7 super crew 4x4, 3.73 rear end, and a Blue Ox Sway Pro hitch. I experimented with using standard drive mode vs. tow / haul mode, and I get better fuel economy with tow / haul mode while towing. I have had two instances where the truck detected sway, and the message on screen was something to the effect of "reducing engine mode / applying brakes". Both times were probably my fault as I was going too fast down a mountain pass. The situation was contained, I lowered speed, and all back to normal.

The worst thing that I've found while towing is the lane keep assist. It MUST be off while towing. When I tow, I tend to track the trailer wheels close to the passenger side line. If I get a little too close to that, the lane keep assist bumps me over - more aggressively than I bump myself over - unexpectedly. It feels like a sway incident. Now, imagine a semi passing you, causing a bit of swerve, then that happens, and it feels pretty dang nerve-wracking. Once I turned it off, no more issues.

One more thing about tow/haul mode. The "engine braking" is sort of nice, but there's just not a lot of compression in the 2.7. It does it's job, but I still use the brakes mostly. Going down a pass, when you hold the brakes for a couple seconds, you can tell that the engine holds it's RPMs steady until you hit the brakes harder or tap the gas.

 

[Cobraman428]

Hi, I would like some help understanding -- Many posts have talked about increased engine braking in tow/haul mode and I'm not sure what this is.

I just returned from a first trip towing about a 6000# travel trailer with a 2021 powerboost. At one point I was going down a 10% grade and was in tow/haul mode using cruise control - a mistake, it turns out! I was watching the EV monitor and saw only regen mode, not additional braking, so I didn't think the brakes were being used. I eventually got a warning saying the brakes were overheating and the truck switched cruise control off. The truck, of course, accelerated to make things exciting! I quickly changed to manual shift and shifted down.

After that point in the trip, I switched to manual mode on down hills. Is there a different way to manage this? I don't think I noticed the truck shifting down as much as I expected by simply braking.

As a bonus, is there some way to monitor brake temperature real time. I think it was great the truck monitored it and reacted when it hit a threshold, but I would like to know mostly out of curiosity. I did have an IR temp gun and measured the brake disk temp at 460-500 right after stopping. Trailer brakes were also hot.

I tow in Tow/haul mode whenever I tow. I lock out gears 8-10 to remove the overdrive gears. I don't use "manual" shifting I use the Progressive Range Selection. + / - button on the shifter and just downshift or upshift as needed going down a steep grade or up. I don't use cruise control on hills, but on flatlands and turn off lane centering (cause trailer sway if turned on). I always monitor my boost gauge and when I see the turbos fire up, I downshift to get out of the turbos and get higher engine RPMs up. I feel I get better MPGs doing this and the temps stay in the normal range and engine braking works great on downhill runs and don't overuse my brakes. Just my 2 cents here.

 

[garyp]

I tow in Tow/haul mode whenever I tow. I lock out gears 8-10 to remove the overdrive gears. I don't use "manual" shifting I use the Progressive Range Selection. + / - button on the shifter and just downshift or upshift as needed going down a steep grade or up. I don't use cruise control on hills, but on flatlands and turn off lane centering (cause trailer sway if turned on). I always monitor my boost gauge and when I see the turbos fire up, I downshift to get out of the turbos and get higher engine RPMs up. I feel I get better MPGs doing this and the temps stay in the normal range and engine braking works great on downhill runs and don't overuse my brakes. Just my 2 cents here.

Thanks for your 2 cents. Just locking out more gears to accomplish what I was doing by using manual mode makes complete sense. I'll adopt that.

When locking out gears to avoid boost, is there some RPM limit you worry about? In this last 5000 mile towing trip, I did try locking out gears from time to time, but didn't see reliable differences in the instantaneous mpg, so just let the truck do its thing, which at highway speeds would mostly run in 8th, and shift to 9th or 10th on gradual descents.

 

[HammaMan]

Thanks for your 2 cents. Just locking out more gears to accomplish what I was doing by using manual mode makes complete sense. I'll adopt that.

When locking out gears to avoid boost, is there some RPM limit you worry about? In this last 5000 mile towing trip, I did try locking out gears from time to time, but didn't see reliable differences in the instantaneous mpg, so just let the truck do its thing, which at highway speeds would mostly run in 8th, and shift to 9th or 10th on gradual descents.

Tow mode isn't about fuel economy, it's about using engine braking, and higher RPM for better cooling by spinning the water pump faster. It also turns down the hybrid functionality as well due to the heat the battery creates that then gets fed to the AC system. It adjust the trans logic to better use gears to reduce trans wear as well.

 

[oneinch]

I don't tow. I use two mode along with the locker and 4A when I want to beat someone from a stop light. Tow mode starts the engine. I found that in sport the engine stills shuts off at a light. I'm a racer in my head.

 

[Cobraman428]

Thanks for your 2 cents. Just locking out more gears to accomplish what I was doing by using manual mode makes complete sense. I'll adopt that.

When locking out gears to avoid boost, is there some RPM limit you worry about? In this last 5000 mile towing trip, I did try locking out gears from time to time, but didn't see reliable differences in the instantaneous mpg, so just let the truck do its thing, which at highway speeds would mostly run in 8th, and shift to 9th or 10th on gradual descents.

The highest gear I use is 7 (1 : 1 gear ratio). I have used Gear 8 before but it gets the turbo spinning more (more heat). I've noticed I get better mpg and less heat/temps doing it this way. I'm not redlining the tach, I think I hit 5.4k rpm once/twice going down a long grade in NC, but the tow haul mode did it's job. Like HammaMan stated above it will spin the water pump moving more coolant to keep trans/ICE cooler. I'm towing a travel trailer about 4200 lbs. in North Ga/NC/TN/FLA so its flat & mountains drives for me. I"ve taken advice from a lot of people on this forum and for my truck and trailer combination this just works best for me. I get 11-13 mpg and tow with 93 octane gas. I don't put the trans in "manual" I use the Progressive Range Selection method and shift the gears as needed.

 

[garyp]

The highest gear I use is 7 (1 : 1 gear ratio). I have used Gear 8 before but it gets the turbo spinning more (more heat). I've noticed I get better mpg and less heat/temps doing it this way. I'm not redlining the tach, I think once I hit 5.4k rpm once/twice going down a long grade in NC, but the tow haul mode it is job. Like HammaMan stated above it will spin the water pump moving more coolant to keep trans/ICE cooler. I'm towing a travel trailer about 4200 lbs. in North Ga/NC/TN/FLA so its flat & mountains drives for me. I"ve taken advice from a lot of people on this forum and for my truck and trailer combination this just works best for me. I get 11-13 mpg and tow with 93 octane gas. I don't put the trans in "manual" I use the Progressive Range Selection method and shift the gears as needed.

Thanks, I'll try that next time. I appreciate all the input!

 

[Samson16]

For those of you towing a little heavier, my future plans include a 7,500lb GVWR 26’ Intech trailer being towed with my PB.

Should I consider a brake upgrade?

 

[sbreech]

For those of you towing a little heavier, my future plans include a 7,500lb GVWR 26’ Intech trailer being towed with my PB.

Should I consider a brake upgrade?

My stock brakes perform just fine. I'm at about 36k miles on my truck, pull 6k pounds, and usually have payload close to 85-90% capacity with stuff, tongue weight, etc. Of those 36k miles, 50% have been towing.

With my last maintenance, Ford said I should consider new pads at next maintenance. So, I bought new pads and rotors which I will install this weekend myself. I went ahead and ordered some more aggressive brakes designed for towing / hauling. I don't think I NEEDED them, but they cannot hurt.

https://a.co/d/c2BHfb6

 

[Suns_PSD]

I was towing with mine the first time last weekend and I have not determined which is the best for me. When in tow mode, the truck pretty much stayed in 8th gear at about 2.2 rpms and no boost. When I would switch back to Normal, it would stay in 10th gear and maintain my 65 mph, but the boost was constantly at about 7-10 pound range and out 1.6 rpms. So the question I have is, which method is more fuel efficient? is 2.2 and no boost better than 1.6 and no boost?

Your question was already answered but I had a bit to add to it:

I've been monitoring my spark advance/ timing while operating my truck lately using the TQ app, and not surprisingly the programming retards timing a LOT the moment boost comes in. This makes sense because it reduces cylinder pressures and importantly retards when they occur in the piston cycle. This protects head gaskets, pistons, etc. Yes, retarding timing is less efficient, however the power increase is undeniable.
The timing jumps around a lot based on a bunch of factors but overall, I'd say off boost the timing stays in the 26-35' timing advance range, but the moment boost comes in, it'll drop to 3-6' of timing advance.
I haven't monitored this other aspect, but I would be surprised if the air/ fuel ratio didn't also richen up as soon as boost came in, to keep things cool, further reducing efficiency.

So yah, boost is going to absolutely reduce engine efficiency. Too bad it's just so darn fun...

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