The more I play around with the 2 position the more interesting it is. First I learned from an earlier thread about the fact that the truck will not roll backward on a slope. I have found this really handy in two uses, while hunting you can jump out of the truck on a hill, and when pulling a boat up a ramp you can get out to check while leaving it in gear.

Recently, I discovered by accident that if you shift from 2 to D with the same throttle setting the truck will accelerate quite smartly. My guess is that the 2 position modifies the valve timing to create less torque for starting on slippery surfaces. It also seems there is a considerable improvement in engine braking.

I've asked at a couple of dealerships, but they don't seem to know much about these features. Help me out you Ford tech types. Is my understanding correct?

 

Ive never tried using 2nd gear on hills or the boat ramp. Putting it into 2nd on hills would be very useful around here where there many steep hills, and people still insist on getting right on my rear. Would it be possible to do any damage to the transmission doing this? Any other problems?

 

bigdave - everything you stated IS true and that does seem to be how it works. But the reduced power (in BOTH 2 & 1) really twists my shorts. It just so happens that more than a few places I go it would be really nice to pull up that hill at residential speeds with the tranny in 2...just holding a normal 2nd gear. I do this because it seems the speed I want to troll at just happens to be on the fence between 2 & 3 and I don't want the tranny hunting up & down with every little change of grade and/or throttle.
I can understand the "slippery surface" debate, but really...just the fact of starting out in 2nd can help tremendously in that case anyway.
Personally I like the hill-hold feature when I am stopped. But otherwise I would love the opportunity to drive locked in 2 as I see fit, not in the manner that Ford decided is "best for me"

just my $0.02. Spend them how you like.

 

I read somewhere, I can't remember where, that when the tranny is in 2 with the 5.4 the digital throttle gets re-mapped so that the entire range of the pedal becomes only 0 - 1/2 throttle. This allows you to more precicely control the power output when starting on slippery surfaces such as ice.

So if you are cruisn along with the gear selector set to 2 and your foot halfway into the thottle the computer is only applying 1/4 throttle. When you then shift into D the throttle gets mapped back to normal and the 1/4 throttle immediatly becomes 1/2 throttle.

 

Is it really a remapping of the throttle or is it just the ratio of 2nd gear. If you drive a stick and try to start off in second, it takes much more gas and clutch pedal modulation to get it moving. Of course, as you plant the throttle and the engine speed "catches up to the gearing", for lack of a better analogy, then the truck starts to behave as normal as far as power delivery goes, except that it won't shift out of second. Then again, all this electrical hootin nanny stuff may override the old tranny gear/engine speed discussion alltogether.

 

That and the throttle lag are two of the reasons I am really thinking about going to an aftermarket tuner. Of course it would also be nice to blow the doors off the next smug little pr*** with a Hemi who wants to play Ricky Racer.

Just for interests sake the last time I got an oil change one of the service guys at the dealer was telling me how much cheaper the labor is to install a Predator chip than on earlier trucks. We then proceeded to check out the part price and it was $725 CAD. Sure doesn't jibe with the $400 USD I see through this site.

 

Now that explanation really makes sense as that surely seems to be how things happen. Wouldn't it be nice if Ford would let us know things like that in the owner's manual.

With a 4x4 you put it in 2 position with 4 high and simply mash the throttle whether it is icy or wet. Just be careful not to run into the vehicle in front of you who doesn't have the same technology.

Thanks for the info. It's why I love this site.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if we could get the same 6 speed manual that comes in the Superduties. My next truck could very well be a V10 Superduty for just that reason.

 

How sweet would that be? just another indication of how lazy americans becoming. No one wants to shift their own cars, not even in sports cars or exotics.

I just read through my owner's manual, they explain the 2nd gear thing fairly well.

 

Guess I'm one of those Lazy Amercians cause unless its in a play toy I have no use for a manual shift vehicle but then again I have a bad knee and in heavy traffic it would play havoc with my leg, and yes I agree it would be sweet if we could get that big ole nice hinkin 5 or 6 speed like the superduty guys get bad ford for no 5 or 6 spd auto

 

Mark me down as another lazy American, who also has a bad knee.

Clutches are for little sports cars, and tiny econo-boxes.

You don't even see many in 18 wheelers anymore. They found that the automatic was not only safer, it put less wear and tear on the power train in the big rigs, same as the little ones.

Those people who love them so much in a truck are welcome to the LA freeways, and see how long they keep them...

Also, an Automatic is better in sand snow ice and mud.
Add a tuner to an F-150 and you get a positive shift, plus the ability to keep your hands on the wheel at all times.
Chris

 

I've pretty well convinced myself that I am going to the Predator tuner. With gas hovering around the dollar a litre range anything to improve fuel economy has a chance of recovering its cost. At least that's how I'll try to justify it to my wife.

 

Chris,
i mentioned sports cars in my post. I myself am not a lazy american but do appreciate the chance to rest my left leg, particularly in Boston traffic, and not have to keep shifting. But it would be nice to at least have the option.

And it's nice to see that others use the "better gas mileage" excuse for justifying mods. I'm not really sure we're convincing anybody but ourselves, but if it helps get the job done, who's complaining?

 

I would take a look at the owners manual to determine if shifting to the "2" position locks the transmission into second gear, preventing automatic upshifts or downshifts out of second gear. That's how it worked from '97-'03. This might explain why shifting from "2" to "D" while holding the throttle in a steady position causes the vehcile to pick up a lot of acceleration, as it might be allowing the transmission to downshift into first gear under those circumstances.

In the old days, shifting into "2" usually allowed an automatic transmission to function like a 2-speed automatic, locking out higher gears, but allowing the trans to shift between first and second gear, as conditions warranted.

 

The 2 position doesn't allow for any shifts of the transmission. It does in effect create another "gear" by apparently remapping the electronic throttle. I still say the owner's manual could tell us more if Ford believed we had a functioning brain.

I still remember one of my high school buddies talking about shifting his dad's 1958 Olds into "super". Of course the "S" on the shift quadrant stood for second, but I always thought that "super" sounded a lot more interesting.