Y'all - I live here in the hills and valleys of central PA with lots of 9% grades up and down and have thought that using tow/haul mode would be the best way to hold RPMs on the way up and allow me to tap the brakes to force quick downshifts to control my speed down the hills. Here is my question, often as I near the bottom of the hills I want to increase speed to get ready for the next hill and thus upshift to a higher gear and use momentum rather than fuel to build speed. Does anyone know how to force an upshift while on a trailing throttle while in tow/haul mode? I have tried the manual shift buttons on the stalk, but they do nothing. Thanks for the help.

 

The only way to get it to upshift is to tell the truck you want more speed. This is accomplished by using the accelerator pedal.

Seriously, the only way to do this would be to shift to "M" mode and upshift it yourself. One of the reasons I'm starting to prefer "M" mode when towing.

 

I agree and really like the M mode. It seems to be the best of both worlds. Won't allow an upshift that would result in a stall (I can usually upshift at 1600 RPM), can remain in the current gear until you run into the rev limiter, automatically downshifts all of the way to second gear when the RPM's don't support the current gear and allows for take offs in second gear.

 

Yea if T/H mode doesn't support a situation you're in, give the manual mode a try.

 

Thanks gents - I may have to give that a try next time I am in the hills. The only thing I don't like about manual mode is that I find the shift buttons to be awkward to reach while gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles as I come down some of these steep, curvy grades.

 

The shift buttons should be on the wheel like porsche does.

 

I have been using M mode a lot. And Tom is right, if you want to stay in D with Tow/Haul, you will just have to slam the throttle to get it to upshift while you are rolling down the hill. I have done that many times on I-24 North of Chattanooga after going over the Monteagle mountain.