Does anybody know what this switch does ?

 

Yes, this does a couple things. Looking at your dash if you push say the + plus it should turn on and off the gear numbers, on a 10 speed that would be 1- through 10. If they are already displayed. If there not they will turn it on. Now if those functions are already on and you push the - minus it will shut off the top gear. By continuing to push the minus it will remove more gears. It will do this so that say when towing you don’t want the vehicle to go into higher gears. Hope this helps.

 

I call those the FUF buttons....Foxtrot U Ford... i use them to lock out the higher gears when my transmission dances back and forth on a particular stretch of road. Gear hunting drives me nuts.

And they’re also Humbling buttons. Because if I use it for too long I’ll forget I locked out the higher gears and wonder why the RPMs are screaming as my speed picks up.

 

I presume the +/- are the same as the console shifter. In auto, punching "-" will bring up the gear display. I also use it on long downhill stretches to lock out the upper gears as required for compression braking.

If the gear selector is in "M" (manual), the +/- allow you to select gears as required.

 

So what that does is alter a 10 spd tranny into something smaller. I also assume this stays set until you turn the truck off.

Thanks for the info.

 

Yes, This would keep it from shifting into higher gears if that’s what your looking for. Also, if all the gears are engaged and you hit the + it will turn off the electronic view for the gears. I’ve found that after a while I turned it off. To be honest I’ve never turned gears off since owning one of the later generations. Just sold my 2011 and upgraded to 2018. Some folks say you shouldn’t use overdrive when towing. Because I live in the northwest Washington when towing my travel trailer I noticed it is very infrequent in my 6 speed where it would hit 6th gear. Just got the new truck and don’t expect it to hit the higher gears on hilly terrain either.
Also, once you shut the engine down you will need to deselect again on startup

 

"So what that does is alter a 10 spd tranny into something smaller. I also assume this stays set until you turn the truck off."

I'm not sure I would agree with that. I'm not a mechanical engineer but I understand that the 10 speed adds gears in between the 6 speed gears. Not just adding 4 more on the top end. When my truck shifts it sometimes skips one or two gears as needed. I use the select "-" button to lock out top end gears going down a steep hill if I don't want to use tow / haul or sport mode. But I am experimenting with those lately to see what works better.
I like the control it gives me to lock out gears but I do find the ecoboost is so quiet I have to really watch the tach.

 

No argument there. I don’t worry too much about the shifting. With the 10 speed it does seem to jump several gears depending on how hard your pushing the pedal.mabout the only time I pay attention is when towing. Then I frequently use tow haul mode anyway. Keeps the engine closer to the center of the power band. Also, when coming downhill it shifts for me to minimize brake usage.
Love the motor so far. Only had it about 5 days now so I am still learning about how it reacts. Better used to my 2011 F150 5.0 L. Totally different beasts.

 

I find that feature useful when I'm going down a steep hill... that's how I downshift. Sometimes I gotta hit it 3 times to get it down from 6 to 3.

 

I did try removing a bunch of gears while driving, and yes it does start removing them from 10, 9, 8, etc. Would be nice if you could pick the gear to remove and then you could make a 10 speed into a 6 speed or what ever.

Thought about just leaving 1st and 2nd. That would really slow you down.

 

I do what Wiggums does. When I'm going down the mountain, I will lock out 6, then 5, then 4, depending on the steepness and distance.

There is one section of road south of here that I drop all the way to 2 (lock out 3, 4, 5, & 6), and the top speed in that section of road is only 25 MPH or so. After about a mile it gets a little less steep, so I re-enable 3 at that point.