Hi, new member and new to Ford.

Picked up our new 23' long awaited SD 350 SRW CCLB 7.3 last Monday, behaved beautifully climbing and when starting down the backside of the mountain towing a 6,000 lb camper started to downshift nicely, then it kept going, at 50 MPH it was in third and trying for second, nothing seemed to make it shift up until I put it in manual and forced it to. It did this one more time, then seemed to behave after that all weekend and on the way home. The dealer said it is still learning. Anyone have any insight on this behavior?

TIA
Seth

 

Did you wait 1000 miles before towing? One of the reasons they give for 1000 miles is for the systems to learn. The only true break in during that time is the ring and pinion, but the important part is the shift strategy and fuel tables.

 

Every time I add some brake in, it will downshift going downhill. If you mash the brake with some authority, it will really downshift and scream.

 

I did not, after waiting for well over a year ( I missed the 22' order banks) my 95' utility truck was not up for camper towing, taking the chance with too soon on break in and a divorce, I chose to risk the truck.

 

I have the same issue with my 6 speed transmission. You either have to provide a significant RPM increase or use Manual mode to force the upshift.

 

Almost 600 miles on mine and it has no issues shifting.. This bad boy will bark the tires from a dead stop. Crazy power compared to my 2017 6.7.

 

So far it is behaving itself, I have been experimenting with tow/haul while empty, but naturally it behaves much differently when empty.

 

Tow Haul going downhill, especially towing, is ridiculous. I have repeatedly experienced the same with my '22. Sadly, that is just how it is programmed. I can drive miles applying throttle after a down hill and the trans will not upshift on its own for WAY longer that it should. Dropping to manual mode and using the button the bring the gears up is the only "solution" I have found. Not using T/H going downhill is my next line of defense, normal does better, manual best.

 

Can you engage the engine braking manually? That seemed to help with 5th in my 6 speed. Annoying when they just sit in that gear. Happens if I engage cruise before getting fully up to speed.

 

This. It’s the same with my 6-speed. Tow/haul mode sucks and I will not use it in my truck. I just lock out gears when I need to use some engine braking, then add them back when getting back on the gas at the bottom ( or top ) of the hill.

 

At 10k miles my ‘22 is still learning. My guess is it’s learning how to leave metal & a dent in the road.

 

Try using cruise. I never had any desire to use it while towing but after watching a video of a towing battle on utube he used cruise to let the trucks do their things. So last weekend we went to devils lake in Wisconsin and it’s pretty hilly around there and I tried it out. What a difference it made didn’t have to even touch the brakes the truck did all the work. Only thing I didn’t like was it drops two gears sometimes going up hills when it probably only need to drop one. I was impressed at how well it did.

 

These new transmissions are always "learning" (not learning, but adjusting to conditions and driver inputs). There is no "learn for 1000 miles then keep those settings forever".

 

In my 23 sigline truck I’ve been doing downhill in manual for that very reason, I don’t have any uphill problems so far with the shifting in tow/haul.

 

I wish it could learn to not sound like it has marbles bouncing around in it.