First week of ownership of my 08... got to play with the Tow/Haul mode in the 12"+ dumping of snow we had a few days ago (due for another 8-12" tonight).

HOLY CRAP the Tow/Haul mode is made for New England winter driving. Being able to use the revised shift pattern and higher RPMs is great.... and the increased engine braking is second to none. Aside from the really crappy Continentals, this is one of the best trucks I have used in snow.

 

I use my tow/haul mode a lot for engine braking too. It works great and it sort of makes me feel like I'm driving a big rig!! Gotta love it!

 

Last summer I was towing my trailer with a car in it, heading south on US 41 out of Terra Haute IN. A stop light in front of us went from green to yellow to red pretty fast. I railed the brakes and cringed....well, between the built in TBC and the TOW/HAUL mode we got everything stopped pretty quickly. The transmission downshifted 3 times to assist in the stopping. When we got stopped, my wife looked at me and said, "Did you downshift? I didn't see your arm move off of the wheel!" When I explained the truck did that to assist us, she was floored!"

 

Yeah, it is wonderful. Has made towing a lot easier and it was one of the reasons I bought the F-Series.

If memory serves me correctly though, the manual says NOT to use it when it is snowing. The tow / haul may cause loss of control during downshift. I'd verify it now but i'm too lazy to go out in the snow to the truck to get the manual....

Enjoy the truck!

 

I went and tested it, Ford has to say that in case the little lady takes the truck out and finds out very quickly it's not her Monte Carlo I wasn't able to find an instance where the engine braking broke traction to the point of loss of control. My ABS isn't functional and we have 4 inches of snow on the road right now with a layer of sheet ice under it.

That there is FX4 weather!

 

Tow/Haul is the best. Hills are no longer feared. It and the factory brake controller combination are the standard of the industry, a combination that can't be beat. If somebody tells you different they have never driven this setup.
That is why Ford leads the pack when it comes to trucks to get the job done.
Enjoy the snow guys!

 

Exactly! You are damn near guaranteed to break traction when using the brakes.... the engine braking is a surefire way to bring the behemoth to a halt with ease. We just got another 8" last night, so I might go out and play a bit before the football starts at 1.

 

I also think that it is excellent in the snow!

 

He is right and the disclaimer is not due to little old ladies... Under certain circumstances if you are using tow haul in decreased traction conditions it will lock up the rear wheels or at least slow them down too fast causing them to slide on the surface. If this happens it is a sure fire way to put that big bohemoth into a 360... It is less likely to happen in the later model '05 to '07 trucks because the tow/haul mode was refined quite a bit. On the '03/ '04 trucks the tow/haul was originally very aggressive and a lock up in the snow was more likely than not. To each there own though, if its working out for you so be it.

 

ummm..just about every truck ive ridden in has a tow haul mode! and theres came out before fords.buddy's got a nissan titan 04 1/2ton has it. cheby's have it .. chryslers got it...why is the ford so much better? dont forget i own a ford! and there is a reason i bought the ford!

 

All the Chevys, Nissans, and Dodges I've seen had O/D lockouts, not TOW/HAUL modes.

 

Thats the joys of having the 6 speed stick shift! I downshift WHEN I WANT TO and ease the clutch out to prevent that initial lock up of the rear tires......

Granted, it doesn't snow here in South Alabama, but I'm born/raised in NH and will be moving to Northern Ohio next year!

 

Chevy has had TOW/HAUL since at least the 2000 model year. My mom's stripper 2000 ECSB had it. Always thought it was funny that a V-6 Full-size truck would have a tow/haul, but it did. Don't know if it had the same kind of braking strategy changes that the Ford version does, but it did run the engine up to about 3000 RPM on part-throttle shifts, versus their normal 1800-2000 shift regime.

-blaine

 

See you've got the wrong idea here, not all tow/haul modes are created equally. My Dad's Chevy Suburban has tow/haul too but all it seems to do is lengthen the shift points out, I pulled about 5000lbs to Austin in that Chevy and it pulled it ok but not once did I feel that engine braking downshift going on like my Super Duty. The same goes for the older Ford SD we have at work all tow haul is to that truck is an OD lock out.

Hope I've explained something clearly here. Here is my tow/haul miracle story

I helped my neighbor cut down three large trees in his yard and loaded it all up in my truck, I put the bulk of the actual tree trunk in the 6' box of my truck and then the remaining limbs and misc tree parts on our 16' tandem axle flatbed trailer circa sometime late 70's complete without trailer brakes! I had that puppy loaded well past the roof line on my Ford and I could tell starting off that I was pulling a load, and was starting to worry about this really nice hill between my street and the dump that was a stop sign right at the base but once I got to it with tow/haul mode I stopped quite easily!

Beat that Chevy!

 

I think the important point here in this entire thread is the SD tow/haul mode may or may not be gods gift to Ford. But it sure indeed make driving better when needed... it's almost like my own easy button.

For example, "Oh look this road is really crappy I don't want to die with this really big trailer full of Camaro... what do I do" the correct answer is engage tow/haul mode and the next thing I know driving through a winter hell just evolved into a nice slow sunday pleasure cruise