Thread: Towing

That'll be fine ... (Drive, that is), however, if your using cruise (or not) best to downshift to 3rd far enough before the bigger hills so the transmission has a chance to get 3rd locked up before you're going up the hill ... cruise is reactive, not pro-active ... so by the time cruise starts to gas on, you've lost too much momentum going up the bigger hills, and it will want to kick down 1 or 2 gears and rev its tits off trying to maintain road speed ... Drive (4th) is an overdrive at about 0.74:1, whereas 3rd is a 1:1 ratio.

Kev..

what he said with the following caveat.

if its over a ton over tare mass and its around town or on hills lock it in 3rd.

1t isnt much on the back of a D2.

What works even better is towing with the transmission in sports mode. It wont hang onto gears as long before shifting into a lower gear and you don't have to think about manually shifting.

I'm 1.4t Swan Outback and I just drive normally and agree on the above cruise control. It has become natural for me to get to 82klm then off the throttle to allow the lock and then apply the load again and off to the 100 mark.

You will get used to how much torque is available from the above technique without kicking back to third. Cheers

I have a 2002 TD5 and my cruise control will not work if I am towing is that normal. When I am not towing it works fine

Originally Posted by Slunnie

1t isnt much on the back of a D2.

What works even better is towing with the transmission in sports mode. It wont hang onto gears as long before shifting into a lower gear and you don't have to think about manually shifting.

And a chipped Td5 is better again. It adds a whole new layer of functionality. More power, more torque and it will give you the ability to stay locked in 4th longer without hunting for a gear or undue labouring of the engine.

Originally Posted by Skellz

I have a 2002 TD5 and my cruise control will not work if I am towing is that normal. When I am not towing it works fine

Thats not normal.

Originally Posted by feral

And a chipped Td5 is better again. It adds a whole new layer of functionality. More power, more torque and it will give you the ability to stay locked in 4th longer without hunting for a gear or undue labouring of the engine.

Actually yeah! I find that too. The chips make them want to hang on to gears too much.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

1t isnt much on the back of a D2.

What works even better is towing with the transmission in sports mode. It wont hang onto gears as long before shifting into a lower gear and you don't have to think about manually shifting.

Thats how I drive mine with our Jayco Swan (onroad) on the back which is about 1T. I leave it in normal while on the flats and moderate hills that I know it will climb in 4th LU but when its a winding rd, lots of hills or big climbs I put it in sport mode. I was shifting it back to 3rd and getting it to LU but I find sport mode works just as well.