This may be the wrong Thread location, but I recently bought a beautiful o7 classic LT short bed ext, and I love it! I just bought a older 4500 pound trailer to tow, as a starter, but I find I barley feel the thing on the back. Having said that, do I or should I still use tow haul mode, for towing even if I am on flat ground. When towed this past weekend up through the hills, I find it revs alot higher on flat ground in tow haul. I'm not sure it is necesarry to use tow haul on such a light trailer?
DA

I think it is something like only if you are towing 80% of your gross towing weight. Uses a lot more fuel when its on

I tow a 16ft toybox trailer with quads and all gear weighing in at around 6500lbs. Only time I use tow haul\is when coming down a grade\mountain, and coming to stops to save the brakes. I of course have a brake controller as well.

I dont like the way it shifts on tow haul.

On uphill grades, I put the auto tranny in the manual mode so I can keep the turbo spooled up and prevent upshifts.

I on the other hand use the tow/haul all the time for towing unless the trailer is empty, even then i will use it for hills. I find the truck pulls alot better from a start and once you are up to 60mph it goes into overdrive anyway. Yes, it uses a little more fuel but you cant expect peak fuel milage when towing anyway.

Also, using t/h keeps the trans cooler b/c the tc is locked in 2nd gear up to 6th.

Now this is one thread that is full of spot on information. I'm impressed guys !

The only thing I can add is that T/H is one pain in the butt when towing around town and in traffic. Trans gets lost in a gear sometimes and the winding up of the motor just doesn't make it worth it. Finally ,I myself find no evidence of a cooler running trans when in T/H. I'm around 17K lbs combined truck and trailer.

i don't bother with t/h untill i get to about 6000 lbs . The T/H helps when starting out in less than ideal traction conditions towing any trailer . Nothing worse than stepping on the fuel feed and seeing mud moving past your windows,:eek: but the tree's in front of you are standing still .

I use it all the time when hauling. I find if usefull and a lot easier to stop because the brakes arn't the best on these trucks. Sorry I come from Ford. I can understand what your talking about using it around town. Guess a guy just has to learn how to use the go pedal to control shifts and what not. When I tow most of the time its a 8,000 pound bobcat, plus attatchment, plus trailer so around 11-12ish.

The brakes aren't the best on these trucks. Sorry I come from Ford.

Do yourself a favor and follow the steps here in post #7 http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=146597&highlight=another+soft+brake and definitely read the last line of post #7:D.

The only time i use t/h is for braking help while towing while in the hills or somewhere that requires alot of braking.

Also, using t/h keeps the trans cooler b/c the tc is locked in 2nd gear up to 6th.
Exactly... Why would they have a tow haul button if it doesnt help out???? If i tow my trailer and looking at my evo the T/C doesnt lock up until 5th gear.. With it on it locks up from 2nd on up..

if you can barely feel the trailer when pulling it, then just drive it like normal.. no big deal

With that low amount of weight its not necessary, unless you were going off a real steep grade and wanted extra braking power.

Do yourself a favor and follow the steps here in post #7
Thanks heymccall. You have quite the line up there to learn from.

I pull a popup through the WV mountains. Total weight about 3000. I find I get the best mileage when I use Manual. Pulling up medium grades I drop it in 5 and leave it there to get the best pull. On steep grades I will drop to 4 and just ease on up the mountain.

Took two trips over there. First trip I used the T/H all the way. Got 16.5 h/c for round trip. Second trip I used manual and got 17.2.

I think the trailer is too light for the truck to really notice it is back there so it does better just setting the gears I want. If I was pulling a trailer that was heavy I would use T/H all the time. I think the computer would do a better job of keeping everything even than I could. That said, this is the first automatic I have owned since the 80's and I love the fact that in the mountains I can run it like I would any of the manuals I have owned.

Moved to Stock Allison section. ;)