SomeRandomGuy

I’m a flatlander. Was recently in West Virginia and had to drive around on some mountain passes. These where a 9% grade with sharp downhill turns that went right into a step banked uphill turn. These where miles long of non stop switchbacks. Truck would go down hill and be at about 30 mph in 4th then going into the uphill truck wouldn’t have time to downshift and just fall on its face. I started using tow/haul mode but truck would stay in 3rd gear and around 3500 rpm the entire time. What’s the best way to drive these passes...

dagooaz

Shift the gears yourself. Gives you more control and a lot more fun!

deapee

Were you pulling a load?

Having grown up and lived 38 years in mountainous areas, I’ve never had an issue. Just hit the gas pedal.

Going down, I do recommend coasting to 5 over, then hitting the brakes until the speed limit - coasting to 5 over, hitting the brakes. Etc.

Of course you could always do speed limit, then -5 etc. the point is done ride the brakes the whole way down.

msgtord

Lock out 5th or 6th gear depending on how heavy you're towing. Down shift before starting uphill, and if you have to downshift going downhill, do it before you start gaining speed.

Slow down. If your still not comfortable, slow down some more. And if you see a line of vehicles behind you, pull over when it's safe to do so.

Check your brakes before, during and after the pull. Get yourself a digital thermometer. Its great for trailer brakes.

PS: 3500 rpm is no big deal.

Indy2015

Most important thing is to not ride your brakes. Going uphill, just go as fast as you feel comfortable and let the truck do it's thing. Going long downhill slopes, manual downshift and use engine braking to stay around the speed limit, using your brakes occasionally to bring your speed back down when it creeps upward. If you're in constantly uphill/downhill situation where you're only gaining or losing like 500ft altitude, then sport mode will help keep your engine rpm up and shifting strategy will be more nimble.

MNgopher

Manually downshift to provide some engine braking on the downhills. You'll also find yourself more likely to be in the right gear on the uphill so there isn't a lag as the engine and transmission work to find the right gear. If you are using cruise, this generation of truck will do some of this automatically (until its disengaged by braking).

Do not ride the brakes. Allow the truck to speed up to +5 of your target speed (or whatever you are comfortable with), then hit your brakes and drop your speed to at or less than your target speed, and let off the brakes. Repeat as needed. This allows braking components some time to cool in between brake applications.

When you translate to large trucks and heavy loads, you gear down (use engine braking), slow down, and pulse your brake applications.

I spent many years in Colorado and the west. My wife jokes I have my honorary Colorado Drivers license... (Folks who live in mountainous areas will understand what the first reaction is when you get behind a car doing dumb things on mountain grades - you look at the plate to see what state they are from, right?)

bowhunterwi84

How effective can engine braking be? I have a 2017 2.7 and i've tried to do it at low speeds in 1st gear, but never really got the crawling effect I hoped for. Maybe that wasn't a realistic expectation though. I'm guessing it can vary wildly depending on the situation, but what would an acceptable number of rpm's be to maintain when descending at like 7-9%? The trade off would be riding brakes, which I'm guessing is worse than riding high rpm's?

MNgopher

Go try it at highway speeds and find out. Find a road with little traffic and start downshifting with no throttle. You will feel what is possible.

The 2.7 has less engine braking that having a V8 does, but that is a far cry from no engine braking.

Napalm

did you happen to put it in tow or sport mode.

If you don't do that - the transmission is going to want to be efficient - so its clutching out as it coasts. In tow or sport mode it won't do this - makes a bigger difference.

MNgopher

Don't have to put it in either tow or sport mode - if you manually shift down in the gears, it works just fine.