I have had it, the 10 speed is a piece of crap. Unless you are briskly accelerating down an empty road or on-ramp, it’s a joke. Only on the rarest of occasions are second and fourth used. The vast majority of my acceleration is in third and fifth, which can’t be good for the longevity of the transmission.

Driving in traffic or low speed situations is the most herky, jerky, clunky, funky rides I have ever experienced. It cannot figure out which gear to be in because it’s trying so damn hard to get to tenth as fast as possible. Its like the tranny is blind, deaf, drunk and tripping on PCP.

Of course dealer says its fine and working as intended. Eighth gear under 30 mph isn’t normal. Tow and Sport are a little better but both still race to tenth gear. And the massive drop in gears when braking or going down a hill gets old quick.

I never thought I’d have to drive an automatic like a stick, but here we are. It’s the only way to have a pleasant shifting experience. Give me a 4-speed auto from the 90s. Real world gas mileage wasn’t much different than today.

 

The trans is meant to skip gears if necessary.
Lacking the gear shift doesn't make the trans faulty as it is in fact working as designed (if your gripe is exclusive to skipping gears).

I didn't care for the shift strategy in the 2016 6-speed I had but it just shifted too early but not at all the same experience as you (the 6-speed wasn't programmed to skip gears though).
I admit that I had to use the gear shifting buttons often to lock out upper gears, I'd be in 4th a lot. I found myself cruising along at 70 down the interstate in 5th (I would sometimes forget to unlock 6th).
The shifts were good, just poorly timed in my opinion. I can't fault the transmission for doing anything wrong so I can't say any of the transmission are bad. In my experience, it was the shift strategy configured in the computer.

I considered having it tuned for better shift points, the used warranty was soon to expire, however I ended up trading out of the truck instead (for other reasons).

I agree about MPG, my experience was the 2016 was very similar to any other truck I'd owned (I was on the low end based on what I read here though). However, I'd get the same mileage in a heavier truck, more luxurious and literally double the power than I did in my 1993 302. Trade off = nicer and more powerful vehicle (not being under powered make it more pleasant to drive) for similar operating costs.

You may have missed the window of opportunity for a trade as trade values have dropped quite a bit. You could get a tune if you're out of warranty.
Lastly, you could consider a slightly lighter tire (if you have the heavy KO2's) to help offset the 'lugging' and shift points.

 

I have the 6 speed and drove a 2021 2.7 with the 10 speed from Vermont to Florida last spring. Compared to my 6 speed, I felt the same way. It was really jerky whereas the 6 has been so smooth in all the miles I’ve driven.

I get that the 10 gets better MPG’s, and all of that. But I’m really glad I got a 17 over an 18 for that reason.

 

Sorry to hear of your poor shift performance.
There is a combination of things going on to cause the experience.
Being a 10 speed, the shift sequence is being controlled electrically by a program Module with inputs from vehicle speed and Throttle application and angle attitude.
Trying to explain all these I cannot get into very far.
Saying the trans is a bad design is not quite fair when it is being gear shifted according to outside instruction.
Sometimes if starting out on a sill downward, hill retard control may be in force up to about 40 mph where it may be taken off, then truck seems to be free rolling and brakes applied. This is normal to the design and especially when a load or trailer may be involved as a help to the driver. The internal system Angle detector is the beginning signal that does this. You can see that detector in action on the Dash Display if you bring it up with your steering wheel control switch. This is also involved on 4 wd, especially in 4 Low off road so the driver does not tip the vehicle over due to a dangerous angle.
The Trans may in fact be working perfect but according to those instructions.
The control Module has Memory that could be reset or changed as a first try by a dealer if you can get them to do that.
Then observe the shift performance to see how it goes from there.
.
Normally, the shift pattern at low speed and light throttle will skip gears by program intent such as 1 to 3 to 5, then go to 6 on up according to road speed first, then throttle application, second.

In Cruise Control, shifting can be different on large differences in slowing down from high speed where the system will use the motor to hold speed slow down by down shifting gears and using the engine as a brake as can be observed on the Tachometer.
If CC is switched off, that function also is exited.
Otherwise, when upshifting according to increases in road speed, each gear up shift has a min speed upshift occurs as long as throttle application does not modify it. For example, 10th gear will not upshift until 60 mph road peed is attained. These shift points are an attempt to maximize the engine torque available, so the engine is not 'lugged' and good acceleration power is available.
Just so you know, gears 8, 9 and 10 are all overdrive gears. First gear is very much lower than all the rest higher gears for another reason, that being 4wd Low as a crawling gear off road use and when it may be useful.
You can see as I stated, trying to fully explain all the functions get involved plus getting into all 5 shift 'modes' differences.
Not saying there may not be an issue with yours but understand things are no longer old school in these modern designs.
At least some effort has to be put forth to understand the operations and then have a reasonable check to determine if there could be an improvement.
.
The above comes from my experience with 2018 5L and deem it near perfect in my opinion.
On the Angle detection spoken above, I have the functions in play coming out of my driveway and out onto a road that is side hill at 7 degrees where hill retard can come into play just going downhill, as an example.
You own a vehicle that is far advanced from the old school, so have to catchup with the times. There is no going back no matter what make you get into, there will be differences.
I hope you get some understanding from my effort to help you understand.
You got some replies while I was composing that reflect some of the same things.
Good luck.

 

give it 10 years we will have a 15 speed!!

 

I like my 10spd. Is it perfect? No. But it's got a lot of gears to choose from so it's not always going to choose the same gear I would have. Skipping 2nd and 4th doesn't make it less reliable.

 

The transmission is fine, it is actually a friggin' piece of mechanical genius. Yours MAY be acting up, but remember these things 'learn' your driving habits, too. Put your foot in the damned thing every now and then and drive it like you're in Nebraska, not California, lol!

 

It's working exactly the way the engineers programmed it to work. Get into the highest gear as soon as possible to squeak out an additional 0.1 mpg. Get a tune from one of the forum recommended companies and you will be much happier. I have 5 Star tunes for my 2015; the transmission shifts like it should instead of Ford engineering's "highest gear as rapidly as possible" strategy.

 

It is working as intended.
Want it to go through all the gears? switch to sport mode... or attach a trailer to it with a few thousand pounds and drive around.
It will then go through all the gears!!!

Can't beleive we're still seeing these threads pop up about skipping gears.
They're programmed to skip gears...they're supposed to skip gears under certain conditions.

I used to drive semis many years ago...18 speed trans...if I had an empty trailer, or no trailer guess what...I would skip gears too!!!!!

 

To save gas.
And the reason I ordered a 17 instead of an 18..
.