Towing my 16ft lund pike w/40 hp mercury

[bullheaded]

I have a 2000 Chev.S-10 w/4.3 engine. When I am towing my boat and trailer is it a good idea to drive in 3rd gear or drive it in overdrive? Ive been told to drive it in 3rd gear, so it doesnt downshift. Any sugestion?

Thanks B.H

[CRAZYEYES]

If you like your transmition it is. I have a 16 ft lund rebel and I had a 1999 s10 blazer that I used to tow it around everywhere with. It was fine in od on nice flat freeway but as soon as you need to step on it or encounter a hill you'll hear it down shift into passing gear and thats hard on it. That was the demise of a lot of chevy trannies.

[Esox_Magnum]

I pulled a 17' Tracker Targa, Alumacraft 175 Trophy, 17' Skeeter with my 99 Jimmy but it had a tow/haul feature I pulled in OD all the time. My current truck I do pull in 3rd though even with the tow/haul. Wifes Trailblazer I always pull in 3rd.

[solbes]

My Dodge dealer advised not to use tow haul/non-OD mode for hauling my 16' boat. Why I don't know, but lately I have been towing in normal OD and it downshifts very little and gives me better mileage. A little bit bigger engine though, 4.7 V8.

If it's hunting back and forth on small hills and such, it's probably better to tow in third/non OD.

[Surface Tension]

On flats OD might be OK. When you encounter a hill, before you start to climb slowly speed up 5MPH and take it out of cruise and out of OD. Hold that pedal location. At some point on the hill your speed will start to drop from that 5 MPH over or it might stay. When you hit the top of the hill you should have come back down to what your cruising speed was. At not point are you giving anymore throttle then the initial speed up before the hill. In fact you'll be letting off the gas.

Why do that?

Fuel economy and easier on the tranny.

If you set the cruise and let the vehicle kick down half way up the hill you'll notice the pedal is floored and and the tranny down sifts. You don't want that. Even if your not towing a slight acceleration before the hills will have your vehicle coasting over the tops.

[upnorth]

I was told by the guy who rebuilt the tranny on my Ranger (4.0 4.10 gears and towing package) that unless I wanted to back to seen him, no OD when towing. $1800 learning experience.

[SkunkedAgain]

I tow my Navigator 165 with a Ranger 4.0 as well. I let it use the overdrive up until I start getting to Hinkley, MN, then flip off the overdrive because that's somewhat when the hills start getting bigger. The real test is knowing when and where your vehicle is going to start deciding that it needs to downshift automatically. If you can't tow in overdrive without it downshifting, then you need to turn off the overdrive. You'll get worse gas mileage but it won't stress the transmission as much.

[Pooh]

gas is cheap compared to rebuilding a tranny. NO OD when towing, no matter what.