Ridecamp: [RC] re: towing

"MY" understanding is that OD is supposed to be switched OFF for
towing on many vehicles, but you should read the owner's manual.  I
had a manual and thought I could tow in 5th gear as long as my rev's
werent too low --and ended up having to rebuild the tranny.  (NOW I
know - Its not for the engine that they suggest staying out of OD/5th,
its because the tranny has the most stress on it in OD or 5th)

My sister has a newish (99) Chevy auotmatic and it has a "towing mode"
which locks the automatic out of selecting 5th gear.  Id say for sure
dont use OD on hills -the mechanics that rebuilt my tranny said
something along the lines of "if you're towing- only use 5th when
you're really hauling @ss on a level road"  I pretty much don't use
5th now, most of my interstate driving where I could go that fast is
not level - and I usually dont feel like I need to go 70+ when towing
horses anyway and have found that my 93 dodge diesel will do 67 in
4th. 
My mileage is lower now than when I used 5th, but tranny's are $$$$, I
was danged glad they were able to rebuild mine as replacing it would
have been about $4000, (rebuilding was about $1100 -in southern Utah
by an independent mechanic who was incredibly reasonable on his labor
charge.)  Losing 10% or whatever in MPG does not seem too bad in
comparison.  

my personal experience 
Teresa (from Colorado)

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