Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon in AZ
Best practices are changing as transmissions and transmission control software become more sophisticated. Best to consult the owner's manual for your vehicle.
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ABSOLUTELY!!
The owners manual for our 09 Ridgeline says to tow in "Drive". And, that to tow with OD disabled could cause the tranny to overheat.
But disable overdrive on steep declines, to take advantage of engine braking.
Problem with the G1 Ridgelines is than when OD is disabled the tranny drops to 3rd gear. In reality, in normal driving it rarely goes to 3rd in these N.Georgia rolling hills. It does shift back and forth between 4th and 5th.
I normally set the cruse control at 58-60 and let the tranny decide the gear it needs. Of course there are times when disabling OD seems like the best thing to do if searching between 3 and 4 is prevalent. .
Very level terrain as in Florida or much of Kentucky with no headwind will yield 16-18 mpg towing the
Casita SD17.
Reasonably level terrain will yield 14-16 mpg . But throw in more challenging terrain and 12-13 is the order of the day.
We enjoy the Ridgeline due to it's excellent Ride and good fuel mileage of 23-25 on trips at 62-65 mph. And 17-19 locally. Not many AWD P/Us will do that.
Only about 10% is towing. If it was a lot more or the trips were really long we would have a full size V8 (Gas) P/U.
No way in the world would I care to tow much more than 3000-3200 Lbs of trailer with our G1 Ridgeline. . Unless I was restricting towing to a flat state!
"just because we can do something, doesn't necessarily mean we should".
I prefer a healthy margin of reserve power.
k
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