Tow/Haul operation

[spindrift]

We just got back from a weekend of camping. Coming down a very steep, long grade, I tapped my brakes and the Tow/Haul mode did what it was supposed to do...drop me into a lower gear. I had to brake even more as there were cars in front of me that were braking in order to allow a vehicle to make a turn ontop another road. That second "stage" of braking dropped me into an even lower gear. The engine really started to whine as RPMs raced up into the 3500-3700 range. When the bottleneck in front of me cleared up I began to accelerate thinking that the ECM would sense the acceleration and allow the tranny to shift into a higher gear. Unfortunately, no luck. I had to finish out the last, short section of the hill in what was probably second gear. I couldn't get the tranny to shift up until my rig was on a basically level grade. What, if anything did I do incorrectly? Was there a way that I could have "forced" an upshift. Again, when I tried this after the second brake, it caused the engine to wind out even more. Should I have simply turned off the Tow/Haul mode at that point?

 

[DaveBen]

What you did is normal. There is no way to force an upshift using Tow/Haul. You need to take it in the Ford and have them run an Oasis report on it and scan your truck. You have a problem.

Dave

 

[spindrift]

What is an Oasis report?

 

[W4RLR]

An OASIS report is a vehicle repair history, documenting all repairs and recall work done on a particular vehicle by any Ford dealership. If you wish to know whether a particular "flash" to your truck's computer was made. if your truck has an extensive unresolved repair item, etc. it will show in an OASIS report. It's your truck's 'permanent record".

 

[spindrift]

Since this truck is an '06, I'll assume that there won't be a need to run an Oasis report. As far as the scan....I didn't set any codes on the trip.

 

[powerboatr]

spindrift
what is your build date?
Mine does weird stuff like that coming down our brindlee mountain a few times. I thought it was normal, it will hold third a long time, I figure it was becuase i wasnt letting it accelerate fast enough, the cargo trailer was still pushing me i think.

 

[spindrift]

Build date is 06/05. Is it important to know the day of the week and can you only get that info from the dealer?

 

[chipster314]

Don't mean to change direction here but does the 06 T/H work better than the 04's. Ever since the reflashed mine the downshifts suck

 

[WD40]

Don't mean to change direction here but does the 06 T/H work better than the 04's. Ever since the reflashed mine the downshifts suck

They reflashed mine and I think my power has dropped and I know that my MPG has dropped by at least 2.5 MPG's.-mad I pulled the fifth wheel this weekend on a short trip and the TowHaul worked fine.

 

[Invader]

I know now that I'm glad I kept my 03 6.0. Sounds like the newer ones are more trouble than the original.