Towing long distance

[gr8fl4porsche]

Pulling an enclosed 5'x8' 1600 miles with a '12 Yukon Denali.

Trailer is full of bicycles and gear.
Maybe 2,000 lbs including the trailer.

Would you pull with tow button engaged the whole time? Is there an acceptable weight limit to use 6th gear ?

[RANDY P]

at that weight shouldn't be a problem. I towed more than that with a 4.3 S10. It sucked, but the truck lived. Leave it with TOW on. its fine..

[Jim Bremner]

only if the truck acts like it knows that the trailer is there.

[RANDY P]

a 2012 Denali you won't even notice it's there. Stopping OTOH.

My buddy has a 2002 Denali and tows a 5K LB boat up and down mountain passes no sweat. Drives like it's not there..

rjp

[Rick V]

If that truck knows the trailer is back there it should be crushed and sold as scrap.

[Z-man]

Do you have electronic brakes and a brake controller in your truck, or does your trailer have surge brakes?

Take it out of overdrive (6th gear) when approaching a very long incline to prevent the motor from struggling, and from slowing down by 20mph.

If you are on level ground & cruising, it is more fuel efficient to leave it in high gear.

This is what I do when towing my 944 to the racetrack, and what I tow is significantly heavier than what you're pulling...

[John Rogers]

I would suggest several things....do you have a trailer spare? Does the spare have air in it at correct pressure? Do you have a way to jack up the trailer to change a flat? Do you have at least two flash lights as flats always happen at night and usually in the rain. Do all the trailer lights work correctly (pain in the ass ticket otherwise)! Finally do you have a registration for the trailer and any proof the stuff in it is yours in case you get stopped?

[masraum]

We towed about the same load with a Jeep Grand Cherokee a couple of years ago. I don't even think it was the V-8 model. I drove for a while with the OD disabled, but everything felt pretty good, so I eventually put the car in OD and it performed fine.

[Zeke]

If you do a study on the tow/haul feature you might find that it's mainly modified shift map. I don't think it disables OD and certainly does not disable lock up. If you feel a bit of a drag due to a modest incline, drop the gear manually. Just like a Porsche, you want to keep the RPM's up. In your case, maybe 1800 rather than 1500 with a load due to incline or headwind.

Those figures are only a guesstimate.

[wdfifteen]

Hill - use the tow programming

flat/downhill - standard programmin

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Hill - use the tow programming

flat/downhill - standard programmin

That is how I do it. I'll usually leave it in tow mode when I am in a lot of stop and start situations, or a hilly area ( most of Pa. ), once I'm up on plane, and on the highway, I just let it do its thing in normal mode until I come to a steep grade, or want to pass some one.
I don't think it will really matter much pulling a 2k pound load.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Trailer towed fine.

Knocked out 500 miles so far.

As mentioned OD was still available with the tow button
activated. Used it on long inclines. Appears to alter only the shift points as Milt mentioned.

My last Ford locked out OD. I like the GM version better.

No trailer brakes but truck stopped fine. Spare, jack and lug wrench - check.
Papers? - We don't need no stinking papers.

11.1 MPG running about 73 mph. This truck loves gas!

300 miles this morning and it's time for relaxing on the beach for a week. Hwy 30A.