I have a friend who blew up his Blazer's tranny while towing because he was in overdrive. I do a lot of towing and the manual on my trucks says to only turn the overdrive off while going up hills. Is this what you guys usually do?

Thanks in advance.

 

A dodge mechanic one told me
"if you tow anything, I dont care what it is. If you hook something up to the hitch, turn off the overdrive."

 

Yup, I agree with Boulee. If you tow in overdrive, you put excessive strain on the automatic---so don't. Chances are that you'll actually get better mpg's too. That holds true too if you put much of a load in the bed.

 

I used a friend's Cummins last fall to tow one of our race cars to B'ville and back (3500 miles or so including parts of WY and CO). The truck had 183K miles on it when we left and the truck owner tows a trailer everyday for a living and ALWAYS tows in overdrive (except LARGE hills) and has since new--no problems. We shifted out of OD in some mountains and then only for a short period. Again, no problems.

Sure, you can pull all day long is direct, but the manual says OD is okay for a reason.

All the best.

 

Well, the difference between a Blazer and a Cummins is probably about 250+ ft/lbs of tourqe. For a Cummins that may be fine, as it is built for exactly that, towing. The Blazer wasn't designed for towing. I would turn of the OD anyway. What kind of truck are you towing with? IMO, turn the OD off with anything. Just my $.02,
Chris

 

Towing in OD is not the problem. It's the excess shifting (heat build-up) that occurs when many vehicles tow in OD. If you have the torque to tow in OD it shouldn't be a problem. Much depends on the load and road conditions.

 

Yes, that's the point. Conditions dictate ones gear choice, of course; however, there is nothing inherent with our trucks that mean one MUST automatically turn off overdrive when towing--anything at all, as a post stated. The Owner's Manual is quite clear when to disengage OD and in explaining the built-in warning/protection system and remediation for an overheating automatice transmission.

All the best. And sure, the Blazer is not a Dodge truck. I got it!

 

Yep, like DonG and
Avanti have stated, it all depends on the conditions. If it is constanly down shifting, just leave the OD off. Me, I always turn the OD off. Regarding the Blazer, assuming it was one of the small ones and not the old Tahoe like vehicle, the trannies are trash in the older models (95-97) until they solved the valve body issue. I had a 96 Jimmy (GMC's version) that had the tranny rebuilt 5 times. (All under warranty). THe 4L60E has a lot of potential, but I've had too many personal problems with it.