Auto Transmission

Hi Martin - my opinion is never (well almost never) tow a heavy load in overdrive (auto) or 5th (manual). They are not designed for towing. Of course this is talking cruisers, patrols and the like, not trucks like F250s which are designed for heavier loads. Motherhen

Curious about the twodogs name.. Ha.! On game patrol in Africa in 1992, we were tracking Poachers to drive them out of a Reserve.. We had to shoot their hunting dogs if possible.. I took a bead on a Poachers running dog with a .375 Holland and Holland (light elephant gun) at about 50 meters, a near impossible shot. The Warden with me grabbed the barrel and rested it on his shoulder to steady the shot, as I had the only scoped rifle. Just as I squeezed off the round on a near impossible shot, a second of the Poachers Dogs jump up out of the bush and they both ran in tandem. The luckiest shot in history took them both out at a dead run... Of course to the Natives this was BIG MAGIC, and the drums went all night to homemade brew for "Two Dogs"... Ha!

Anyway, there are a lot of opinions on this subject of overdrive or not. A lot depends on stock tyre size or not? Synthetic oil in tranny or not? Hills or flat running? Head wind or not? Ask a transmission specialist for your type of vehicle, but my own personal view with my three automatics, Sahara, 100 Series, and F-250, is that on the flat and easy going I leave the OD on... Laboring a headwind or hilly country, OD off and higher RPM... This is a grey area for the automatics, but I don't like it hunting hard in and out of OD, so I run it manually in those conditions. You are in the grey areal with a lighter load, and if stock tyre size and no headwind, and synthetic oil, you could get away with it... Not the same situation with the older 5 speed manual that has a drop shaft and smaller bearings... The Auto situation is more of grey area.

Grey area, reallly means without a pat answer... Ranger..

Hi Guys thanks for the responses. with the 5 speed auto 5th gear isn't indicated as an overdrive on the console allthough commonsense would say it is.So it would be preferable to tow in 4th?Toyota believe just put in top and off you go:>Otherwise a great car handles the van with ease.

I cannot afford a bushtracker but upon retirement they will be on the top of the list.

thanks Martin

Martin,
I used to own a late 02 Landcruiser TD 5 speed auto and when we went around OZ in late 04 it would not hold the overdrive gear no matter what the terrain or conditions.

After a few attempts (which failed) I just kept it in 4th and had no problems. We tow an 18 footer all up close enough to 3 tonne.

My ten cents worth. I believe if you are towing 3 tonnes or so in overdrive for too long I reckon sooner rather than later you will be fixing the box.

Regards, Bill