Towed a deep V boat from Wisconsin to Ohio

You're best off towing in S4. Unless you're towing something small and light, you'll generally downshift constantly out of S5. I will bump mine into S5 when going downhill, but that's about it. Sometimes, it can hold 5th gear on a flat road as well.

 

Sounds like a great boat that can tackle some rough water as well.

 

So the gear hunting from s5/OD to S4, will that not hurt the engine and transmission over time? it feels very dramatic of a gear drop considering its Overdrive

 

This is why you should tow in S4. It's easier on the drivetrain. There's really no reason to tow in S5, and the manual recommends not using overdrive.

 

Thanks for the tip on this. Just tried shifting into S4 tonight easy as pie. I plan to tow next week with it.

You guys and this forum are the best. I have learned a lot and enjoy it.

 

So I looked at the owner's manual before my recent/first trip towing and it didn't mention anything about transmission gear selection. It all had to do with weight and loading the tongue.

Not doubting, but I will say that towing 1300 lbs over 135 miles this past weekend (and back), when I was in S5 on the highway, the computer did not want to downshift. I was being conservative by speeding up on downhills and gradually lessening throttle input going uphill to keep high gear, but it was only about a 15 mph difference. The 4R just seemed to want to keep high gear/OD the entire time. Being a bit conservative seems to be key.

 

This is from the '19 manual:

"● To maintain engine braking efficiency and charging system perfor-
mance when using engine braking, do not put the transmission in
D."


It doesn't actually say not to use S5, but just not to use D. If you're towing something small and light, S5 is probably ok.

But, anything heavy, and especially large things like travel trailers and cargo trailers, you're usually going to want to be in S4.

Plus, at <65 MPH, your RPM's won't be too high in S4 anyway. I learned on my Tacoma that it was generally more pleasant and I actually got decent fuel economy at ~60 MPH in 4th gear