Off-Roading with Tow/Haul Mode

[MarineHawk]

A question I've been meaning to ask. Do you guys use the Tow/Haul mode when wheeling in rough stuff? Higher RPMs and better engine breaking? Less stress on the trans?

[MarineHawk]

Originally posted by PhilD:
How fast do you think you can crawl over a big rock?

Higher shift points are not likely to make much difference, and if they do, then you should be controlling the gear manually.

If you are going fast enough to be using higher shifter points, then you are most probably on something easy enough that it won't really make any difference. Again, I would manually select the gear if it were to make a difference.

You don't get a lot of engine breaking from an H2, so I wouldn't worry about how the Tow/Haul button may effect it anyway.

I realized after typing that my engine breaking question was probably not a very good one for acouple of reasons.

On my Sierra, I actually seemed to like it better in low range without the T/H mode, but i can't really remember why I felt that way. I was just wondering if there was ever any advantage to the T/H in low range where you don't want to leave it in 1st gear, but want it to shift out at a higher RPM than in the std setting. Not really thinking so much of big rocks, but just some of the trails where you aren't stopping a lot, but are fairly rough. On such a trial, you might be varying your speed a lot between, say, 1 and 10 mph, as the terrain varies - enough to be shifting into 2nd and even 3rd gear (I can think of quite a few like that in Colo.). Is there less trans heat generated in the T/H setting? Is it more helpful when you are doing the BTM or BMT thingy? Or are you always in 1st gear only when doing that? Just asking.

I think the answer you gave is correct though:

"If you are going fast enough to be using higher shifter points, then you are most probably on something easy enough that it won't really make any difference. Again, I would manually select the gear if it were to make a difference."