At my cottage I have about 6 km of road that is pretty slow going, maybe 30 kph average. With my previous trucks (99-4.6 & 02-5.4) I just used second gear so the trans wouldn't have to shift back and forth all the time. On my new truck there is no power in second gear at all, My ratio is 3.73 and before my trucks had 3.55 so if anything it should be better.

Here's the funny thing, if I put it in drive, from second, while climbing a hill it will go into a seemingly lower gear (not 1st gear). I have never had this happen before.
What the heck is going on?

 

i believe this is due to how the torque converter locks, like in 1 or 2 it is locked and in Drive it is controlled by the computer, locking and unlocking as necessary. im not too sure, but im sure someone who really knows will chime in sometime.

 

Normal Operation, the throttle-by-wire can take advantage of different gear ratios and throttle opening ramps to limit wheel spin. Basically when you pull down manually, the engineers figure the average guy is towing or in general needs traction, so they limit full power to only around 50% when punched to the floor. When in drive you get 100% power when punched. This is really a torquey beast in a 4lo system and having a very controlled throttle is key.
I am not sure if a turner will make it shift and run like a cable throttled truck maybe someone else can answer that.
Brian

 

20mph in second gear, lol

2nd can go to 80mph, so why would you use 2nd ?

 

your kidding right ?

tranny gears have been posted SEVERAL times you might want to take a look at those, second gear is used because it is like talking a manual tranny and starting in second, you dont have the gear ratio / power you do from first. i dont know about you but 100% is 100% in my truck, sounds like your truck sucks.

and speaking of which do you know when our tq converters lock up?
didnt think so, it might be some help to you, let me know if you need to know

(i am sick of people posting thinking they know what they are talking about)

 

i dont know much about these trannsmissions, but yeah 2nd has no power at 20 mph. i would keep it in 1st. 3000 or so rpm isnt going to hurt anything. i miss cable controlled throttle tho

 

The primary advantage of shifting manually into a lower gear with an automatic transmission is engine braking, not necessarily to hold a lower gear. In regards to the lack of power, my best guess is that it's sort of a low traction starting aid, kinda like the "winter" function on some vehicles. I'd think that this applies mainly to the 2WD crowd, since the 4x4 guys can pop it into 4 Low or 4 Hi and keep on truckin'.

 

Thanks for the replies,,
I would use first but some times I go up to 60-70 kph and first would be too low

I used to use 2nd on my 2002 5.4 and it worked great, I used second mostly for this reason. If I used drive (OD off) it would be continually shifting and sometimes even down to first when I didn't want it causing wheel spin. In summer I am not in 4x4. Even in winter when I am in 4x4 I do not want it going down to first. With my last truck (learning transmission?) it would do that quite often. I even disconnected the battery a few times so the transmission would forget but it kept going back, maybe something to do with my lead foot out on the pavement.

I can duplicate this on normal roads by slowly accelerating, and at about 30-40 kph I put the trans in 2nd manually and it will slow down but not necessarily less rpm, almost like someone put the brake on.

It's really wierd, my 99 4.6 and my 02 5.4 did not do this.

 

tuner does not change the first gear manual loss of poweer nor 2nd gear.according to troyer this is part of fords torque management (better idea) stuff. altho the tuner in performance mode fells like your throwing the rear end on the bground(healthy shift).

 

yep that's the way mine acts also. I was hauling 2000 lb of rock to a friends house and he has a pretty steep hill for the last mile or so. I decided to drop into 2nd manually so I could hold a nice steady 25 mph with no risk of shifting up or down. Well what a surprise when it felt like someone hooked another 5000 to the back end.

I tend to agree that this is likely Fords way of providing what they think we need in terms of managing torque on starting on a slick road. But what I don't get is that starting out in "normal" second would pretty much accomplish this anyway.

I would sure be interested to find out f there is a way to disable this "feature". BTW, I tried doing the 2nd gear with O/D "OFF" and it made no difference.

 

drop it down to first gear and you will notice a total lack of power....

 

the libs have infested Ford, and determined that we cannot actually drive the vehicles, we have to let the computer drive since we obviously cannot be trusted to actually control the speed of the engine, let alone the truck itself.

Want to make it go? Drop the transfer case down to 4-Lo, then get on it. You'll run out of gear at about 30, but what the hell?

 

The Libs???? wow you are angry. Kiss your mom and get some help.

 

Happens when your not towing as well. I started off from a stop this morning with very light throttle and let her pull second a bit then manually dropped to second just before the shift to third. Felt like I threw out the anchor. Tried it a couple times both with O/D off and on. Very interesting.