Towing with an auto.

[macca]

We have an auto BT 50 Mazda. For people with similar cars, are there any special procedures I should be following or just stick it in drive and go. Vehicle manual does not say a lot.

Geoff

 

[Xpandafan]

Basically yes. I was told to avoid the overdrive gear and stick to 4 which is the 1:1 I think. With a 2+tonne van on the back my Pathfinder auto stays in 4 most of the time anyway so I let the auto be the judge. The manual BT50 tows beautifully so I would expect the auto to do likewise.

 

[Burnsy]

Hi Geoff,

Like Xpandafan I'm in 4th most of the time but on flats or downhill I will slip into 5th at times, but as soon as I need to push the pedal down I go back to 4th. Towing heavy weights such as vans in overdrive is not good for your gearbox....shafts, gears etc will rapidly wear and or fail due to the excessive stress from the increased ratio. I know some people let the auto decide but not me.

Cheers.

 

[Brad]

Same for me. I drop the pathie out of auto for towing.

 

[straydingo]

I figure if a car is made to be able to tow, let it do it's thing.
I leave it in auto.
The Pathy used to hunt a lot but mostly stayed in 4th. The disco I didn't even notice what it was in, mostly cos it didn't keep hunting around, just stayed in the same gear from the moment I hit cruise speed till I hit the brake.

 

[Harv n Bron]

Hi, Have recently upgraded to a pathy from a captiva. Reason being the auto captiva struggled to find the right gear at the right time. Took the 16.49.4 out last weekend and went like a dream behind the pathy, that said there were a couple of times I took it out of auto when climbing a hill etc. big test is this weekend when we head down the coast, and come back up he mountain from Bega to Cooma, I'm expecting to do a bit of manual gear changing then. Also, on the way down ( gradient quite steep), I like the idea of being able to put it in a low gear and stay off the brakes a bit. Harv.

 

[Capt. Gadget]

Same as Burnsy here with overdrive off and occasionally slip into overdrive when rolling down hills.
But in saying that I have had a bucket load of trouble with my Auto on my 2010 Ranger as far as having to have it re-built at around 45000ks, Warranty thankfully but still inconvenient not having my work vehicle for 2 weeks.

 

[albo42]

yep, another vote for avoiding overdrive ratios when towing (whether auto or manual gearbox). That seems to be the general consensus (based on a couple of days I wasted researching forums and tech sites a few years back).