Increased gas mileage locking gears out.

[Silver]

Broke my 2021 in in Sport mode and then went to just D mode, dropping my mileage by 3 mpg. So, tried it in S for a couple tanks and mileage improved allot, 3 - 4 mpg. The responsiveness of the truck is night and day in S; D is unacceptable where I live in the high country of NM, running around at 8000, going down to 6 when in town. Towed a couple loads in Haul mode and it performed well... bottom line, D is not used as the drivability and mileage are unacceptable. The other benefit to both Haul and Sport modes is it locks out the Auto start-start function! May try some miles in Tow/Haul to see what comes of the mileage and drivability too...

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[wanted33]

So I tried what another user does, instead of locking out till 8, I locked out at 7.

On a trip to the Home Derpot (about 10+ miles round trip) in town I hit 24mpg.

Some of you are like, "So what I get that anyhow." Well, with my rig I average just shy of 16mpg.

That is a massive increase for me on my 93 performance tune and brick like aerodynamics.

Seven is where I lock mine out too when running around town. I've never checked the mpg's, but it's good to hear that it may actually help. And everyone is right, the engine seems much happier when it doesn't lug at slow speeds.

 

[Altawinger]

Hey there. One other thing that fits in with this topic and yes, I got it off a Utuby vid. The owner bought a used Ranger and was not happy with the shift points and the way the truck shifted. The transmission has a "learn" mode and sets the shift points using that programming. What the dude said was he took it to the Ford dealer and had them change the setting through the computer program to turn the learn mode off for the transmission. He said after that the transmission started shifted as a transmission should. Stock setting is to maximize fuel mileage. I find mine seems to be a gear too high when I start out from a stop as there is a bit of a lug IMHO. Now this could be due to some turbo lag but I would like to have a little more snap starting out from a stop. Possibly the fix suggested could alleviate my issue by having the tranny actually start out in 1st instead of what feels like 3rd. Has anyone done this?

 

[Joranger2023]

This is my usual driving mode when I'm not getting on the highway.

I automatically lock out 9 and 10 as soon as I put the shifter in D.

It helps a lot with the lugging.

I haven't tried just running it in Tow mode but I think I'll do that as well.

Does it hurt anything to have it in 9th gear going down the highway? at 75 my RPM is around 2200 at 80 2300 RPM.

 

[Dr. Zaius]

Does it hurt anything to have it in 9th gear going down the highway? at 75 my RPM is around 2200 at 80 2300 RPM.

Shouldn't hurt anything.

At 75+ mph you would probably want to be in 10th though.

 

[Joranger2023]

So I tried what another user does, instead of locking out till 8, I locked out at 7.

On a trip to the Home Derpot (about 10+ miles round trip) in town I hit 24mpg.

Some of you are like, "So what I get that anyhow." Well, with my rig I average just shy of 16mpg.

That is a massive increase for me on my 93 performance tune and brick like aerodynamics.

What RPM was you at going down the highway? I have been using 9th gear going down the highway.

 

[pismo1]

To lock gears out do you have to be in haul or sport mode?

 

[got3fords]

To lock gears out do you have to be in haul or sport mode?

I think you can only lock out gears in D.

 

[Fitzmotor]

I've driven almost all of my 30k in tow mode, even with the Ford tune, the trans has poor shift strategy.

 

[Loweredon33s]

My truck is tuned to stay out of tenth gear under about 70mph. It holds all gears longer to keep it from bogging down. I definitely get better mileage that way over stock.

 

[Frenchy]

Does it hurt anything to have it in 9th gear going down the highway? at 75 my RPM is around 2200 at 80 2300 RPM.

Honestly it will depend on many factors. Thanks to how the Ranger is designed it can go into 10th pretty early. When I had mine I liked it when it would run 10th as it would help MPG a little bit. That said I also know that when in Tow mode and while towing a trailer it rarely ever wanted to go into 10th due to the load. When I thought about it, I decided it was considered normal and left it be.

 

[thorn726]

Now this is strictly for in town, not sure how it would fair on open highways. So for past month or so I've been running a little test. Anytime I would run an errand or otherwise I would lock out to a maximum of gear 8.
I have thus increased my mileage by a half a mile per gallon. My commutes can be somewhat stop and go or hilly, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Not exactly note worthy gain, but it leaves me questioning the purpose of 10 gears outside of highway usage.

The problem with higher gears in town is it will reach that gear with relatively low speed, then you encounter a long drawn out hill at cruising speed and it sometimes has to bump down as many two gears, sometimes one after the other. (its worse with no tune) With a final gear of 8 and entering same hills at cruising speed it rarely drops to 7th. I just give it a little more gas pedal to maintain speed up the hill.

Im curious, can tuners (of which I have) reprogram shift points even further? Or even go as far as locking out gears permanently? Maybe something like Sport Mode, but with a slightly less high RPM hold.

i think you pretty much found the reason why they let us lock out gears... i have done the same in town occasionally because it just goes up to 9/10 too fast and i need to decelerate so i do it to shift less but i think you are on to something here...

 

[thorn726]

To lock gears out do you have to be in haul or sport mode?

you can only lock out higher gears in D . In S if you hit the button you will now be in manual shift mode which is really only for crawling slowly, i wouldn't try shifting all 10 like that... also it only allows you to lock out higher gears not lower ones, no in betweens either.

 

[got3fords]

Just to be clear in my brain, locking out gears does nothing to change shift points, right? It just keeps you from shifting into the higher gears.

 

[Ranger_Rocks]

you can only lock out higher gears in D . In S if you hit the button you will now be in manual shift mode which is really only for crawling slowly, i wouldn't try shifting all 10 like that... also it only allows you to lock out higher gears not lower ones, no in betweens either.

For steep twisty mountain roads, I use S and shift up/down manually. Like having a manual trans and reduces brake usage... and MORE FUNNER !!

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