On my way home from my shake down cruise I noticed that the gear selected was 6, but the Silverleaf told me that I had asked for 6 but it was only in 5th??
Is there a speed at which the 6th gear comes in to play?? Or????
Speedbird 1.
When you select a gear on your transmission pad it is a range of gears. Then number shown is the highest gear the transmission will shift to. On your VMSpc the range selection and the actual gear you are in are shown. You will upshift into sixth gear at about 62-63 mph. If the Econ mode is on, maybe a bit lower speed.
Use the range selection going up or down grades when you want to stay in fifth or fourth for example.
Not to hi-jack, but it could be our set-up is different (and perchance modified by Mr. Wolfe), but we've pulled and pushed one of the worst hills in the SW, that being I-17 from Phoenix to Flagstaff where the gain (and drop) is around 6K, nasty, especially in the heat. I can watch the trans sequence through the gears as we climb and downshift as we drop. Never touched the buttons once, let the trans decide on the pull and the Pac Brake decide going downhill. Never put my foot on the brakes (except for idiots) on the drop.
I can hold in 6th with my U295 just tad below 60mph. Your U320 is programmed differently, wanting to be somewhat above 60mph to hold in 6th.
This is one reason I'm happy with a 295 in California where the speed limit is 55 when towing.
I am guessing that the engine size comes into play on this. When I was doing a shakedown in May, towing my Grand Cherokee I could only stay in 6th if I was above 60. It would shift to 6th at 62 and I could back down to 59 or 60 and maintain 6th using the cruise control until it added throttle then back to 5th. When I talked to Ron, the PO of the coach he told me that if I use the economy mode next time I can stay around the 55 speed limit that I have to deal with in Cal. I didn't have the VMSpc when I towed the coach back from South Carolina so I was not aware of the issue at that time. I don't know why Allison changed the selector to just show the gear you have selected. My '96 Monaco had the same 4000 series trans. but had a window for the gear you selected and a window for the gear you were in.
My coach is a 62mph for 6th gear coach. For what it's worth I've found fuel economy in 5th at 59-60mph is more or less the same as 6th gear at 62mph so... No need to speed or go faster than you're comfortable with to hit 6th. Heck for a thousand miles I thought I *was* in 6th gear at 60mph. My coach will pop out of 6th at around 59mph regardless.
My U320 ISM 11 with the economy mode on will stay in 6th down to about 58 mph in a steady state. I get better mpg at 56 or 57 in 5th gear than at 60 in 6th in econ mode.
I was watching the VMSpc on flat open road towing the Jeep and noticed when in 5th at 60 MPH I was getting 1 1/2 MPG less than 6th.at the same speed. This was in regular mode not economy.
Thank you everyone,
That was the answer I needed. I only hit 60 for a very short time, so was below the 6th gear threshold. No big bucks needed thankfully. One shake down cruise successful.
Speedbird 1.
We call it gear selected and gear attained. We choose the selected, the transmission chooses the attained based upon our choice, load & speed, etc. Gears 5th & 6th are overdrive with less than 1:1 transmission ratios.
Our 97 m11 upshifts into sixth at 55 on economy mode. Pulls medium hills best at 65mph at nearly 1400 rpm in sixth.