Have been wondering about this for sometime, finally asking - when towing my van, is it best to have the overdrive on or off? I found out recently that fuel consumption improves with it off under 80-90 and wondered if that was the same when towing.
Also, what is the best method for towing up ranges - ie the Toowoomba range. Should I 'go for it' or ease it up. Only towed up the range once and foolishly got stuck behind a big bus, sucking in all his hot air, and car overheated so pulled over and made a cuppa and took off when all was good again. Have since been told not to get in behind big rigs when going up ranges.
These may seem silly questions to some, but I have always thought that the only silly question is the one you don't ask.
10 sleeps untill I set off to Uluru, SA, outback NSW on way home.
All and any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Happy Travels,
Cheers
Carolyn

 take a look at your manual under towing reccomendations, with most vehicles ( and I am no expert on this) it is better to tow with the o/d off, if it is on and your vehicle is lugging too hard you will do enormous damage to the gearbox, if you are on straight and easy, no lugging, then drop her in , but if she starts to  pull take it out, my brother in law is a mitsubishi dealer mechanic, also services other vehicles, he see's exactly this gearbox problem everyday, if you are sitting on 80-90 kms per hour (average towing speed, then your revs should be in the perfect range 2-2,500 r.p.m.  for pulling without o/d, as for towing uphill, take it easy,  change early (without overevving), take your time, if you are behind another vehicle pull back, your vehicle is working hard enough without starving it of air as well, when cresting the hill the old adage comes back to me to " use the same gear to descend as it took to ascend", breaks will overheat very quickly and then fade, finally give out and then you will know what overdrive is, carolyn, not silly questions, ask and learn, I towed for years, learnt the hard way cost me a lot of money, you will find fuel economy is second when you blow a $2-3,000 gearbox, 10 sleeps before uluru we are shooting up there again in august next year, we are going to be like bananas, a bunch of us going, cant wait, but I'm like that before any trip, just a big kid at heart let the forum know what it is like, look after your vehicle it is the only way of getting home, it's a long walk home from uluru and I hates walking

-- Edited by dave06 at 12:29, 2008-08-07

Thanks Dave, will go and get it out of the car now and have a look. Cheers Carolyn