2004 Chevy Silverado 1500. Trailer is a Coleman, pop-up approx. 3,000 lbs
The owner’s manual makes no mention of using (or not using)cruise control while pulling a trailer. I do have the “trailer tow” button that changes the transmission shift patterns, etc.
Is using the cruise control a good idea or not? I don’t want to damage the transmission or engine.
For a small trailer like that, you can probably use cruise control most of the time. The big reason that they don’t want you to use cruise control when you’re towing, is the extra weight tends to make the transmission hunt between gears. Also, you don’t have a sense of how hard the truck is working to tow your load (ie you don’t know how far the cruise is depressing the throttle. It might be holding the pedal to the floor to maintain speed whereas you would know that if you were using your foot, and would back off.)
Turn it off when you get to hills or if you see that the truck is downshifting to maintain speed.
I can see no reason not to use the CC with a 3K trailer. The CC could help with speed control and handling of the trailer. I would drop my cruise speed a few mph. Enjoy your trailer. LEE
Thanks for the input. Pretty much on the same track as you, just wanted a little confirmation.
If your vehicle has a manual transmission, using cruise control while towing is fine. If it has an automatic transmission, it will drop into a lower gear when going up hills, which puts wear on your automatic transmission. In both cases, while towing I will use the cruse control but I will manually accelerate when approaching a hill so that I can decelerate a little while I am going up the hill. With an automatic transmisson this will keep it from hunting or dropping to a lower gear.
As long you can keep your Silverado from shifting gears a lot while you go up hills, it is okay to use cruise control while towing. If you routinely forget to accelerate as you approach hills, you might be better turning it off.