Cruise Control when towing

Gwezza, I use it all the time towing a Jayco Flamingo with a Magna 3.5l station wagon. No problems to date, although it does "hunt" a bit between gears on long, slow climbs.
Cheers, Tony

Hi Peter
I tow a 18/6 caravan with a Prado t/d use cruise control all the time, on hill throw it back to 3rd manually until the top of the hill.
Maybe uses a bit more fuel but the convience is worth it.
Don't use it on windy hills or long steep hilly country, overwise works OK.
Regards
Ted

Who told you and did they give you a reason ?
I've used cruise towing heavy moving trailers with a turbo diesel 100 series and never had any problems, most truck drivers use cruise on the hwy.
I'm interested to know why you shouldn't use cruise in the right circumstances, Rhys.

Another urban myth by the sounds of it.

A lot of people who have never had cruise control sometimes think of any excuse not to have it or use it.

We tow all the time with cruise control.

Yep no probs with towing with cruise control here either,we tow a 22 foot fibreglass boat to Exmouth with TD 100 series , works a treat

We tow a 3.5tonne Horse Float with our Touareg....cruise is generally always on....except for the bigger hills. No point having the engine trying to maintain 100 up some of the larger hills. I would usually keep the throttle position the same, and only loose a few kays.

Have had situations over the years with cruise in the wet up hills.....when traction breaks it boots it and you go along for the ride.

Urban myth seems to be about right.

Brett....

I also tow more weight than nayone else above so far (~ 4.25 tonnes) with the f 250 and use cruise control on the flats - I don;t use it on hills coz the auto trans tries to kick down a gear, to maintain the speed often when it is not necessary.

With a load on in hilly country - you can anticipate hills ahead and roll your speed up a bit so as to coastover the hill without gear changing - the cruise control can't do this and actually slows you downhill to maintain speed set - then tries to change gears and accelerate heavily going up the next hill.

Cruise control is not inituitive like the human brain, in perceiving the terrian ahead and adjusting the driving style to suit - you CAN use cruise control when towing (on flat ground) but there are times when it's simply better not too (hilly country).

Clear as mud?

Cheers

Hi Peter
Like everyone else I use Cruise on my 79 series TD LC towing 2 tonne boat or our camper unit which is also "V Heavy" .
As stated a little common sense is applied on certain hills !!
I also would like to know who told you this fact ????

Safe Travels
Barry

I use cruise most of the time the only time I turn it off is when traffic builds up.

I don't tow in overdrive though as the tests I have done through my vehicles fuel management system indicates that I get better consumption when I tow in 4th gear. The engine is running without any load and doesn't change down on a majority of hills.

I found through the tests I performed when towing in overdrive the engine will change down on most hills and even a stiff headwind and when this happens that extra burst of fuel is delivered to the engine thereby increasing overall fuel consumption.

Tow the caravan with cruise control all the time. Knock if off going up the hills if need to change gear. Have towed with cruise control since cruise control has been available. Sounds like one for Myth Busters.

Thank you for all those replies. We have an 80 series diesel so by all your comments I feel confident to do the same. We had been using cruise control but doubted it when this comment was made. No they did not know why, aparently a comment had been made to them and they passed it to us.
Cheers
Peter