New to diesels

[Viper1]

I just purchased my first diesel, a 2017 Longhorn 2500 automatic I don’t know the transmission type, I love the truck. Not being familiar with the characteristics of the 6.7 I have two questions: 1. When driving to work approximately 7 miles one way the transmission seems to upshift very fast and slow to downshift causing a lugging situation. Should I lock the truck in 4th or 5th gear to keep rpms higher. Is there a problem in running the rpms within 750-1000 rpms below redline for any length of time without a load? 2. Three days of the week the truck is only driven 7 miles each way to work, (the rest of the week 50-60 miles per trip) I realize this isn’t far enough to bring everything to operating temperatures, what can I do to bring the engine to operating temperatures in a short distance? I worry about water condensation and fuel not evaporating out of the oil if the temperature never reaches operating temp. On my 7 mile trip the oil temp doesn’t rise higher than the 122 degree level until about the 5th or 6th mile and it doesn’t go over 140 at the end of my drive. Would turning on the exhaust brake to minimum help raise the temp faster, I read that somewhere in one of the forums. Thanks for any help.

 

[TRAMPLINEMAN]

Every time you start the truck, put it in tow/haul mode and turn the exhaust brake on. Try that for a couple days and report back.

 

[mpaulson]

As mentioned already, always turn on the tow/haul and EB every time you start it up. This will save you big time on brake wear and will help you shifting issues that you've mentioned. This will hold the upshifts longer while accelerating to prevent the lugging feeling and it will downshift better as speed decreases. When you are slowing down (with tow/haul and EB on) a simple tap of the brake and the truck will start slowing itself down, applying the EB on it's own and downshifting on it's own, sometimes quite aggressively.
Your truck will have the "68RFE" transmission in it. All 2500 auto's have this and some 3500's as well. Some 3500's have the "AISIN" auto transmission which is in the higher HP trucks with the Max Tow option.
The fact that you do longer drives every week will negate any concerns of your short drive days. My commute is only about 7 miles five days a week and I don't have any issues with it over the past four years. And I deal with allot more idling/warn up time due to my northern location with some extreme cold temps, sometimes -40 range.

 

[Viper1]

Thanks I will

 

[Viper1]

Thank you, your response will prove to be very helpful. I will try this tomorrow and see what improvements are made. I didn’t realize all of the benefits of using EB along with toe/haul. Again thanks

 

[Cummins12V98]

Do as suggested every time turn on EB and TH. You will get used to how fast it slows down and will gut used to when to let off coming to a stop. Your brakes will last well over 100k.