How often do you shift your Torqueflite out of "D"?

[MoparJim]

I live in California's central valley and all of my local driving is flat with very little climbing or descending. However, when I take the Sport Fury up in to the Sierra Nevada, which is at my doorstep, I often use 2nd or even 1st if on a steep descent. I do this to spare the brakes although with the 73 Chrysler discs I now have on it I probably don't need to. However, that was how I was taught and that is how I do it. Here are a couple pics from mid-April when I had it up in the little Gold Rush town of Coulterville.

 

[Jeff Skibenes]

I had this question in my head for a while now, as when I bought my Newport, it came with the original owner's manual. One of the pages in it was describing when to shift the TorqueFlite when in different situations, such as using "2" when going down curvy country roads that require more controls, and using "1" for steep hills going up and down hill.

Do you guys actually use this method, or do you keep it in Drive the entire trip?

My experience across the board was that those manual shifting recommendations were for extreme conditions: extreme hills, pulling loads, etc... Outside of those conditions, really, the transmission is designed to know when to shift, so let it do its job.

 

[polara71]

I thought of this thread while on/off the road last week ...

I was using 1 & 2.

 

[cbarge]

Mostly in D since i do have the part throttle kickdown installed during the 727 rebuld.
I do downshift into 2 getting off the interstate to slow down on the off ramp to help the drum brakes.

 

[cbarge]

Now the 66 300 seeeedann I downshift when getting on the interstate since it does not have part throttle kickdown and I also gear down to slow down..