Agreed on my area lacking long inclines. On a trip to Nashville with a full load I tended to not use cruise so that part of the experiment went unfulfilled. When going up mountains my MO was to simply gas it to maintain speed. The downshifts occurred and stayed as long as necessary. With cruise on I'm pretty sure it would have hunted. Realistically I think it's the nature of the beast. Just the limits of the engine/transmission/gearing/weight/programming revealing themselves. A 4.7/4.6 V8 and 6sp trans would solve things! In the future if I try cruise under the same conditions I may also try DS mode on the inclines if hunting occurs.