Thanks, that makes sense, in those situations you mentioned. I’ve used 4th for towing for the reason you mentioned, but since I don’t really off-road it, I haven’t had the need to manually shift it in the other situations obviously. I was mainly curious about someone mentioning shifting it manually every day, as if driving a manual transmission. These shifters with plastic detent grooves clearly weren’t designed to be run through the gears on a daily basis. In the cases you described, you are just manually dropping gears, or holding in particular gears, so that is less wear and tear inmo.
Just wanted to chime in on the manually shifting (daily) inquiry: I, too, drive a lot on inclines and windy mountain roads, so I downshift frequently for more control. I also live on a VERY steep and long hill, so I literally shift D-D4-3L-2L EVERY TIME I HEAD DOWN MY HILL and park. I didn’t do so the 1st two years I lived here, but I replaced my brakes on this 4Runner more in those 2 years than all of my previous vehicles (living elsewhere) COMBINED. Downshifting is way smarter (and much more affordable!).
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