Ford got the paddle shifters completely wrong

The way Ford integrated the paddle shifters on the Gen 2 in regular drive mode is asinine. I understand that if you're in 'M' for manual it should react to whatever up or down shift you select however in 'D' Drive mode it should work like my wife's Infinity works. If I'm cruising in Drive and I hit '-' it should drop a gear, plain and simple, however it doesn't. Unless you're cruising in the top gear it basically drops the upper limit of the available gears down a notch. So if you're in traffic and your loping along in say 7th and have an opportunity to kick it in the butt and get around something you'll have to hit '-' down shift 4 times before you get a down-shift reaction. And when you're done it'll be stuck with that 6th gear upper range until you upshift.

While in drive it 'should' drop a gear regardless of what gear you're in when you hit a single downshift, and since it's in drive it should upshift whenever it's appropriate again. No muss no fuss.

As it works now it's pointless.

Are you talking about using paddle shifters while in D on the console shifter?

I agree. I’ve tried to workaround this a few times; like I’m behind some prius driver on an exit. I paddled down to lock out anything over 4th. Once the tranny prius driver feigns acceleration, I nail it and start hitting the right paddle. Not perfect, and in fact, not even good. You can’t just quickly click down 4 or 5 gears, you have to paddle down once for nothing, then 1 time for each gear and wait until each respective gear is locked out before locking out the next gear.

I’ve tried to use them in manual too and I’m not terribly impressed. I’ll take sport mode. To me, the paddle response is painfully slow. Honestly, to me they’re kind of gimmicky. Maybe I haven’t given them a fair shake off road, but I’ve yet to find a paddle shifter use case that worked out better than leaving it in automatic and using the right drive mode.

I’m interested to hear if anyone actually likes the paddle shifters in the Raptor.

Or you can just stomp the gas. The truck will downshift for you. It's almost... automatic


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Paddle Shifters

copb8 said:

The way Ford integrated the paddle shifters on the Gen 2 in regular drive mode is asinine. I understand that if you're in 'M' for manual it should react to whatever up or down shift you select however in 'D' Drive mode it should work like my wife's Infinity works. If I'm cruising in Drive and I hit '-' it should drop a gear, plain and simple, however it doesn't. Unless you're cruising in the top gear it basically drops the upper limit of the available gears down a notch. So if you're in traffic and your loping along in say 7th and have an opportunity to kick it in the butt and get around something you'll have to hit '-' down shift 4 times before you get a down-shift reaction. And when you're done it'll be stuck with that 6th gear upper range until you upshift.

While in drive it 'should' drop a gear regardless of what gear you're in when you hit a single downshift, and since it's in drive it should upshift whenever it's appropriate again. No muss no fuss.

As it works now it's pointless.

Click to expand...

I agree with you. My Audi paddle shifters override the gear selection while in "D." However, the Audi doesn't have a manual mode like the Raptor. I really enjoy the Raptor manual mode while the shifter is in "M." I wish there was some programming via FORSCAN that could enable paddle shifters wile in "D" as you suggest.

Sounds like the paddle shifters work exactly like the shifter button that is on the side of the console shifter in the GEN1's. I got used to pressing down multiple times to get it to down shift to lock out the top gears but then again we only have 6 gears to work with so not as many presses. I use it mainly though when off-roading and lock out the 4-6 gears and sometimes 3rd too. Run mainly in only 1st and 2nd then kick it up to 3rd or higher when getting up to speed. I would agree, I would have thought the GEN2 paddles would operate differently and be very responsive.

Micha said:

Are you talking about using paddle shifters while in D on the console shifter?

Click to expand...

Yes. In M mode it works as expected.

---------- Post added at 06:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:49 AM ----------

I can see I'm not alone on this.

My '11 Limited only had 6 gears and would naturally cycle up to the top gear pretty quickly so if I used the shifter button it would take 2 taps and I'd be down a gear. I used this all of the time. Sometimes just to give me some engine braking without using the brakes, sometimes to get the truck in the exact sweet spot in prep for 2 lane road pass.

With the 10 speed gearbox it's common not to be in 10th depending on your driving environment so no I have to hit down paddle a watch to see how many gears I need to drop. Also, with the 10 speed you almost have to always drop 2 gears from current to really feel the change and get the engine spooled up to avoid as much lag as possible.

I appreciate that you can just use automatic and downshift with your right foot but then why put the paddles on at all. Especially such nice ones as Ford put on this truck.

Overall the paddle shifters are a big letdown. Good thing I love the rest of the truck so much tho!

image98 said:

wish there was programming via FORSCAN that could enable paddle shifters in "D"

Click to expand...

there is

Well I just got my interface cable so no more excuses, I'm going to have stop avoiding it and dive into the HUGE Forscan thread to starting learning stuff.....

No there isn't. Show me where it is Jake