Gear indicator on cluster for 2024 GMC Sierra 3500HD

Truck Novice · April 23, 2024

Hello, can anyone confirm whether or not there is a gear indicator on the cluster. The truck boasts about its 10 speed Allison transmission and so I was shocked when I saw a review on YouTube for the 2024 Gmc Sierra truck. The YouTuber said that there was no gear speed indicator unlike GM's competitors like Ford and Ran trucks and that was his real disappointment

newdude · April 23, 2024

31 minutes ago, Truck Novice said:

Hello, can anyone confirm whether or not there is a gear indicator on the cluster. The truck boasts about its 10 speed Allison transmission and so I was shocked when I saw a review on YouTube for the 2024 Gmc Sierra truck. The YouTuber said that there was no gear speed indicator unlike GM's competitors like Ford and Ran trucks and that was his real disappointment

They don't and they are annoying in the Fords.

Truck Novice · April 24, 2024

Perhaps, if the gear is on "D", there is no gear number indicated on the cluster but if the gear is on "L", the gear number is displayed. I don't know as I have not owned a gmc sierra truck

64BAwagon · April 24, 2024

The gauges as a whole on these trucks are awful and were designed by someone who was not serious about towing. My 2021 had better gauges than the ones on my 2024.

To answer your direct question. NO. Other than the gear selector choice there is no information available on the OEM gauges regarding the current gear.

The information is available as part of the Scangage 3. This is what I use to keep track of my truck instead of the stock gauges that were designed by an art history degree holder.

When "L" is selected the only indicator you get is the highest gear that you have enabled the truck to shift to. An example would be that when I tow heavy I lock out 9th and 10th gear by placing the selector in L and then scrolling the selector to 8. That way the truck will not shift higher than 8th, it does not tell you what gear the truck is in at any given time though.

Bottom left corner of this SG3 is "transgear" which tells me what forward gear the truck is in. It does not indicate Park or Reverse.

Edited April 24, 2024 by 64BAwagon

newdude · April 24, 2024

11 hours ago, Truck Novice said:

Perhaps, if the gear is on "D", there is no gear number indicated on the cluster but if the gear is on "L", the gear number is displayed. I don't know as I have not owned a gmc sierra truck

Yes but its only going to show the max gear you are letting it get to. So if you set it to L8 for example, the truck will shift 1 through 8 and locks out 9 and 10.

If you manually upshift it, then you'd know what gear its getting into as you as you press the + on the shifter.

madweazl · May 6, 2024

I drag our 40' 5th wheel around US (it's our "home") and I just can't think of a single time I've ever cared what gear I was in. The display shows me TPMS (along with the trailer on the center stack) and trans temp which concern me more than anything else. What else do you want on the cluster that you aren't seeing?

64BAwagon · May 16, 2024

Knowing what gear the truck is in helps me determine the best cruising speed and what gears to lock out (if any)

Capt Bob · May 19, 2024

On 5/6/2024 at 4:20 PM, madweazl said:

What else do you want on the cluster that you aren't seeing?

We live in a digital world. GM gives you digital tranny temp, well how about digital oil temp and pressure and while they’re at it, go old school and gives us coolant temp. I’m guessing that the retro look they were going for are those bar graphs along the bottom that look like gauges on a 50s sci fi movie.

I’m not complaining mind you but you did ask. Still, I relate all those bars to their counterparts on my Scan Gauge III so as to get a good feel of what they actually indicate.

I’m old but I still enjoy driving and having some idea of what’s happening underneath me. Just like in the old analog days.

64BAwagon · May 19, 2024

Considering that GM has a history of dumbing down gauges (specifically engine temp) on the 2000's trucks, this gauge arrangement doesnt surprise me. I would be fine with it if I could actually interpret a numerical value to the graph. When I get numbers on both ends and no reference marks in the middle its impossible to infer an actual number. Its in the same vein as the speedo. showing 0-20-40-60-80-100 means that you cant just do a quick glance at it if your doing 30 or 50 or in those ranges. Its a small thing but to me it indicates they were designed by someone at GM with an art degree rather than someone who has actually driven a truck. When youre logging 500 miles a day or more you have some time to really analyze the gauges.

sstoner911 · May 21, 2024

On the Ram I found the gear indicator was useful with a 6 speed AISIN trans, however, that feature I had to enable via ALFA OBD as it was not enabled from the factory.

I find with the 10 speed there has not been any need to lock out the gears on any uphill climbs with a 16K trailer.

As for cruising speed, the best speed is anything showing under 2000 rpm.

Edited May 21, 2024 by sstoner911

64BAwagon · May 21, 2024

I tried a number of variations on locking out gears while pulling and my personal view was that locking out 9 and 10 kept the truck around 2050-2100 at 64 MPH. This seemed to minimize downshifts when encountering a grade. I tried locking out just 10 and just leaving it in drive and found that both produced more shifts and had no positive effect on mileage.

Of course everyone is different and driving styles do account for a lot. If I am really looking for MPG when not using cruise I will let the truck lose some speed on the uphill and then gain speed on the downhill much like the big trucks. I dont do this with a lot of traffic since it tends to be disruptive to the cars/suv's

sstoner911 · May 21, 2024

On uphill climbs I try to keep with the flow of the left lane traffic and not get caught behind the semis who are crawling up the grades and lose momentum.

Generally most people let me over or there's enough gap in the traffic I can get over no problems, I them move back over in the right lane. I have not looked to see what gear I am in, but its usually around 60-65 mph and the truck holds that no problem.