This may be true. Pulling the trailer empty is not bad off the line but up long, not necessarily steep hills it will downshift (out of OD?) and the rpms will go up. Maybe I'll need to make sure to switch off the OD on those long hills in PA and Southern NY. The manual says that swinching OD off will affect fuel economy, but pulling hills on I81 with some of those big trucks on my tail can be interesting in a gutless vehicle.
I have read in other threads that the auto is not too bad off road. I guess we'll find out.