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Ed, you are doing everything correctly. you definitely need to manually downshift when going uphill or pushing into headwinds.
Try to keep the % engine Load @ < 85-90% as much as possible and when pulling hard, keep the RPMs in the 2600-3200 RPM range.
A manual downshift with your engine and transmission combination increases the engine RPM by very close to 500 RPM in the
fifth gear (Overdrive 0.83:1) to 4th gear (1:1 no overdrive) so you can manually downshift (5th to 4th here) safely at any RPM < 3400 RPM.
Best fuel mileage (when pulling hard) is again in the 2600-3200 RPM range.
Use the GPH parameter on a Scan Gauge II to see if a manual downshift is actually getting your better fuel mileage.
Normally the % engine load will drop 5-15% and the GPH will decrease from > 4.0 to ~3.0 or less.
If i am not on an interstate I always just leave it in 4th. (and we try to stay off the interstates as much as possible). In 27000 miles I have averaged 15.4 MPG.
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