I have never had the temp light on before. I changed the tranny fluid around 70K, 105k, & 140K along with VTM. I changed the transfer at 70K & 105K. (these figure are approximate, but probably within 5K)
I am completely torn as to what to do. I generally think that the OM is gospel...but years ago, my grandfather smoked a tranny in a 96 GM 1500 conversion van in less than 200 miles. (van probably had 60K on it) He went to pick up a new camper that was somewhere around 30ft and 9000lbs. Me, Grandpa, & Dad talked about how to pull this camper, and Dad suggested pulling it out of OD manually into 3rd. (this is what I was told to do by a GM tech too). Well, Grandpa read the OM and it said to leave it in D and drive. Soooooo, he hooked the camper on a crazy windy day, and headed back south into a massive head/side wind in drive. The van seamed to hold its own for such a big camper....until tranny fluid started blowing out of the vent. He pulled over at that point and we went up and pulled the camper home with a different vehicle. The van still drove, but the tranny went out shortly after that trip. After the tranny was rebuilt, he pulled the camper no problem in 3rd. And I pulled the guts out of my K1500 for nearly 200K miles. Pulling a 10,000 lb camper, tractors, car trailers, etc always in 3rd if the load was over 5-6000 lbs. I sold the truck to my cousin and it is still running fine.
I realize that I am comparing apples to oranges here and technology has came a long way in 15 years and different style trannys, etc.,etc, etc....but my point is: I was unaware of the OM section that you posted. Since you posted it, I now think I should switch my thinking to just "D and go" as to follow what the OM says. But, in the back of mind, I remember Granpas van and it seems hard on things to shift esentially non stop.