marcello

Hi all. I am new here and I am wondering what your opinions are on towing. I just bought a 2011 F150 with the 5.0. I do not have the select shift therefore I only have PRND321. I do have the tow\haul button. I do not have the trailer package but i did add a aftermarket trailer brake and hitch. The question I have is what gear selector do you keep your truck say you are pulling 5000lbs. I used to have an older Chev with only a 4spd and often enought, I would keep it out of the overdrive as it was constantly shifting but on this truck, i can't put it in fifth, i can only go from 6th to 3rd which will not work at highway speeds. For the guys that do not have the select shift and still haul, how are you finding it towing?? Obviously I will keep an eye on trans temp but how is it working out. I will not be towing often and it says i am rated to 7500 lbs so.

Anyways, i tried searching but always find people have the select shift but haven't been able to find an answer for the 2011 without that option. i bought the truck used otherwise I would have definitely went for the towing package but it just wasn't in the cards at the time.....

Gudbrand

I have a 2011 F150 5.0L and I pull my 7,000lb travel trailer. I do not have the max towing package, or a tranny cooler. The only issues I ran into were pulling up mountains in the US on holidays last year. I had to be careful and ended up pulling over twice to let the transmission cool down. As for power, it's not even an issue. I have tow/haul option and I used it all the time on the highway. Fuel mileage takes a hit, but the truck is well suited for towing.

daveak

That being said, an auxiliary trans cooler is a wise investment.

SWBF150

Push in the tow/haul button, you still have all 6 speeds available but the trans stays in the gears a bit longer before it shifts(higher rpm's).
I had a aux Transmission oil cooler installed in my 07F150 because the Stock Ford Tranny cooler was doing a poor job of keeping the trans oil cool.
I had a B&M 11" with a built in fan installed, it came on at 175F degrees on the mountain passes, off at 144F. You can hear that B&M Cooling fan come on and if you have a temp gauge with digital readout (can be installed if need be) you can monitor the trans temp way better than the gauge that is in the instrument panel.
After the B&M Cooler was installed it solved my high Trans temps, it never got hotter than 232F, before it was at 310F, ouch. Of course I didn't know that till I installed a EDGE Insight to monitor not only my Trans Temps but any other thing I wanted to keep a eye on.
Even on my 14, I still use the EDGE Insight, got use to all of the other items I can monitor and you can set it up anyway you want or change what you are monitoring.