Hoss10

My new truck apparently is arriving in 3 weeks. I am trading in our present tow truck and will need something to tow with during the summer. I know Ford specifies a 1000 mile break in before towing would I be doing any damage to my truck if I stuck in a few short tows before the 1000 miles. I will be towing a horse trailer weight aprox, 4000 pounds about 80 miles total. One dealer says don't worry about it, anyone have have any thoughts.

Sweetlou

smokeywren

The purpose of break-in before you begin working the engine hard is to let the gears in the transmission and differential "mate", i.e., wear in to each other. And to let the rings mate to the cylinder walls. And to gently burnish the brake pads without scortching them. The best break-in routine is unloaded city driving, with lots of red lights and stop signs to have maximum throttle-off deceleration. But you can help break-in while towing by using your head and thinking about what you're trying to accomplish. If you must tow before the mileage limit, then stay off freeways and do not use cruise control. "Baby" the rig when stopping or accelerating. Gentle acceleration and braking. Never slam on the brakes - downshift to help deceleration. When braking, if downshifting is not eough, use the brake controller to manually activate the trailer brakes without using the service brakes.

On highways, vary your speed similar to the following routine:

45 MPH for 5 miles
60 MPH for 5 miles
50 MPH for 5 miles
65 MPH for 5 miles
55 MPH for 5 miles
then repeat

When changing speeds or stopping for a traffic signal, remember to not use the service brakes, and only very gentle acceleration. If you have to use brakes, use the trailer brake controller, not the brake pedal.

Throttle off deceleration sucks oil up into the rings, and that's a good. You cannot have too much throttle-off deceleration.

If the only highway to your destination is a freeway, then stay in the right lane and do the same as above, plus exit and re-enter the freeway when you change speed, every 5 miles or so.

Hoss10

Thanks for the information.
What is interesting is a friend just bought a 2018 Toyota 4Runner and leaves on a 3000 km road trip today towing their little Airstream. According both Toyota and the dealer no break before towing is required!
City driving will be tough for me the closest city is over a hour away! The varying speed though will be easy lots of rural highways with old guys like me driving slow!!!!

RickC137

I don't know, sounds like maybe a good excuse for a road trip. "Honey, sorry, but I gotta' take off for a couple days to get this truck broken in before our big trip...See you in a couple days"

acdii

I may be in the same situation. If my order arrives before August, I could still do a vacation, but have to put miles on the truck first. In a way that is easy since I put 640 miles a week on it. I will also be putting my Powerstop rotors and pads on the new one and taking the factory ones off and put them on a shelf. Brakes are still good with plenty of meat on the pads and rotors, so why not, one less thing to worry about when towing because I know they stop well. Engine break in I wouldn't worry about too much, all the parts in todays engines have tight tolerances and require very little bedding, the rings are pretty well seated before you ever get it, but the trans and rear gearing do take time to mesh well. What does take a long time though is not mechanical, its the Powertrain Control Module, it take time to learn and that can be up to 1000 miles depending on how it is driven.

StonedFX4

I was in a similar situation so wife and I just just hit the roads, and did a mix of back road (2 lane) up to the interstates to get a good mix of speeds, stop and go, etc. I was a just a few miles short of the recommended 1K but close enough not to be worried about it. Need to do a good mix of all driving situations as well.

duck9191

Main purpose of the 1k break in is to set the ring and pinion. Most of the engine breakin is done within a couple hundred miles. Just try to get as many as possible, and don't beat the hell out of it towing and you should be fine.

Hoss10

Thanks everyone, I do like the road trip idea!

i2oadi2unnei2

That mini road trip will give you more time to be in tuned or symbiotic with your new truck We did a few road trips with ours to hit that 1K and also drove her on the beach, lots of fun!