Couple questions after a 250 mile trip
 

We just got home from our longest and steepest trip pulling our TT with our F150. We live in San Diego and we went up to Idyllwild for a nice camping trip. total trip is about 250 miles and the campground is at 6500' so we got to see how the new to us truck would do compared to our old Explorer. It pulled fantastic and we had no issues - but I do have a question or two, so here goes.

The trip up the mountain starts at about 1000' and this week was unseasonably warm so as we got about half way up the outside temperature was around 104. I watched the trans temp gauge and it never got past the half way mark on the "analog" gauge. I then switched over to gauge mode and it showed the temp at 228 for a short period of time but most of the climb it was around 220. Since that would be in the normal range of the analog gauge I assume that it is OK to run that hot. I had a trans temp gauge installed on my old Explorer and if it got above 210, the recommendation was to get the fluid changed before the next big trip. Since the fluid in the F150 is supposed to good for life (unless you are a heavy tow person) I just wanted to ask folks about this temperature and what if any concern I should have at that temperature.

Th other question has to do with the tow haul mode - for a significant part of the return trip down the mountain, the T/H mode kept me in 2nd gear (max speed was probably under 40 with 30 being about the average). This seemed to work great, let me be very conservative on the brakes so I am very happy with how it "behaves" in T/H mode. I just wondered if having it in 2nd for extended periods of time was an issue. For the record, on the way down the outside temp was about 102 and the max I saw on the trans gauge was about 215.

So that's it - the truck pulls like a champ and our 4,500# trailer seems to be a good match for the truck. Any feedback on my observations would be appreciated thanks!

I tow my trailer up to idylwild a few times a year to the thousand trails campground up there. I use a 2.7L EcoBoost with a 7000 pound trailer. Same as you I've seen temps pop up on the dash for coolant temp but the gauge never moved. Dealer said it's normal.

Can't speak to to the tranny temps. I use to own a cabin up in Idyllwild. Haven't been there since the late 80's but it was a nice place back then.

There is no issue with having the truck in Tow/Haul mode for an extended period of time. That's exactly what it is designed to do.

Glad to hear that having the T/H mode on a long down hill staying in 2nd gear isn't an issue - it seemed to really save on breaking and I liked that. I'm still a bit concerned about the trans oil temp though. Back when I was towing with the Explorer (and hounding the Explorer forums) some folks posted charts showing trans fluid temps and the "life expectancy" based on time at high temps. Anyone seen anything like that for current day F150's (my Explorer was an '01 - so pretty old tech)?

My 14 with 3.15 gears towing a 6300# trailer up the mountain west of Denver the trans hit 230*, and the engine overheated a little, but was fine after wards. Drove it up until impact without a single problem.

As long as it got cooled down quickly and wasn't a sustained temp over miles, then nothing to worry about.

Thanks for that info - but seems like a sad ending occurred at some point

Met it's demise on an icy road this past January. Really miss that truck.