Trans Temps while towing
07-07-2018, 08:45 AM
#13
Senior Member
Was the gauge still in the "normal" range? I'm sure it wasn't even moving right. I think I saw 217 on mine up a 7 mile long incline towing around 7k at 65 mph with an 8.5' wide parachute behind me.
07-11-2018, 11:15 AM
#15
At 230 degrees, you guys should be slowing it down, and if your RPM's are low, lock out the top gears.
That's pretty warm, but it would probably be much better if you slowed to 60 mph. Racing uphill dragging a large frontal area isn't wise. Also, what speed are your trailer tires rated for? Most are 60 mph. Make sure you check that too.
What speed? You're on the borderline there for heat, and the 331 gearing isn't the best for towing. I would suggest a slower speed and ensuring you're in tow mode to prevent the heat from getting that high to begin with. On a long climb, it's very hard to bring temps back down when you're still climbing even when slowing down. The best bet is to take it slower from the start and prevent it from getting that high to begin with. Usually the long grades have 2 lanes with slower traffic in the right lane anyways. I usually just stick in that lane and follow the slow truckers. I'd rather the trip take 5 more minutes than have burned tranny fluid 
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Ricktwuhk (07-11-2018)
07-11-2018, 12:43 PM
#16
Yea no worry about me going to fast lol. That was 2nd gear in tow hual. My truck has hdpp and tow haul package bigger sway bar and a confermed look to make sure it has the tranny cooler. Also 36 gal fuel tank
07-11-2018, 12:54 PM
#17
Also to add a few other notes on most hills driving for hours trans temp runs from 200-210. The truck pulls the camper great no sway or anything. Plenty of power, just think the gearing really comes into play on a hill that big. Prob gonna upgrade to bigger cooler with fan. Befor I go west with trailer for 30 days.
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BlackBoost (07-11-2018)
07-11-2018, 11:18 PM
#18
Senior Member
[QUOTE=BlackBoost;5841135]
That's pretty warm, but it would probably be much better if you slowed to 60 mph. Racing uphill dragging a large frontal area isn't wise. Also, what speed are your trailer tires rated for? Most are 60 mph. /QUOTE]
If I hadn't enabled the temp through ForScan I would have relied on the gauge, and the gauge never moved from the center of the range. My trailer tires are rated to 81mph. Sitting behind an 18 wheeler doing 30 is also not wise. Changing lanes with a large trailer involves risk. Staying in the middle of three lanes while not inhibiting traffic was the wisest move in my book. Well within Ford's stated capabilities. Slowing down would have increased my mpgs. But increased the risk of incident. I agree though slowing to 60 would have made a negligible impact to overall driving safety; however, I was making a 1200 mile trip with a 6 month old. Stopping every 2.5 hours for fuel, the wife would have been a bigger risk to my safety if I slowed down any more. Next trip, I'm driving them out in her car and flying back to get my truck and trailer alone. I'm sure I'll get 15-20% better fuel economy averaging 55-60mph vs her pushing me to 65-70mph average.
That's pretty warm, but it would probably be much better if you slowed to 60 mph. Racing uphill dragging a large frontal area isn't wise. Also, what speed are your trailer tires rated for? Most are 60 mph. /QUOTE]
If I hadn't enabled the temp through ForScan I would have relied on the gauge, and the gauge never moved from the center of the range. My trailer tires are rated to 81mph. Sitting behind an 18 wheeler doing 30 is also not wise. Changing lanes with a large trailer involves risk. Staying in the middle of three lanes while not inhibiting traffic was the wisest move in my book. Well within Ford's stated capabilities. Slowing down would have increased my mpgs. But increased the risk of incident. I agree though slowing to 60 would have made a negligible impact to overall driving safety; however, I was making a 1200 mile trip with a 6 month old. Stopping every 2.5 hours for fuel, the wife would have been a bigger risk to my safety if I slowed down any more. Next trip, I'm driving them out in her car and flying back to get my truck and trailer alone. I'm sure I'll get 15-20% better fuel economy averaging 55-60mph vs her pushing me to 65-70mph average.
07-12-2018, 11:13 AM
#19
Normal. I dont quite get to 210, but 208 is pretty common for me.
Its my coolant temps that get insane. High 230's on a 55 degree day last time I did a big tow.
I recently added a larger cooler from an Excursion V10 and totally bypassed the transmission fluid cooler thats built into the drivers side radiator end tank. My hope was the almost 2x larger excursion cooler would be enough to handle the transmission temps and I would get the benefit of offloading some of that heat from the coolant system. I am still "testing" as I have only towed once with this config and it was only 80F out. I climbed from 6500' to almost 11,000' and the trans temps stayed good.
Its my coolant temps that get insane. High 230's on a 55 degree day last time I did a big tow.
I recently added a larger cooler from an Excursion V10 and totally bypassed the transmission fluid cooler thats built into the drivers side radiator end tank. My hope was the almost 2x larger excursion cooler would be enough to handle the transmission temps and I would get the benefit of offloading some of that heat from the coolant system. I am still "testing" as I have only towed once with this config and it was only 80F out. I climbed from 6500' to almost 11,000' and the trans temps stayed good.
08-12-2018, 12:57 PM
#20
Senior Member
I posted a similar question in the General forum earlier in the week and you may be interested in some of the info there. Especially of note is post #7 where I pasted in some info I found from a gentleman that was a Ford transmission engineer.
Here's the tow that prompted my question
The outside temp was running between 105 and 108 for the portion of the trip where we were actually going up the mountain. Because of recent fires we entered the park from the north side which has a climb of roughly 5000 foot elevation gain over about a 20 mile distance. The digital gauge showed 226 during the steepest part of the tow with a spike to 228 for about 1 minute or so.
Here's the tow that prompted my question
The outside temp was running between 105 and 108 for the portion of the trip where we were actually going up the mountain. Because of recent fires we entered the park from the north side which has a climb of roughly 5000 foot elevation gain over about a 20 mile distance. The digital gauge showed 226 during the steepest part of the tow with a spike to 228 for about 1 minute or so.
Last edited by larry2c; 08-12-2018 at 01:01 PM.
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jwhite8172 (08-13-2018)