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Just bought a used 2016 F150 XLT w/5.0 eng. and 3.73 rear axle , towed my boat about 80 mile the other day and think my transmission temperatures were high ! Boat , motor, trailer and fuel weight about 5600lbs , it was in the 90's this day . Terrain was flat , speeds 50 o 60 ! I saw the trans temp. go as high as 210 and average 190's . What would be considered normal temperature range with these conditions ?
Looks to me like you're fine. I have an '11 Lariat with the 6.2, Max Tow and 3.73LS. This time of year my normal running temp range is 194-198. Goes a little higher when I kick it but quickly drops back down. I tow a 7x14 V-nose tandem axle enclosed trailer with my '12 Polaris Ranger 800HD in it. The trailer is quite tall because I had to add a foot in height to get it in. Towing weight is about 3600lbs or so. I run at 60-65mph. Running my Livewire on a 5* 91 Tow tune, the average engine temp is about 202, with a range of 198-206 or so. Going thru the mountains (I tow to my place in West Virginia), It will climb to 212-218 on an incline, but goes back down once I'm on the other side. The trans temp is usually at about 197-198, and will rise to 202-205 on an incline, sometimes 208 or so if I'm in slower traffic.
Pulling my 5k TT on a long steep grade sees 210 max but quickly goes back down. It runs anywhere between 190-200 (depending on wind) on flat highway and that's with my trailer's 60 sqr ft flat frontage (which is the max recommended) and is very much like pulling a giant sail...
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.
Last edited by mass-hole; Jul 5, 2018 at 02:37 PM.
2015 5.0 with 3.55 towing 4,000lb TT up long steep mountain passes over 12,000ft, ambient air temps in 80s to low 90s, trans temp gets up into the low 220s temporarily. Otherwise low 200s while towing on the flats on a very hot day.
2013 5.0 3.73. Towed a 7x14 approx total weight 5,000lbs this whole week during the heat wave here of 95 to 103 degrees. Whole bunch of 16 mile round trip trips. All stop and go. Trans was running 203 to 208. Normal everyday empty is 198 sometime 200.