Anyone know the facts here, ive had ford guys tell it to me both ways.
I pull a friends car trailer often --6000lbs, i would assume that is probably where i would not want to use OD, BUT
i Own a little 12 foot cargo trailer fully loaded wieghs 2600lbs, that cant hurt to pull in OD can it?? I dont want to do any damage to my transmission, anybody got any facts here??

or how about anyone got alot of miles towing in OD, with no problems???

Jetjock16

V10 auto

 

I think it depends on the terrain. If the transmission is constantly downshifting I think you would be better off to tow with the O.D off.

 

I tow my 9,000 pound trailer in overdrive. As long as the transmission is not frequently shifting in and out of overdrive it's fine.

 

Like the expert (Mark K.) said, be mindful of the transmission shifts. If the tranny is comfy, no need to adjust. If you're going uphill or on any terrain where you experience frequent shifts, kill the OD. Keep an eye on your tranny temp, too.

 

check out https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...hreadid=108442 for a similar discussion, I wrote a piece on Auto trannys and Heat,

Considering the cost to repair, unless you do something more than the Ford designed trans cooler, then towing in OD is risky. Now that I can monitor my trans temp and have a additional cooler and filter setup, I can use OD on the flats, but when you get in the hills and the trans starts the hunt and shift game, the temp quickly rises and I am usually forced out of OD until the down hill side.

 

just watch your rpm gauge and make sure that its not jumping up and down!

 

Some really good information here. I also tow quite a bit of weight. around 11000 give or take a couple hunderd. I'll keep following thread to see what else comes up.
Fred I see that you and I have the same background. I'm also a retired 1SG . I just retired from a diffrent place, Ft. McClellan, Al.
Take care


God Bless our Troops:

 

How 'bout towing in OD with cruise control. I have an 03 250 CC V10 3.73 Auto. This is my first vehicle with cruise control, and I was dissapointed that even towing a little 1500 lb cargo trailer at 65-70 mph across the great state of Iowa (which isn't exactly known for its rugged mountain passes) causes the tranny to shift back and forth from OD to 3rd on small hills when the cruise is on. I really like cruise for long trips so I've all but given up on OD. Any suggestions, other than a piece of electrical tape over that annoying OD OFF light? I've tried feathering the gas on the hills with cruise and OD on and this seems to help, but most of the areas where I travel have enough hills that it really defeats the purpose of cruise.

Thanks

 

I usually two with the cruise control on except when I get into hill parts of the country. I usually kick the cruise off because of the hunting that some of the guys were talking about. If it is really hilly I will kick it down again but that Is kind of unusual except up in Tenn. Some of the hills there will make you wish you had another 200 hp and 500 more on the Torque. I haven't had any problems so far so thats my take on it.




God Bless our Troops

 

SouthernDually...soldiers over there are doing us old guys PROUD I know you feel it too!

The 4R100 auto tranny is married to the engine through a fairly effecient two stage "lock up" type Torque converter. The Power Control Module (PCM) is more sophisticated than older designs Ford used through the 90's.

Most of us with this trans, from 99 to present, have shared info here and other sites on the actions of the cruise control and OD nervousness of this combination. Most notorious is the frequent lock/unlock of the torque converter and up and down shift mostly right around 68 to 72MPH, and usually associated with the 3.73:1 gears that cause the engine to be near or at 2000RPM at those speeds.

For some unknown reason, loaded or unloaded, these PCMs don't like that point in the program and always attempt to increase the rpm. Of course we usually don't like this as it is terribly annoying and the sudden down shift feels like the truck wants to "run away".

One of the annoying down sides is to be forced to turn off the Cruise control, or accept the 3rd(high) gear selection and scream down the road at 3000RPM.

Another unwanted by product of all this shifting on even slight upgrades is the extreem heat generated by the torque converter as it will unlock first before a downshift is commanded.

Years ago, many of our PSD bretheren, started modifing their trucks and added "A" piller guage clusters to house pyrometer, boost guage, and trans temp guage. As the 99-01 F250/350 had no trans temp guage many of us V10 guys followed suit with the double or tripple guage cluster and started to learn what was killing these trannys..HEAT HEAT HEAT!!!

Ford has been reccommending for years to NOT tow a load with OD. As designed, the stock setup with factory oil cooler will keep the tranny temp in an acceptable range if you allow the high gear 3000rpm uphill climb.

If you study my signature you will see what a V10 Rear wheel HP and Torque figures are typical for a stock V10. What I did not post was a link to the graph so you could see the curve. Those figures are PEAK @ around 3600RPM where the curve levels off all the way to 4900rpm before it starts to drop off. Starting at around 1800rpm up to 3400rpm the HP and Torque curve is pretty much a steep incline up with 2000rpm only associated with about 2/3rds of the peak or around 185 HP.

Considering the 4X4 non-aerodynamic truck weighing 6800lbs dry and all the parisitic drag associated with large tires, big *** honking mirrors, the fact that these trucks gets up and go as well as they do is a testement to what a great job Ford engineers have done.

I am fully convinced that much of the reports of lousy fuel effeciency are mostly due to the owners trying to drive it like a sports car. Nimble and quick comes to mind, I have frequently recounted how much fun this truck is to drive.

Ultimatly you must decide that it is a TRUCK, and with a load on, you have two choices: Try to play around and fiddle with feathering the gas to save fuel, or say screw it, "I'm in a hurry", drop out od OD and ZOOM down the road at 75-80mph sucking up the 87 octane, with BAG or ETEG on your face.

OH, and trust me, the Chevy and Dodges you pass know exactly what the BAG/ETEG is all about, cause they are all pouty faced looking at your beautiful FORD rear end

 

Can you tell me where you have seen this recommendation? I've been looking for years for it because many people tell me it exists. I've never found it, and I've never found someone that can show me where Ford recommends to NOT tow in overdrive.

The truth is that Ford recommends you DO tow in overdrive, unless the transmission is frequently shifting in and out of overdrive.

 

Fredvon4,

Thanks for taking the time to bring us newbies up to speed.

 

Ok Mark I will give it a shot:

Three reasons to not TOW in OD (unless you take steps to eliminate to problem) Heat ! Heat! Heat!

First

My 1997 F250 V8 4X4 460CI EOD owners manual is first place I ever read the "warning". (Though I could not find the same "warning" in my current manual, just a suggestion that when going up steep grades to eliminate the constant down shifting simply turn off OD with the button on the stem of the shift arm)

Next place
http://www.fleet.ford.com/products/r...ering_tips.pdf

Third place

A web search where I found 10s of thousands of references (along with your notes on changing 4R100 tranny fluid) below are some exerpts

Greg Murphy:

Having spent some time as a service engineer for Ford, I'm aware of what the manufacturer's have to say on the topic...and why.

If you check your owner's manual, you will probably find that they recommend either avoiding or minimizing the use of overdrive when towing. THIS IS GENERALLY A VERY GOOD IDEA.

Here's why. As you know, your transmission will automatically downshift to a lower gear when you either start to pull an increased load on the engine or you force it (through mechanical linkage) by going to wide open throttle (calling it a passing gear dates the writer!)

To avoid "hunting" between OD and high as you go up shallow grades or slow down slightly in traffic, the engineers have programmed the 4-3 downshift to be delayed slightly. If you are towing in OD and get slowed down by traffic or a slight grade, you might be pulling quite an engine load unless you either move the lever or put your foot into it to force a downshift.

Does this mean you can't use OD when towing? No, it means you should "feel the vehicle" and use it if you are at a steady speed (probably 60+) in low traffic/low grade area.

REDFX4:

At one time Ford stated in the owners guide "do not to use Overdrive while towing". I can't find this statement in my current owners guide so I am going to share an experience I had that may be of interest to anyone with a manual transmission. (basically he described how he smoked his trans in OD and Ford wouldn't fix free, I know he is talking about a manual tranny)

Won Hunglo:
I smoked my only GM Z-71 tranny at 16,000 miles & six months old in a new truck. Cooked that baby towing in OD. First thing my dealer asked was if I was towing in OD. I said "You can do that?" Well now I know better & have never lost another GM tranny. (Knock on wood!) Taking my service guy's advice, here is what I have been doing so far with no failers:

1. DO NOT over heat them. That is the killer of GM truck trannys. Keep it out of OD at ALL times when towing.

2. Install a trans temp gauge & watch it. See #1.

3. Buy the biggest after market cooler you can find. See #1.

4. Change the fluid & filter every 25,000 miles.

( yes I know is GM but I have helped my son fix his POS 1 ton Chevy tranny so many times I though it informative to the others to knoe that this is NOT a Ford only problem, in fact I have a co-worker on his third Allison ((he secretly tells me OD killed the first two))

Fred sez

I am kinda HOT on this subject (pardon the pun) cuz I got a few folks around here that abuse the **** out of thier trucks and think that FORD should fix for free every time they break them.

I knew when I bought my truck what exactly I intended to do with it. As I have already broken a 4R100 in a borrowed F350 dually ($5000 out of my Army pay) I learned all I could from the Diesel site and here, and noticed pretty quickly that the heavy haulers all deep sump, extra cooler, and guage the tranny.

First mods I did, I also did the switch mod to lock the TQ, I also changed out the original fluid before the first long heavy trip and changed out the fluid again after the trip. Same fluid now and will have it changed out next week for the 30K service.

Overkill? maybe but I have decided to NOT do the FORD ESP thing and so I must be responsible for any after warrenty repairs. I also am not a grey hair yet, so I tend to want to get where the hell I am going in a hurry. So on I10 a 115F and 75mph I found that on the tall hills of the eastern boarder of Arizona I could get up the mountain fast but in OD the temps rose rapidly, shift out to high gear and the 3000rpm cooled it right down.

Yep fuel economy sucked but I still have ETEG man I love this V10

Our Soldiers are doing me PROUD!

 

My '89 250HD with the 5 speed manual did warn against towing anything over ~3000lbs or 1/2 of the max trailer weight(I don't remember exactly) in overdrive.

I know the manual for my '02 F350 clearly states to tow in overdrive unless the transmission is "hunting", ie shifting excessively, or in hilly terrain. In that case you are simply supposed to lock out the OD.

Here is the section from Ford Fleet on towing in OD.

Driving with an Automatic OverdriveTransmission
• With certain car and compact truck
automatic overdrive transmissions, towing
– especially in hilly areas – may result in
excessive shifting between overdrive and
the next lower gear.
• If this occurs, it is recommended that the
overdrive gear be locked out to eliminate
the condition and provide steadier
performance (see your vehicle’s Owner
Guide for information).
• When there is no excessive shifting, use the
overdrive gear for optimum fuel economy.
• Overdrive also may be locked out to
obtain engine braking on downgrades.

I agree with Fredvon4 that heat is the enemy, but I don't feel that it means you can't or shouldn't tow in OD. It is after all recommended by Ford. It's a matter of using some common sense, and if you do a lot of towing, investing in a temp. guage.

Waxy

 

thanks for all the great advice guys, really apprectiate it!! I went ahead and ordered 4.56's that i will throw in this saturday, thus allowing me to actually pull my trailers in OD, i will however lock it out any time it starts to hunt for gears........ I thanks to all
Jetjock16