I have a 2003 F250, 5.4L, crew cab truck with 110,000 miles. I'm getting ready to drive across the country and will be towing a camper that is 4500lbs empty and 7500lbs full. I am driving 6k miles. AK to VA. I am wondering if I need to install a transmission oil cooler. Is it necessary? I realize according to most of what I've read that, if the camper is full, I will be reaching my max towing capacity. It won't be full but it will be me, my wife, three kids, a dog and all our trip junk. What should be my cocerns?

 

I would add one if you don't have one already. That trans...4R100 doesn't like a lot of heat.

 

think you allready have one get the tranny flushed you should be ok

 

You already have two transmission coolers, one in the radiator and one out front. You should be fine.

 

Is 7500 tow limit for 5.4l engine?
I know my F250 with 7.3 has tow ratings at 10k and I did tow more than that.
Side notice, I don't know what load goes into the camper to make 3000lb, but you might have much better ride if you load some of it on the truck bed.

 

From what I can find, 6900lbs is the max trailer weight for my truck. Yeah I know it is close to nothing. I know it could probably go over that some but I'm not one to push these limits. My family depends on this vehicle and I don't have a lot of money.
As far as me having a cooler already, you might be right. I have looked inside the compartment and there is something that looks like a cooler, just aft of the radiator. There is defiantly nothing installed in front of the radiator though, which is where I assumed a factory installed one would be installed. I guess I need a buddy to look at it who knows what they're looking at. Thanks for all the input. This forum is great!

 

Going from front to back just behind the grill is:

AC condensor
Trans cooler
Radiator
Fan

 

Is it harmful to add to big of a extra trany cooler on my 2000 Excursion? I found a great deal on a large one but not sure if it's to big for my truck or not? Thinking about replacing the factory one with it?