As we embark upon a new towing season I was hoping to glean some TIPS on how to tackle those long hot hills this summer.

I have a new 12,000lb 5th wheel behind my 06 truck so my combined weight is cresting 20,000.
Some questions of the top of my head:
1. guys go screaming buy me with bigger trailers in 6.0's; they are they pushing their trucks harder or is it better to go up at 55 versus my 45?
Say air temp. 75 & 6% grade for 20 miles.
2. gear down and spin up at 3,000 RPM or let the truck pick the gear (goes to the 2,5000 range).
3. pull over 1/2 way up the most brutal hot long climbs & let the trany temps fall (truck running of coarse) or just keep going?
4. avoid tackling the biggest climbs during the hottest part of the afternoon (air temps above 80).
5.I pushed tranny fluid out my filler tube a couple years back on the wickedest hot day at the top of a 30 minute 6-7% grade. Tranny was in the yellow; service manager warned that tranny should be at bottom of 'low cold' as higher and it can burp out in this extreme. Anyone had the same issue?

Any other tow tips would be great!

 

All i can say is gauges are crucial when towing. Egt, boost, trans temp(factory gauge aint worth a sh**), oil temp, and coolant temp are minimum in my opinion. I am a truck driver and the best advice i can give is dont push the truck. If it sounds steady and smooth is pulling the grade fine. Its not a race to the top of the hill. With gauges youd have a better idea of what is ok for your truck. Id rather be in the slow lane pulling a 7% grade in 3rd at 35 with my 4-ways on and take 30mins up the hill rather than possibly be stuck on the side of the road for 3hrs and have a $3000+ repair bill/tow bill and ruin your vacation by screaming up the hill in 4th gear at say 65mph. You can always tell an inexperienced driver because they want to get to the top of the hill as fast as the cars around them. They dont think about themselves weighing 6x more than that car.

Anyways my tip is get gauges and itll save a lot of worrying and money in repair bills. You can diagnose a lot with a boost gauge and pyrometer alone.

 

Dang phone went crazy with the post button!

 

Oops! .

 

Also, when you get to a place you are stopping, let the truck idle a few to cool the turbo down.

 

i agree with the slow version of the climb, save the tranny, turbo, and plenty of headaches later. it is not a race to the top of the hill after all, or maybe it is eh?

 

I don't tow with mine, but Mark Kovalsky a former Ford engineer who designed the tranny, posts on here a lot.

One thing I have taken from his posts is that the tranny gearing and the coolers are designed to handle anything the conditions can throw at them.
So if you have tranny fluid coming out the filler tube then something definitely went wrong that day and that condition might still exist so you should get it looked at.

Sounds like a restriction to or from the cooler maybe so that fluid wasn't getting cooled (hence the high temp range on the gauge) but the pump was still driving the fluid so it had to go somewhere

Tranny damage is expensive to fix, and it could fail at the worst time. I just did regular maintenance on mine, nothing special and it lasted till 226,000 miles before I had to have it rebuilt. $1,410 parts & $1,170 labor.

 

For what it is worth I just completed a 900 mile round trip from Mass to PA routes 84 to 81 (hilly, truck route). My fiver weighs 11k dry. So I guess that it is 14k or so loaded.

I ran the whole trip between 60 and 70 MPH. tranny temp never varied more than 15 degrees! On the worst of the grade I went a few miles in fifth, torque converter unlocked, tacking 2800 to 3000 RPM doing 60 MPH. Truck tows like a bear! Got just about 10 MPG coming back home, did not track it on the way down. That MPG includes a bit of idling, as I stopped more often than I like on the way home, and don't like to shut it down after running hard.

I must say that the Torqshift appears to be a great tranny!

 

I pull the eastern Sierras three times a year pulling a 31' 5er. 12 mile 6% grade out of Bishop, Ca. and usually in the mid to high 90's. Once into the grade I will pull her down into 3rd gear, tow/haul on of course, and set the cruise at 55 to 60 mph. She loves the exercise and never complains. The reason for 3rd gear is engine cooling to let the gears do the work, not the engine. Coming down the grade I also put her in 3rd with tow/haul. Engine will spin at app. 3400 rpm and I only have to use the brakes 3 or 4 times on the whole decent. This engine braking also keeps her in the 55 to 60 mph range. I have never seen the tranny temps higher than the 180's doing this. I do change the external filter and 8 qts. of fluid every 10,000 to 15,000 miles and hot flush at the 30,000 mile intervals. Your equipment is as good as your maintenance.

 

It seems to be an even split between slow and steady & full steam ahead so far.
I tend to go with the middle ground and use my common sense.
Climbs that I know are shorter I power up at a decent clip (50-55); when it gets steeper & longer I am down in 3rd gear down to 40-45.
I guess my big question is how hot (air temp) is to hot be out on the road & what grade is too much for sustained higher speed towing?
My Ford service manager says that speed equals more cooling air and that I am being to tender with the truck letting it drop down to 40-45 under any condition.
My truck is pure stock with newer head-gaskets & turbo; latest PCM/FICM update and only 67,000 miles.

 

Are you still asking a ? or agreeing? Can't tell from your last post.

 

I don't really think it matters either way as long as your EGT's and other temps are in check. With the 6.0's it seems like they like higher RPMs, inlines seem like they like to lug a bit more. If you tow a few times, you will find a spot that the truck likes to stay in.

 

So for those of us with Scangauges only, could someone provide the most crucial 4 readings to monitor and the danger zone for each?

 

On my scangauge I have the front four gauges set for;
1. Volts, min. 12.5 volts
2. tft max.220 degrees
3&4. ect/eot max spread 15 degrees on flat level road only. Hills and cresting don't count. Engine has to be thoroughly warmed up, 15 to 20 miles level highway, before the delta means anything.

 

What about boost? Is the analog gauge good enough? Where's the danger zone there?