I drive a motorhome on the 2016 F53 chassis with 6-speed transmission and tow/haul. I also use Torque Pro to monitor engine/transmission operation via OBDII data provided using a Bluetooth dongle to the Torque Pro app on my phone. This data drives unique custom gauges beyond what stock gauges provide. With tow/haul, it's difficult at times to know what gear the trans. is in. On my 2004 F53, I was able to have a numerical gauge in Torque Pro to show what gear I was operating in (1-4). On the 6-speed, I don't have a working PID that enables a similar gauge. Does anyone have a working gauge for Transmission Gear on the 6-speed? Or does anyone have the knowledge (I don't) of what data is available thru the OBDII data link connector that would enable tracking this discrete? Thanks.

 

I don't know what the dash looks like in your motorhome but on the trucks when you press the up button on the shifter hen in drive and it will display the gears and current gear current gear will be highlighted orange.

 

In the F53 the dash is very basic. All the gauges are strictly analog and there is no up button for the transmission. It's basically you shift to drive and then you go. That's the beauty of the Torque Pro app on your smartphone or in my case I have a tablet that I project the gauges on. And I have quite a few gauges that I monitor on a continuous basis, one being engine coolant temperature, another being transmission fluid temperature plus the normal gauges like MPH, RPM and the like. Having an indicator of what gear I am in would also be very helpful in the motorhome especially in hills we're gearing and RPMs are very important. And finally one other set of gauges that I would really like to have and I can't find PIDs for are EOT and oil pressure. It's interesting that oil pressure is not available because there in fact is a gauge in the dash for oil pressure, but I don't know if it's a smart gauge or not. So I'm just trying to find out if anybody else has experienced with Torque Pro on the F53 motorhome especially the 2016 model which I would presume has greater capability for data communication, to see if there's something I might be able to add to my set of gauges. Thanks.

 

I understand the appeal of having gauges that read live data unfortunately the oil pressure gauge on the dash is just a switch that tells the gauge to read normal at 7psi so it's a dumb gauge as far as I know there isn't and never was an oil temp sensor on any v10 from the factory. Like I said I don't know what the dash looks like in your motor home nor was I aware that the 6spd torque shift came with out the up and down shift / lock out option in any application as even the most basic. Xl work trucks will show the current gear and give you the ability to lock out gears and shift manually if you want or need too. Out of curiosity could you upload a picture of the dash. I'm sure someone will be along soon that is more fimilar with the f53.

 

I didn't even know the 6r140 came behind the v10. I thought they were still using the 5r110, but I haven't been paying much attention, either.

What a great drivetrain combination that must be.

No +/- toggle on the gear shifter? What an over site on fords part - not surprised, but disappointing nonetheless.

Subscribing to learn.

 

Mike, thanks for your interest. If I do this correctly, attached you will find a Word document with excerpts from the 2016 Ford Super Duty Class A Motorhome Owner's Manual regarding the dash "Information Display", information re: the transmission, and finally a picture of the dash with an illustration of the same immediately below. I hope this helps to illustrate my desire for additional instrumentation. If you have any ideas to help, they will be graciously accepted. Thanks.

 

You attached it correctly, but my phone wont open it correctly. I'll check it out on a laptop later.

Without seeing it, I'm guessing it is much like my 2010 f150 at work, where you have PND321, and thats it. Ford will tell you to use tow/haul and not worry about what gear you are in. If you need to gear down at the top of a hill, just pull the lever down to 3, then 2 or 1 if needed. Clearly, this is not ideal for everyone.

I will say, though, you can pull it all the way down to 1 at any speed you want, and rye PCM will keep you from doing anything too dumb. I've tried it

Looking forward to learning more about what gauges you will be able to bring up.

 

I should add, with regard to my looking for a transmission gear PID, that I previously owned a 2004 F53 chassis motorhome (2-vlv V10, 3-spd plus OD) on which I could get the OBDII data to drive a transmission gear gauge. As electronically driven as this new F53 is (and you are correct that this is a great engine-transmission combination) there ought to be a PID for it as well. I just haven't found it or a source of where to look. Any OBDII communication gurus out there? Thanks

 

Thanks Mike. In my case, its PND421, but yes, pretty much as you indicated. Having the 6 gears on this coach is so much better than before as the engine is much better able to stay in its optimal power band, and then get into and stay in the next gear up once revs have recovered enough to allow it. In the old 3-spd, I could get to the next gear up in many cases, but the RPM change was so much (nearly 1000 RPM), that many times it couldn't hold the gear and it would drop back down again. It was either screaming in 2nd gear, or bogged down in 3rd. So I'd have to keep it in 2nd and back off the throttle a bit to not abuse the engine. Spend a lot of time in the lo 40's (MPH) out West playing that game.