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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 10:49 AM
  #1  
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Tranny temps

what tranny temps are you guys seeing when you tow? i would like to understand how hot it gets so i have a point of reference.

thanks
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 12:29 PM
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First long tow with my new truck and I didn't pay much attention to it, just set the cruise and go. The only time I paid attention was when the actual numeric reading shoed above the gauge. I assume FORD does this to grab your attention. The highest I saw was 216* the gauge was still reading in the middle (I know its not accurate), but I come from a 6.0 so I'm used to monitoring everything. My 5er was right around 14.5K on that trip. I'm hoping what happened to me was normal as I didn't see that on a trip I took unloaded and for the record I haven't had time to read the owners manual yet.

Sarge
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 12:35 PM
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Highest I have seen was towing about 7,500 lbs up a 6% grade for 3 miles at about 60 MPH. 209 degrees, was the highest it hit.
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 01:23 PM
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Originally Posted by xETERNALx
Highest I have seen was towing about 7,500 lbs up a 6% grade for 3 miles at about 60 MPH. 209 degrees, was the highest it hit.
Did your truck display the numerics as well at that point? Im not sure what the threshold is for when the numerics come on and go off.

Sarge
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 01:33 PM
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Towing 20k I sit right around 207.
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 01:51 PM
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My '18 F450 regularly stays around 230-238° while towing our 5th wheel (33k combined weight). I'm in Colorado so lots of mountains. See similar temps running down I80 and I70 headed east however. The worst was actually headed west on I76 from Nebraska, the oil and transmission temps were stuck in the low 240s doing 75 up the very gradual climb.
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 01:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Sarge261
Did your truck display the numerics as well at that point? Im not sure what the threshold is for when the numerics come on and go off.

Sarge
~215* the display numbers appear

My truck hits north of 220* going up steep hills with no load.
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 06:09 PM
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65 MPH towing 4,500 lb. boat, bed filled with gear for 5, and 5 passengers, 97 degrees in FL (flat) 199 degrees trans temp. Motor oil temp 207 degrees.
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 07:13 PM
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Originally Posted by mgpsfan
My '18 F450 regularly stays around 230-238° while towing our 5th wheel (33k combined weight). I'm in Colorado so lots of mountains. See similar temps running down I80 and I70 headed east however. The worst was actually headed west on I76 from Nebraska, the oil and transmission temps were stuck in the low 240s doing 75 up the very gradual climb.
This is similar to my experience. Towing in the mountains stresses the system for sure. When my transmission hits 240° F I'm going to start looking for some place to pull off and let it cool down.
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 09:44 PM
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Originally Posted by mgpsfan
My '18 F450 regularly stays around 230-238° while towing our 5th wheel (33k combined weight). I'm in Colorado so lots of mountains. See similar temps running down I80 and I70 headed east however. The worst was actually headed west on I76 from Nebraska, the oil and transmission temps were stuck in the low 240s doing 75 up the very gradual climb.
Originally Posted by HRTKD
This is similar to my experience. Towing in the mountains stresses the system for sure. When my transmission hits 240° F I'm going to start looking for some place to pull off and let it cool down.
Hey guys...so when you are seeing temps that high what is the exterior temp? Are we talking summer temps over 95 degrees?

I’m headed to Utah through Colorado next summer towing my 11,500 lb TT and trying to figure out what to expect.

Thank you.

 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 09:52 PM
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I just did a trip from Houston to Jackson Hole towing my 5th wheel. With outside temps in the low 100s from Amarillo thru Grand Junction my temps only got as high as the 220s.
 
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Old Aug 14, 2018 | 11:16 PM
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While it seems that ambient temps would have a lot to do with what the gauges come up with--on my '17, have seen the temp numbers show up climbing grades at 65d and at 100d and the ambient temp doesn't seem to make much difference--what does seem to make the diff is if I let the truck stay in 6th too long--downshifting to 5th takes the temps right back down.
 
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Old Aug 15, 2018 | 12:24 AM
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I tried downshifting once, because I saw it work with my 1/2 ton truck. It didn't seem to help much on my F-350. I'm not saying it won't help, just that my one experiment didn't yield very good results.

Moving at speeds over 45 MPH seems to help also. The passive air flow helps. When I was coming up to the Eisenhower tunnel from the west side a couple weeks ago the traffic was heavy and slow, less than 20 MPH. It seemed like the temps were higher in that situation.
 
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Old Aug 15, 2018 | 06:57 AM
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Originally Posted by Sarge261
Did your truck display the numerics as well at that point? Im not sure what the threshold is for when the numerics come on and go off.

Sarge
Not that I saw. When I started the hill, I changed my main display to the numerical trans temp. I didn’t look at the gauge in the upper right.

I usually am at around 203. So I doubt 209 would be the thresh hold. That’s not a big increase.
 
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