I've towed smaller boats all of my life... now I'm moving up to towing a travel trailer - 32'. Question: I've got a 97 F350, crew, 4X4, longbed, diesel. It came with an Edge tunner installed. What other options should I do this truck before I head south from Alaska to travel the lower 48? tranny cooler? pyro temp gauge if I choose to program my tunner for tow, race, or extreme (should I use this product?), synthetic oils for tranny or differential.
I'm looking for things I can do now before I leave in 2 months.. I'll be traveling during the hot months.
Oh ya, the trailer weighs 7300 #s.
I know there are a lot of questions but after reading through many posts I see there are people out there willing to offer helpful ideas.
thanks,
Bristrew

 

If you use syn, be sure to make sure it is diesel rated. Some of the diesels, especially the newer Fords use the engine oil to actuate/lubricate the injectors. Regular engine oil will foam under this kind of operation, not good.

If your truck has the factory ATF cooler installed(about 12x7 from wild guess memory) it should be fine for most towing at least that is what a tranny shop told me. I have a 250 E4OD with factory cooler with an 8,000# trailer and a temp gauge. When I towed a few weeks ago in 70-80 degree weather with some hills, it never got above about 200. Most of the time it was around 180. I haven't really paid a lot of attention to the gauge in the past, but next week and later this summer I will keep notes on my trip thru eastern Oregon's Blue mountains. Should be 100 in the summer and the mountains slow me down to maybe 40mph for maybe 20 minutes. So it will be interesting to keep track of temps. If the temps go much over 220 for prolonged periods I plan to add another cooler that I have had sitting in the garage and then keep track of temps. You don't want to over cool a tranny(usually a winter problem) but heat will kill it faster.

I have 35K miles on my rebuilt tranny and I forgot to change the ATF as recommended. Still the dino based ATF was fine when I changed it to syn last month. No burnt smell, good color, no excess particles etc. So even though I went probably double miles that I should have, lots of it towing my trailer, things looked good. I would guess my temperatures probably spiked a few times in the past over 220, but probably for short periods. On my truck it seems to take a long time(hour+?) at freeway speed before the temps get over maybe 130(maybe never in winter). Then they stabilize around 170-180(towing) unless I hit some hills. Then it spikes to maybe 200 and then cools down in a few minutes after getting out of the hills.

One other thing, bring lots of money. Gas and diesel ain't cheap.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

Thanks!
There is a small radiator in front of the big one on passenger side, power steering or tranny? Just saw it this morning while in work clothes.

 

Trace the lines back. I would guess powersteering. An engine oil cooler is usually about the size of the ATF cooler. I don't recall seeing a small cooler besides the tranny cooler on my 94 F250 with tow package.

Or I may be misreading your post. Do you mean there is a cooler infront of the engine water radiator? If so then that probably is the tranny cooler. Once again trace it back. If it is a tranny cooler, it probably traces back into the side tank of the water radiator and then to the tranny. The side tank has a tranny cooler too, at least on most autos.

On a diesel, the engine oil may also have a cooler, I don't know about diesels.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

There is an oil cooler, but it's not a radiater type cooler and isn't located at the front of the truck.

 

It's an oil to water cooler mounted on the block in the 6.9 and 7.3 series diesels.

 

I had a 1997 F-350 CC LB SRW 4x4 auto tranny with the 460 and 3.55 gears. I pulled my 32' TT (8000#) with it on a couple of 1000 mile round trips. On a few of the long hills (between Fairbanks and Nenana) the check engine light came on. I figured it was because the transmission was overheating (no tranny temp. gauge). Pulled over in a rest area pull out and let the tranny cool off and the light went out. I asked the service department about this and they though high tranny temp also. I never had them scan for codes, probably should have though. Sold this truck at 90,000 miles, and the new owner has over 115,000 miles now with never a tranny problem. Just lucky???

Your diesel should have 3.73 gears (assume you have SRW) and will do better on the hills, but you may want a tranny temp gauge. If you are going to run your tuner, you should definately think about an EGT gauge (pyrometer). I'm planning on adding a 3 gauge pillar pod with pyro, boost, and tranny temp. gauges to my new 2004 F-350 with the 6.0.

BTW, I'll be towing my 32 TT down to Anchorage on June 2nd and staying at the Anchorage RV Park. Don't know if I will have my gauges installed before then though. I also contacted Advance Diesel Service in Anchorage about Stanadyne DFA and found out that the sell and install gauges if you don't feel like installing them yourself. I can't vouch for their work though. I'm planning on buying from MotorHaven and installing mine myself.