Labor Day weekend I hitched up the 34' fifth wheel and headed to the Black Forest Campground, right near Brevard, NC. It was gonna be a 4 hour trip from where I live in SC, and I had the trailer loaded decently and weighing right at 11,000 lbs. There are a couple decent 6-8% grades in that area, and I honestly was a tad nervous. It was my first pull outside a fifty mile radius of my house, and the first one with any decent hills.

Well, in the flats I had my cruise set at 67mph. I just sat in the right lane and eased on down the highway. I had several PSD guys blow by me. I wasn't in a race and didn't really care. I have no desire to mix it up with the cars and light trucks. My combination was absolutely rock solid. No sway. Then the hills started! My dark green machine kicked down, and got serious. On one decent 8% grade, I sat at roughly 4,200rpm and was flat getting it. I grinned. Man I grinned! Never even thought about dropping below 60mph, although I had taken off the cruise due to traffic.

Going down the hills, the tranny really did it's job. Light taps on the brake pedal would cause a gear kickdown, and more nice growling from the engine.

At the campground, the gravel roads were pretty steep. I had enough weight on the pin that the tires never thought about slipping. I just moved steady and slow and let the V10 do its job. I was BSEG'ing bad now. Made the back-up on the first try.

Woke up the next morning to the typical obnoxious diesels running around the campsite. Directly across from my site one truck started up nice and quiet. He eased away from his site. Big ol' V10 emblem on it...

The trip home was uneventful! I stopped at a rest area and my better half made some grub. Life is peachy!

If anyone is wondering, I got 8.7mpg on the trip up, and 9.1mpg coming back. That far surpassed my expectations! I do tend to drive conservatively, but I have noooo problem letting those rpms stay around 4k to get me up and over the humps...

This truck rocks!

Michael

 

Sounds like the perfect trip--- uneventful!

 

I love it when my truck pulls 4000 plus RPMs hauling my toys up hills!

 

There is somthing about the sound of a V10, at 3000+ giving out a grut going up a hill that is just intoxicating!

 

I can't wait - I've been itching to tow with my '01 Ex, 4x4, v10 since I got a few weeks ago. I traded in a '00 F150, 4x4, 5.4l and it towed my 6500 lbs travel trailer well and only struggled on steep inclines - but everything I'm hearing about this v10, I should be cruising along like there's nothing behind me at all.

Our next trip is planned for the first weekend in October, just a little over 2 weeks away. Nice short trip, headding to the foothills - but it should be a good test run.

I only have one burning question - how well are the stock tranny coolers that come with the v10's? Are they sufficent enough to control temps while towing? I looked at it (the best i could) and it appears be a nice size - although I'm concerned that the location (behind the bumper) will not allow for sufficent air flow.

I know on my f150 the cooler was, IMHO, too small and didn't control the temps very well. I ended up adding a TruCool LPD cooler this past spring (I wish I had taken it off before trading) and that did a much better job. I did get my tranny temp guage from the f150, but i have get a new sending unit or before i can install it in the Ex.

 

Mark Moore

I tend to recommend an Aux add in cooler for the 99-04 with the 4R100 trans but in your case it probably is not going to be an issue

You have two trans coolers already one is a fluid to fluid in the radiator and then the fluid to air one in front of the radiator, I think you are looking at the power steering cooler below and behind the bumper

An 2001 2v V10 4R100 EX should pull a 6500 pound trailer package like it is not even there if you have the bias set correctly on your electric brake controller

Relax, and enjoy a fun trip with the family

The only time you need to be concerned with the trany temps for that load is when you are backing the trailer and spend too much time jocking back and forth with a pain in the butt ground guide that can not give good hand and arm signals...this can cause the trans to super heat (no air flow) and you are too distracted to see the funky idiot gage until it is too late...

 

Fredvon4
You referenced the one I was talking about - yes the PS cooler is directly behind the front bumper, I didn't mean that one. I was referring to the larger cooler that is between the condenser and radiator - that is the tranny cooler and it is still positioned (relatively speaking) behind the bumper as well.

Thanks for your reply. Now I can relax for now and get the temp guage on later.

Mmmm, sounds like you are speaking from personal experience

 

Mark Moore
My experience with the stock cooler has been good so far the highest I have ever went up to is 215 pulling Eisenhower pass in Colorado going east, pulling my 5ver and boat grossing at 22.5K I was down to 25 MPH in low so there wasn't much air over the cooler. On our trip out west for the winter we went through road contraction going into east Yellowstone at 10 and 15 MPH up steep grades and it still never when over 200 and that was grossing 23600 without the boat. I'm also running Mobil 1 tranny fluid so I don't have to worry about the heat as much but at 17 quarts its a little $$ for a changeover.

Denny