Hey guys, I am not saying that all ford trannys are like mine but that was my experience. Mine went at 38,000 miles. I am sure that the weight I haul was not good for it at all with the Extra HP. My rig--that is truck and trailer combined weight is 24,000 lbs. To check out the ATS tranny's go to www.ATSDIESEL.com They have diffrent stage packages for diffrent stages of driving. I do believe all the trannys are set up the same just depending on the stage package as to what extras come with the tranny! Our's has a deep belly pan 5-star torgue lock converter and ATS copilot. And yes the color that they are on the website is the same color when it arrives. Mine was a $5,000 dollar setup but it is a little price to pay for peace of mind while driving down the highway!!

 

thanks rodeo, bd, what kind of things have you experienced, I am big believer in the "maintenance, maintenance, maintenance" comment, have you done any mods on the trans, like the over sized pan?

 

The first thing that I experienced when the filter got plugged up was that when I went from a stop sign and began to accelerate usually you will notice that the tranny will go through the gears as usuall, but when it got to overdrive it slipped back into the previous gear and then back into overdrive. (watch your RPM's) By the time I reached the highway it was only giving me 2nd and 3rd gear. I checked diagnostics and the code basicly said the the truck was giving me "limp home mode". Mechanic told me I should be able to get another 20,000 to 30,000 out of it but it only lasted another 150-180 miles. Overdrive blew up while pulling a hill---that sure was a suprise!! Also before I blew the OD on a really hot day you could see the trans temp rising and when it got around 200-210 the OD sharted to do the ole slip in slip out thing again. I haul an average of anywhere from 400 to 1000 miles a weekend and I could not be having that happen so out went the old and in with the new. One thing that our Mechanic said was that the deep transmission pan that came with the tranny was the best built he had ever seen!! I do believe it holds an extra 6-8 QT's of trans fluid over the stock pan. I am not 100% sure but I do believe you can buy just the pan from ATS. Another thing that probably would have helped our tranny was that with the newer chips you can adjust shift firmness and shift timing under load. This would cause less overall wear due instead of sliding in to the next gear like a car would it would shift real firm. (our truck actually jolts when our tranny shifts on certain gears with the Co-Pilot.) Hope this helps--- I would recommend that if you keep running the stock tranny than maybe a deeper oil pan would be in order and deffinately a Temp guage!!

 

Bob, you got a lot of responses and discussion about pulling capacity and tranny issues, all no doubt important. However, by dropping down a gear or so you can pull a house down the road if you try, but stopping it is another story. First, be sure that trailer has good and maintained brakes, and the brake controller does a good job of applying them. Second, consider one of the available converter lockup/exhaust brake combinations which are available; that will save you a lot of brake wear. Finally, I've seen too many conventional trailers which put so much weight on the hitch that the trailer is nose down and the the truck tail down. Put an equalizing hitch on the thing to level it out and stabilize it. A fishtailing trailer going down a hill is a frightening thing. If you still have a choice, go with a 5th wheel which is much more stable and puts the tongue weight where it belongs; right over the rear axle.
Good luck
Warren

 

warren, there were a lot of good points made. I think I am going to go with the equalizing hitch. I cannot do the 5th wheel because I have about 2k of tools in the back with a cap. I don't usually drive very fast with a trailer, or even without one. But they all have good brakes. I have 8 now, all for different purposes. The 12k is the heaviest. My bike trailer loaded is just under 10k. All the rest are lighter. But all maintained.

My concern all along has not been the truck or the engine, but the trans. Since I have arthritis, I have automatics. I didn't want to overload the truck to the point of toasting the trans. I talked to BTS and am going to get a valve body and bigger pan.

Thanks for all the help.

 

bdrummonds is right. You don't have to baby these rigs, but you've got to do the maintenance. The key is the fluid and how temperature affects its life.

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Austin