I bought my truck new and have never used it much 28k so far. I pull a small 5th wheel camper 23ft 7200 gross gvw. Last summer I headed out west on vacation. I usually travel as a single family all loaded in one vehicle and since I am on vacation I travel out of od at 2500 rpm. This time I was traveling with my brother he had a new super duty with a 6.0 and the torque shift. Everyone has always give me heck about not pulling in od so I told him to lead out and set the pace I followed pulling in od as we going 65 plus mph. The trip was short in 100 miles the od light started winking. I pulled over and shut down, called a friend that was ase master certified he said let it cool and drive on if the fluid looks ok and smells ok. I drove about 100 miles out of od and had a ford delership check it out he said 3-4 shift interuption most likely due to heat, enjoy your trip stay out of od. I finished my 3500 mile trip but the od wink remained on my mind. I never did anymore to it but now am affraid to go out with it, what do I do, what do you folks think. Is there underlying damage? Do a good service and ignore. Sell it? This thing has been garaged and has done near zero daily driving 20k of the 28 k has been done pulling the camper mentioned above. I figured to be a 10 commitment when I bought and really don't want or can affort to start another payment book. Sorry for the long post but this has been on my mind for nearly a year and I am more of a lurker than a poster. Thanks for any help SN

 

I tow a 28 foot tag a long with a slide and always use overdrive. Tow a good bit futher than 100 miles and camp in the mountians. Never had any problems. I think a flashing OD light means there is a code and you can have the code read and cleared. Is you tranny fluid ok? smell? color?

 

Thanks for the resposne, you echo what every ford sd owlner in every camp ground has echo's pull in over drive unless it is bouncing in and out. The fluid looked and smelled great. The ford dealership said they had no fear of the fluid and thought it looked great for 25k. Meaning no sign of ever being warm. I am really bummed out and don't know what to do this truck was bought to take my family o trips now I don't trust it to go out on long hauls.

 

Is everything else working right and is it shifting right? Did the dealer read your codes?

 

Yes the dealer read the code and cleared it. It showed shift interuption 3-4. The winking light went out as soon as I shut down and let cool and restart. My temp guage never moved from the normal zone not even a hand width. The fluide looked good smelled good and the dealer gave it a clean bill of health. The truck ran and shifted fine the rest of the trip and is still doing fine. My ase mechanic I called said it went to limp mode and shut off od to protect it from heat. But the heat never showed. The hick up just shook my confindence. I was going to do a service on the trans before this summers use. I was thinking drain and pull pan to look for debris. Then hook it up to a transflush machine we have here at the vocational school I teach at. I want to be sure it gets a good flush and filter change all depending on what the first pan drop shows for particulants in the pan. Thoughts. I really appreciate your advice, I figured I would be run over with ideas or insults. Maybe should have posted in the diesel forum, or called the truck a piece of crap but I wasn't looking for a flaming just good advice or other experience in od pulling. Thanks SN

 

One thing you can do to eliminate the heat factor. Install a aftermarket tranny temp gauge. Do NOT trust the dash gauge. The aftermarket gauge will give you actual temp numbers to diagnose your problem. They are very easy to install. On our trannys, there is an inspection port on the driver's side right above the pan that the temperature sensor screws right into. No worries about installing into cooler lines, or the pan, etc.

Here's a link to help visualize:

3-Gauge Install Pictures

Normal operation temps vary with ambient temps but a general rule of thumb is for your tranny fluid to be 60-100 degrees over ambient temps with 225 degrees being your red-line. If you start climbing over that, look for a spot to pull over and your truck in high-idle to lower the temp.

If you see that you are having high temp problems, you can install a bigger trans cooler up front (the tranny coolers from 6.0 PSD's) are much, much bigger and are almost a direct swap - you need some adapter cooler line fittings from Home Depot or Lowes - but it will bolt up to the original location physically.

If the problem still persists, you may have internal tranny issues. Then again, you are hauling a good size load and working the tranny pretty hard. BTW, I tow in OD unless I'm in the hills or climbing a pass.

On edit: saw that you are hauling a smaller 5'er - I misread your OP. In that case you are still got a load there but not maxing the truck out. I have a similar sized 5'er and not had any problems BUT I upgraded my unit. Good luck

 

Sounds like it just burped. Doubt you got a problem. It could be from any number of things, but if you would feel better then by all means flush it. At 28k it shouldn't need it, but it won't hurt. As far as towing in OD, the general thought here is if it will pull it and not jump around a bunch, then pull it in OD. I really think you will be OK to hook and go.

 

Maybe think about full syn. tranny fluid too...

 

I am thinking a full flush just for saftey sake and full sythetic is good upgrade. I would like to upgrade to a bigger cooler. Seems like dearborn screwed me over. It was built to tow but they left out the needed pieces required to do a good job. And how others are puling in od when mine went limp mode in 100 miles in flat Kansas is really a mystery. But its what I am stuck with so flush and hope for the best. Thanks for the input. SN

 

since most of you miles are towing I would change and flush the trans
I would also suggest a cooler and an accumilator from John Wood or BTS,I also like my DP tow tune

 

Tell me of the accum from bts. What is it what does it do over the stock unit? I have felt a cooler, larger cooler was needed. I am not opposed to spending a little money on upgrades. I just dont want to put 3-5 k into the trans on a truck that is 5 years old and only went 28k before it starte,d getting sick. Thanks to all for the advice. I think this summer will likely be a lake summer vs 3-5 k trip summer, fuel is plenty high and sick little ones have ate up vacation days. That does give me some time to upgrade and try it out close to home where a break down would only be slaight bummer instead of major bummer. Thanks SN

 

the accumalator is basically a shift kit with everything properly machined,it will help with the laggy shifts of the 4r100 and also changes shift time as well as torque lockup
this makes for less heat which is a trans killer and less wear on clutches
the cost for part is a little over $250 and easily installed
I prefer the Jonh Wood accum because it is shipped the way he wants it and no adjustments