i am wondering if i should pull a 7000 lbs travel trailer on the interstate in o/d or not. i have a 2002 fx4 supercrew with a 5.4. all stock except duel exhaust. and at transmision.

 

If it's hunting, shut it off. If it's not shifting from OD and back, then leave it on.

Generally, if you're towing and it's flat, you can leave the OD on. But I didn't realized you said you'll be pulling 7k lbs. Most will suggest you leave OD off, because the manual says so; if the load is over 3,000 (?) lbs. I haven't looked though. Do you have the tow package or just a hitch?

 

i have the tow package.

 

First thing is I bet you are towing over the trucks legal limit.
Even in high gear setting, the OD won't stay engaged if the load is to heavey.
Throttle position and rpm dictate what will happen to the OD.
I'm not trying to pick a dissagreement but you need to find the basis for how much weight you can pull with your truck.
Basicly it's your truck's weight minus the "max gross combined weight rating" for your truck that determins the legal weight you may pull.
Example; Suppose your truck weighs 6000 lbs and your rated max gross combined is 12,000 lbs. This leaves you with 12,000 - 6000 or a max trailer weight of 6000 lbs.
If your truck weighs more with passengers and luggage and/or bed load, then the towing weight is even less.
My experience towing is a trans out of OD will heat up more than if you pull a hill in a lower gear with higher engine rpm.
It is a matter of running the trans in lockup which is not the same as OD.
In lock-up there is no fluid shear to generate extra heat so the trans runs cooler.
I tow at GCW of as much as 12,000 with a 4.6, gaging, extra cooling and know how it goes with pulling a trailer at about 6000 lbs.
My Gross combined rating is 11,600 lbs.
Reason I bring this up is few really understand towing requirements and just look at the first weights they see or are told, which dosn't tell the whole story.
Many prople are told by an RV dealer they can tow but find out later that they bought too big a trailer. An RV dealer cannot be relied on for that info since they donot know each trucks weight limits. You must know all this before you tow correctly.
It's not a matter of who tows what and gets away with it.
Good luck.

 

the book and internet said that the limit was 7600 lbs

 

I towed that kind of weight with my '01, and you will definitely want to turn the overdrive off. Most likely it would only shift into OD going down hills or occasionally on extremely flat ground. Constantly locking/unlocking the torque converter and constantly shifting between 3rd and 4th is hard on the transmission. You should be doing about 2500 rpm on the interstate with OD off, which won't hurt a thing.

 

What kind of milage did you get with that on the interstate

 

Hahaha. To be totally honest, I don't really remember the exact number. It wasn't very good, I remember that much. If I had to guess, I would say anywhere from 7-10mpg. Sorry I don't have a better answer. Gas was cheaper then, so it wasn't a huge concern of mine at the time.

If you think there might be a fuel mileage advantage to leaving OD on, with that kind of load there won't be. It wouldn't spend enough time in OD to make a difference.

 

Mike, check on your max gross combined weight for your 'equippage', then subtract your truck's weight and you will have your allowed weight.
Don't just take what you read somewhere.
You maybe correct and maybe not. It pays to know because you might be pulled into a weigh station some time and get a suprise.
At least look at the sticker on the door jamp and add up the axle weights, then add your 'known' trailer weight to see what your gross combined weight max could be according to the loading.
If you tow less than the trailer rated weight and within the GCW, then all is well at that point.
Just trying to alert everyone that towing weight has more to it than simple advertisiment states.
After all a sale is important to a company with honesty coming in second.
Good luck in any event.

 

Hey Bluegrass, unless he carries his trailer in the bed of his truck , I think you got it wrong. What you are talking about is the max weight the truck can carry itself. The amount it can tow is a bigger number. Lets say for example you are rated to tow 7,000 lbs, but you have 500 lbls of people and gear in the truck itself, you must deduct that from the max amount you can tow-- 7,000-500=6,500 lbs.
The way you figure it, you would not be able to tow more than 1,500 lbs or so. I see alot of F-150's towing more than that!!
Chris

 

No, Bluegrass is right.

For example my truck in my sig when it had 3.55s my max combined weight of my truck and trailer is 12,700lbs, last time I had my truck weighed at the scrap yard I was around 4900-5000lbs. So 12,700-4900lbs would leave me with a max legal trailer weight of around 7800lbs.

To add another twist to the max trailer weight of 7800lbs, you must have trailer brakes and a weight distrubuting to tow over 5000lbs.

To answer op question, tow out of od. If the rpms are too high slow down, with a trailer that big you shouldnt be going fast anyway. Also do you have a weight distrubuting hitch and trailer brakes?

 

He is right. He's talking about GCVWR and you're talking about GVWR. You have to figure in tongue weight though so you don't go over your GVWR before you max out GCVWR.

I'd like to know if he has 3.55 or 3.73 gears. The general consensus is that if the tranny will stay in OD most of the time, leave OD on. If it hunts, OD off. I'd have to think that it wouldn't spend much time in OD on anything but flat areas like Florida.

There is no physical harm in towing with OD on as long as it isn't constantly shifting.

Mike

 

So you see some have to learn the difference between Gross vehichle weight and Gross Combined weight. Big difference.
To continue, there are other factors involved I have not mentioned.
For instance, a 5000 lb truck being 'pushed' by a 7000 + trailer; not a good thing.
If you look up trailer law in some states, you get a good education on all the items that can be used in any given circumstance, to look at your conditions.
Find out the 'specific' truck's gross cpmbined weight rateing and figure from that point.
Do not tell me what others are towing and what you have seen; it does not answer the question, as they may also 'not' be awhere of the factors limiting trailer weight.
It amounts to the blind leading the blind when you do that.
I brought this discussion up so that some of you will hear that it is not that simple and to take a closer look.
As far as hunting gears, again it is not true hunting but controlled shifting by the PCM.
Remember the trans has no ability to decide what gear to shift to because the PCM does all it's controlling via inputs from throttle position sensing, speed sensors and in some cases intake vacuum, to operate the electric valves, lockup and overdrive functions.
Stick with the way thing operate and not with only what you 'think' happens.

I'm not saying anyone is towing over weight but suspect it when 7000 + lbs is mentioned being towed by an F150. Remember gross weight includes everything, gas, passengers, luggage, RV vehichles, food, water,everything over the dry weight of the trailer and the truck, whatever the total load case may be.
Said another way, sure the truck can pull the high weight but is it safe and legal to others on the road?
Have a trans failure under warrenty pulling weights over the trucks limit and see what happens at the dealer.

Good luck to everyone.

 

My father in law wants to tow a 5000 lb trailer with my 2003 F-150 XLT(V-6 automatic). I'm not sure if I have the 3.31 or 3.55 axle ratio, which will determine if he can tow that much weight with my truck. The higher ratio would allow him to tow the trailer (5500 lb max), while the lower ratio would not (4500 lb max). I'm away from home (i.e. out of state), so I can't look up my owner's manual or truck info readily to determine the max towing capability of my truck. My truck does have an aftermarket Class IV hitch and integrated brake system installed, but I don't know if that makes a difference. He's towing a double axle camping trailer. Any help in figuring out what axle ratio I have would be appreciated.

 

Must look on the truck's driver's side front door jam area for the sticker and note the axle code.
Since the axle ratio is an option at the factory per the equippage, it is stamped on that sticker when the truck was built..