1300 mile tow report

I tow in overdrive all the time. As long as your trans isn't gear hunting, it's not going to hurt the transmission. Heat kills transmissions

 

Thanks man, the panga is 22'10" it's called a 22. It's going to be our saltwater boat. It'll live at my Pop's house near the salty. I have a 1985 Montauk 17 that I've owned for about 15 years. I was going to sell it when we got the panga but I'm just wat too attached to it. I live two hours away from the salt so the whaler will be a lake and river boat now. No more towing it back and forth to the ocean like I've been doing for so many years. The curves of the panga remind me of the classic outrage "banana" hulls from the seventies.

 

Thanks for the input. It was a toss up between the Zuk and Yammy 115(the 150 is a lot heavier). The Zuk seems to be a better value and an extra 20hp or so is nice. The boat builder(panga marine) had nothing but good things to say about the Zuks. What hull do you run yours on?

 

Why the F were you towing almost 3000lbs behind a midsize truck at 75mph?

 

Because it's rated to tow 6500lbs and it was cruising just fine at 75mph?

 

Just because it can doesn't mean you should

 

Well, I guess I won't be going off-road any more. Thanks for helping out!

 

This has nothing to do with that, but everything to do with safely towing a trailer. 75mph is not a safe mph to tow anything, especially with a mid size truck. Stopping distance is greatly increased along with the higher likely hood of losing control of the trailer due to the need for an evasive move with the greater speed. I'm simply looking out for safety of OP and fellow motorist.

 

Well those are all valid points, so good job making a strong argument.. You could have lead with that.

 

Haven't had enough coffee this morning

 

Lol, yea I just realized I am out of coffee ... actually leaving to go get some right now.

 

I've had a full pot already, bout to fire up some more of the free dealership variety

 

I've had a couple of cups of coffee myself . First off let me say"this isn't my first rodeo." I'm 44, I've been towing boats and equipment trailers since I was 17. I've been rear ended at a red light by a guy who blacked out doing 60. Had to get cut out of that one. I've been in a bunch of wrecks as a pasenger, even a roll over, but I've never caused an accident myself. and I live in NY which has some the worst driver in the entire galaxy. My point being, I have pretty good judment, situational awareness and respect for motor vehicles.
As far as towing on I95 between NY and Florida. The speed limit is mostly 70mph and it's only two lanes in either direction, keeping pace is safer than becoming an obstacle that contanltly gets engulfed by packs of traffic and has tractor trailers riding two feet off your ass. As far as stopping distance goes, it's really only unsafe if the driver is naive and doesn't compensate by leaving a safe buffer out front (which I do) and has good situational awareness should the need for an evasive maneuver arise. I see no issue at all with the fact that the taco is a mis sized truck towing 3000lbs, it has excellent brakes, ABS and stability control (neither of which I rely on) and my tires are properly inflated, which is extremely important.
So while your concern is noted, I really don't believe it's valid in this case. If someone is not comfortable or experienced enough to tow at or near the speed of traffic, then perhaps they shouldn't. Just keep in mind, slower doesn't necessarily mean safer in all situations. There's a reason we now have maximum AND minimum speed limit signs on our highways.

 

Those max and min speed limits are for vehicles that aren't towing a boat for consideration. But hey you do what you do

 

He's only reaching half his rated weight. I see no issues. Some semis do 75mph and they weigh 80,000 lbs.

 

Lots of accidents could be avoided by a buffer (following distance)and situational awareness. OP did both.

 

Okay, wanted to learn some more stuff about automatics, so I searched on the YouTube the kids are all talking about ... good video here:



What I learned from this is that the only gear really correctly stated that input and output are locked together is the gear with 1:1 ratio, which for most 6 spd is the 4th gear from what I've gathered. Because that's the gear where input and output are locked with each other there are fewer gears spinning at different speeds (watch the video to see what happens in 5th and 6th, lots more spinning), so there is less friction heat being generated.

So, less friction, plus more rpm causing the pump to flow more fluid through the cooler = happier transmission while towing.

 

i think most people who rip on people doing 75 with a trailer don't actually tow, or tow in places that are completely different from most.

 

I'll agree with this. As I've mentioned many times on this forum, I towed about 3,000lbs in an enclosed trailer in my automatic '16 TRD Sport 4x4 from Denver to San Francisco, and after I hit 1,000 miles on the odometer (or was it 1,100 miles?) of 55mph that was recommended in the owner's manual for breaking in the engine (you're allowed to tow after the first 600 miles I believe), I was routinely hitting 75mph. Truck performed just fine, and honestly had zero issues.

Many people are only concerned with how much they can pull with their trucks, but you also have to factor in the terrain and elevation, grades, etc.

The single one thing most people fail to account for is sure, you're truck may be able to pull a ton of weight, but how long will it take for you to STOP with all that weight behind you? And even more important if you're towing in the mountains and going down passes. This is where things can get really sketchy if you don know what you're doing. I'm no expert on towing by any stretch of the imagination, but I have towed a couple open and closed trailers across the country more than once. I've actually weighed each object, calculated my tongue weight and packed the trailer accordingly to have the proper tongue weight and load distributed properly, and given myself way more of a window for braking. I have never had any issues, mishaps, near misses or scary moments, and really attribute that to common sense and preparation.

 

I don't follow, only in a 1-1 (direct drive) gear do the input and output shafts spin at the same speed. In lower gears (1-2-3) the input shaft spins successively faster than the output shaft as you shift to a numerically lower gear. 5th is overdrive where the output shaft spins faster than the input shaft.

The main issue is to have the torque converter locked. If it is up-shifting and down-shifting this is not happening, and the TC really heats the oil due to the slippage it intentionally introduces to make shifting less damaging. If you want hot fluid, hold the brake and stamp on the accelerator to run the engine up to stall speed. Temps will climb _in a hurry_. And the output shaft is not moving at all. Another source of much heat is the bands used to shift the gears. Just like brake shoes. The bands have to clamp down on the ring gear to freeze it so that the planetary/sun gears are used to drive the output. More heat.

The part about the oil pump is spot on. The faster the input shaft spins, the higher the oil flow, which helps with cooling. But you don't want all the shifting as you get heat from multiple sources. And since everything is steel, it takes time to wick the heat away from the gears, through the fluid, and out into the air via the tranny oil cooler(s).