Trans Temp

Driving around town my trans temp is normal around 175- 185 at the highest. However as soon as I make my way up to the local hill it starts working its way up to the 200 range until I turn overdrive off. It’s worse when trying to go fast up grades off-road. Highest I’ve seen in 225ish. Curious if this is common for these trucks and if this is reason for worry or if I care too much. No issues other wise but would like to keep it that way

 

That's pretty normal temps for these trucks. The hotter the fluid gets the shorter the life. Really, there is no such thing as too cool trans temps in my eyes as long as it's not turning to gel. Adding an external trans cooler can keep your temps down and save you from the strawberry milkshake.

 

Touching 225° is not a problem in itself. Running 225° for long stretches might be. Any time you are in over drive and the torque converter is not locked a lot of heat will be generated. That is why locking out OD helps. It is a lot easier for the TC to lock up in 3rd gear.

Do you have larger than stock tires? Are you running stock gearing? Both are contributing to this problem.

I highly recommend adding an aftermarket trans fluid cooler as a starting point.

https://www.trucool.com/EN/Products/Tru-Cool-LPD.aspx

 

This is what I have put on 2 of my vehicles and have had no issues. I have put all odds against this thing, a bunch of weight with 33's on stock gears with a sc pushing up a mountain and it never broke 200F. Probably overkill but you can always cover it with a cheapo cutting board. It's 11x11x3/4
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C3BBKS/

 

What do you measure the temp with?

 

The temp data is available through the OBDII port and there are several devices and apps that can read that data stream. Personally, I use a ScanGauge.