I'm going to be pulling an unloaded car trailer from Atlanta to Virginia soon. I will be returning to ATL with a car on it. The car trailer is one of those 4 wheel flatbed jobs. Should I tow with overdrive off with just the trailer (and two passengers)? I'll definitely have overdrive off for the trip back. Also, any way to keep overdrive from turning on when restarting the truck? I don't want to forget.


The good thing is, the car trailer has it's own brakes. I'm running with full syn 5W-30. Recently replaced diff fluid. Tranny fluid replaced a year ago. Truck has heavy duty tow pkg with large tranny cooler up front.

 

My school of thought, whenever towing anything, OD off. Thats just me though. Probably not a way to keep it off on restart. Thats what post-it notes are for....

 

Thanks, I had already thought about the post it note. LOL

 

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it with an empty trailer. If it starts going in and out of OD, then turn it off.

 

What Tom A said. The tranny will send you signals if it isn't happy. Even with the car on the trailer let the tranny decide. If it goes into OD and stays, then leave it alone. Can't hurt anything unless it's always hunting. At least you have the 4.7. My 3.9 loves to drop in and out whenever I run in hilly terrain. Not excessively, but it sometimes gets annoying. And that's only with 2 people aboard and no trailer.

Besides, VA to GA is downhill anyway~~~

 

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I've decided to play it safe and run with O/D off, going and coming. It will burn more gas, but gas is cheaper than a 545RFE. It will also rev higher, but the 4.7L is made to rev.
Thanks again.

 

You got that right....my Dak was a screamer.

 

My truck likes OD off so well I keep it off on errand day and its not as likely to get that 70 in a 55 ticket from sneaking up on ya....

 

Well, I'm ready for my trip. The trailer is tandem axle and belongs to a family member. All these years, he's been under the impression that his trailer was braking when towing. Well, he didn't have a brake controller, so it couldn't have been. I ended up installing one which I plugged into a port under the drivers side dash. Lucky thing I have the factory tow package, so it was all plug and play and a little velcro. Won't be towing much so I got this cheap unit.

 

I never had an OD issue when dragging my 3000 pound boat and trailer behind my '02 Durango 4.7 SLT for 5 years. My previous 1700 pound boat towed like nothing was back there. It did not have the factory tow package. You should have no problem with an empty trailer at all.
Now the return will be a little different!