So I'm on my way to South Carolina. I'm InArkansaw rightnow. Tommarowis the last day of driving. The trip so far as been uneventful. When we first started driving it felt like I was driving through mud. Then we stopped and I filled all of the tires to 65 and that fixed the problem. The trailer I was towing has two four wheelers a go cart and a grill. So far I have been able to tow in OD without it shifting very often. My question is what are the reasons to not tow in OD? Is it just that the tranny might search for gears? Or is there another reason.

Thanks for your help.

 

Towing in OD isn't recommended especially in a hilly area. If you find it downshifting a lot I would lock out the OD. I generally shift mine out of OD when climbing a hill even If I'm not towing.
but I don't have 3:92 gears like you do. That makes a big difference.

 

You dont tow in OD ... unless you want a new trans.. even in the manual says do not tow in OD...upside to this , you get new trans...

 

It's not particularly good for the torque converter to be popping in and out of lock up. and I'm pretty sure it's not good for it to be in lockup at all when you're towing something heavy.

 

So if it's not shifting at all then it's fine to tow in Od? I'm already getting the 1740 code but, I think it's just a ghunked uop govenor. My gas milage goes way down when I don't have the OD on.

I guess the big question is what is the downside of towing in OD. Is it that it might shift alot. Which in my case it is not. Or is it that there is something else going on?>

Thanks for your help again sorry about the typing I';lkl fix it after I wake up and have a little more sense.

 

I think I found the answer. If it's not gear hunting then your transmision will stay cooler in od. If it's gear hunting then it will heat up. It will run cooler in OD if It's not gear hunting then it will in third at 3000 RPM. I don't think that the trailer is that heavy really. I can have it in od and accelerate up hills with no problems at all. While im accelarating up hill it stays in the 4th gear around 2000-2500 RPM. I generally travel at 70-75 mph every now and then I speed up to 80 and it stays in 4th but this is usually flat or downhill grounds. i wish I had bought and installed the tranny temp gauge. Oh well. I'll be done tomarrow if the damn tornados stop in memphis. It's like we've been following all of the bad weather across the country. It started in Utah where we had the most snow I've seend in 10 years or so. Then is snowed all the way until we got to new mexco. today was decent weather until we got to arkansas when we finnaly decided to stop. As soon as we turned on the news we found out about all of the tornados in mephis wich is where we planned on staying tonaight.

 

its bad in any way to tow in OD.

 

Well I made it. I'm sitting in a cabin on lake hartwell. It's so nice to be done driving. We just barely missed the tornadoes in arkansass and tennesse. Everything went well. I drove mostly in OD unless it started to downshift alot. My biggest problem was the oil in the truck.Apparently even though I fixed the plenum it guzzels oil. I had changed the oil right before I left and I know it was full. When we were about an hour away from the SC boarder I hit the brakes for the construction in Georgia and my dash started to ding at me. When I looked down the light saying check gauges was on and I had no oil pressure. I let go of the brake and the oil pressure came back. So I pulled over and checked the oil and I was three QTs low. GRRRR. The day before I swore I heard a lifter click but then I though I was just being paranoid so I didn't check the oil then. So what do you all think I should check to make sure I havn't done any major damage. I obiously am going to be changing the oil very soon. What should I check to stop if from drinking oil? There isn't any white smoke coming out and I'm going to check the pleunum but, I doubt that is it. Anyways thanks for your guys help

Motorbreath, Why do you say towing in OD is bad all of the time. I kinda of figured it was only bad when the tranny was shiffting a ton.

P.S. I' going to fix my drunk posts

 

ah thats just what ive always been told.

 

If your running around2000 and above RPM's you should be ok. The trailer your pulling doesn't sound very heavy and with 3.92 gears, it shouldn't be straining on it too bad. Most with 3.55's are running 15-1800 RPM's and the engine/trans is barely in a power band so the trans is hunting to pick up speed with the engine barely over idle. Don't know about most, but my truck seems to start pulling good once it gets close to 2000 RPM's.
That oil consumption sounds bad. Would deffinately start looking for leaks, crankcase presure, etc.