I know towing questions have been beat to death, but I am curious about others experience while towing out of overdrive. I tow a 2 horse trailer which is about 2000 # with 2 horses weighing 1100 each. Add 600#s in tack and passengers I'm at almost 5000 #s. The truck has the factory tow package with external trans cooler so its set up for this weight. My concern is that at 60 mph I run at about 2500 rpm. 65 pushes it too 2800 rpm. Is running at these higher rpms safe, or am I pushing too hard for say a 100 mile long trip.

 

Your engines Redline (RPM at which it starts destroying itself) is 5000 RPM. Cruising at 2200-2800 is just fine. Sure, gas mileage suffers, but, a bit of gas is a lot cheaper than the new trans you would need if you towed in overdrive.

 

a good option would also be to upgrade your gears, that will help with the rpms, and gas milage

 

No problem as long as the engine stays cool, which at those speeds it shouldnt be a problem

 

Thanks for the responses. I'm not sure what gear ratio I'm running, its been over a year since I serviced the rear end so I've forgotten. With my high miles it still will hold 55 on a fairly step grade loaded pretty well. Pulling I can get about 10 mpgs. Thanks, I'll sleep better knowing I'm not hammering my little 5.9 to death.

 

I doubt gas mileage is any worse at 2800RPMs compared to lugging the engine at 2000RPMs and killing your tranny to boot.

 

You'll do fine.