I have thought about putting a hitch on my new 2010 with a trans cooler, however after thinking about it hard, I realized that I will wait until the warranty runs out before I do that. If the tranny does take a dump in the next 100,000 miles, I want Dodge to pay for it, not me.

I also have a 1999 Grand Caravan that I bought with 76K on it, with a class 2 hitch already installed. I had it checked for a cooler, and luckily it had been upgraded already. The transmission went at about 85K after I came back on a trip from the Smoky's. There was no towing involved, but I learned one important lesson after that. Do not use overdrive in the mountains.

The 2010 6 speeds, have a feature that will drop them automatically to a lower gear if they are get hot. Great idea, but I would still stay out of the top gear as much as possible. I live in flat landed Florida, so for normal everday, not an issue.

I just bought a small 5'x8' trailer to tow with the 99. Mostly to haul trash and the lawnmower around town every few weeks or so. My advice when it comes to the 2010, check with the dealer and make sure if you do upgrade, that you have a contract agreement that still covers the transmission.

 

Welcome to DF
I don't think any up grade you do on the transmission is going to be a problem,But you may want to contact the customer service center and ask. 1-800-992-1997

 

Thanks for everyone's responses. I've decided going to hold off on the hitch idea for now. with all of the talk about towing and transmissons i have another question though. Everyone says not to tow or drive trough the mountains (which we do) in overdrive but my van only has a P-R-N-D theres no overdrive option that I'm aware. I dont mean to sound ignorant but do the 2010's have an overdrive option?

 

your van should have a manual gear selection option when in drive you can move the shifter side-to-side for up/down shifting. at least my 08 does.

but I think all this don't drive in overdrive is all a bunch of hoooey. you don't want to have the trans hunting for gears like ever been in town and felt the trans shifting in and out of gear as you just touch or release the gas? that's bad. on the highway, if the trans shifts down and stays in that gear for a decent amount of time, there's nothting wrong with that. transmission failure is like 90% driver caused in driving style!