Over drive off with light weight?!

[mirciulie]

Ok, I know that the Over drive subject has been run to the ground here, but how about towing something light. eg. I have a pop up trailer that weights less then 1500#. Going over the mountains here in Oregon is pretty steep, but the truck seems not to care. The airflow is great, obviously on the rig...
But to be on the safe side, I've seen some pics here with some of you folks that have the Tranny blown up on you. Granted, most, if not all of them were previus '03 models. I have the '03 V8 one. So, should I get the OVer drive off while going over the mtns. with so little weight, or I'm good?
I'm planning to change the fluids soon (30k maint.), I haven't check my tranny liquid, but I might heated a bit on my last offroad trip (the only one so far ).
Those pics with the tranny blown up scared me man .

Just wanna make sure I'll have the truck for the next 13 years or so to pass it down to my son. It will make a great rock crawler probably .

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by mirciulie

Ok, I know that the Over drive subject has been run to the ground here, but how about towing something light. eg. I have a pop up trailer that weights less then 1500#. Going over the mountains here in Oregon is pretty steep, but the truck seems not to care. The airflow is great, obviously on the rig...
But to be on the safe side, I've seen some pics here with some of you folks that have the Tranny blown up on you. Granted, most, if not all of them were previus '03 models. I have the '03 V8 one. So, should I get the OVer drive off while going over the mtns. with so little weight, or I'm good?
I'm planning to change the fluids soon (30k maint.), I haven't check my tranny liquid, but I might heated a bit on my last offroad trip (the only one so far ).
Those pics with the tranny blown up scared me man .

Just wanna make sure I'll have the truck for the next 13 years or so to pass it down to my son. It will make a great rock crawler probably .

The truly safe approach is turn off OD anytime you're towing...it takes the front planetary gearset out of the drivetrain. The front planetary is a known weakness of the pre-03 transmissions; it does not seem to have caused any problems on the '03 and '04 transmissions (the '05s are an unknown at this point).

I too have an '03 and used to tow OD off all the time but of late have been using OD some of the time...and my trailer is a lot heaver (~4000 lbs) and bigger and I tow at much higher altitudes. Now I turn off OD under two conditions: mountain roads and anytime the transmission is even semi-frequently downshifting to 3rd or experiencing torque converter clutch unlock in OD (when the TC clutch unlocks you'll see a ~200 RPM increase in RPM). Frequent downsifts to 3rd are hard on the internal clutches/bands and TC unlock means torque converter slippage and that in turn means a lot of heat generation...and heat kills transmissions.

With a light, low air-resistance popup you should be able to safely tow at near sea-level altitudes on flat land and moderate hills in OD (assuming your truck has the factory towing package with external transmission cooler). But as soon as the transmission starts downshifting or having frequent TC unlock, definitely turn off the OD until you get back on flatland again. If your truck does not have the factory towing package, then get an external cooler installed.

[mirciulie]

Thanks Man,
I might go this weekend camping again and I will leave it in OD to see how often it downshifts while going over the mtns... And yeah, I forgot, I have the Towing package.

That trailer is not even there when I tow it. At least that how I feel....