First Long haul RV Trip

[Redram99]

This old truck is great!!

We traveled about 850km to our destination. Put 300km on while we were there and 850km to get home.
We traveled through the interior of BC so it is quite mountainous.
Total weight was about 18,500 lbs. Pulling 30' Travel trailer with my 800 sportsman quad in the truck along with everything else we own/can pack!
Some tanks of fuel I did 11.5 but most were 13.5MPG(Imperial gallons). I did about 60 - 65MPH.
The truck pulled like a champ and handled the load with ease. The only issues were the transmission ran a little hot on the way home as the outside temp was around 90F.
I was running my superchips on Tow mode(extra 35 hp)
I did notice that if I used the tow function it helped to keep the trans temps down significantly. I also stopped at a carwash and hosed the rads out real well and that dropped the overall temp even more.
The funny thing was the engine temp never moved. Stayed steady 200-205(just under 100C on my gauges).

I will be pulling the rads and have them boiled(engine and air to air) and wash the tranny cooler out real well.

Question - shouldn't the engine temp come up with the tranny or could it be getting enough air around the edges to stay cool? I am wondering if the engine temp gauge is pooched?

My fuel costs were about 50% of what they were last summer doing the same trip with the same quad, trailer and belongings pulling with the toyota tundra(a big part of that was fuel being $0.90L vs $1.45 last summer)!

Sorry to ramble on but I am very happy with the new rig and will be a long time before I go away from an oil burner again!

[Hook'em_Horns!]

Originally Posted by Redram99

The only issues were the transmission ran a little hot on the way home as the outside temp was around 90F...I did notice that if I used the tow function it helped to keep the trans temps down significantly.

Congrats on a successful trip. Everything sounds normal, you should always pull with the Tow/Haul engaged or you'll run hotter.

[4WheelingPlus]

I just did a 7200+ mile trip from Washington to Florida and back. Your experience sounds a lot better than mine so in my opionion I think you had a great trip.

My engine and tranny temps were pretty much close to each other... meaning that when my engine temp was 210 my tranny was near that. The only time the engine and tranny had a big difference between temps was when the engine fan kicked in and dropped the engine temp several degrees. As soon as the fan shut off the engine temp came back up near the tranny temp.

I've noticed that if my tranny goes above 200 degrees it pretty much stays above 200 no matter what I do. Even when the motor comes down to 189 or so, the tranny stays above 200.

I hope this info helps.

[4WheelingPlus]

Oh yeah... I want to get my rads cleaned as well. If you do yours soon, let me know how it goes.

[jscribn1]

Was your total weight of 18.5K the truck and trailer or just the trailer and it's payload? Thanks.

[silver3500]

Just to be evil about your temps Redram, My stock gauges in the dash aren't as accurate as my Edge gauges monitoring the motor. I used an infrared gun to check truck temps, and the Edge was reading correctly, while the stock gauge would go to 205 and stay there as long as the engine was running after warm-up, towing or not. If you are boiling the radiators, now is a good time to put some gauges that are trustworthy in. Especially if you tow a lot. Pyro, Engine temp, Trans temp. A good one is oil temp, but that takes a bit to hook up. Oil temp is the best monitor as the Duramax uses oil to cool so many things. Just how anal you want to be is up to you.

[silver3500]

Look up killerbee's thread on heat in the Duramax, then you will be safer towing.