Monitoring Engine/Transmission While Towing
Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 6:06 am
All, was considering moving up to a beefier truck than the F150, and went looking for a way to see how towing the redhead's 5500# "tin can" was affecting the tow vehicle on short camping runs around our area before tackling longer and more hilly trips like 10 hours to Gatlinburg in the Smokies, etc. Since most of the time the truck is my 120 mile round trip commute vehicle I really didn't want to go any further down in MPG.
Wound up buying one of these
http://www.scangauge.com/products/scangaugeii/
because it wasn't much more than adding a simple Transmission temp gauge, and looked a lot more fun !
Anybody else using any tools to do similar ? I think Capt Scott has a bluetooth device in his truck.
Oh, results..F150, 4.6L V8, with passive transmission cooler rates at 6300# with our rear end, normal commute trans temps are about 150. We took an hour run north this weekend with trans temp sitting at 165, and hit 185 on one uphill stretch a couple miles long but temps would drop soon as any strain was over.
Cylinder head/water temps stayed about same as normal, MPG dropped from normal 18 HWY to 8 running 55-65MPH
All in all its a fun tool to play with !
Wound up buying one of these
http://www.scangauge.com/products/scangaugeii/
because it wasn't much more than adding a simple Transmission temp gauge, and looked a lot more fun !
Anybody else using any tools to do similar ? I think Capt Scott has a bluetooth device in his truck.
Oh, results..F150, 4.6L V8, with passive transmission cooler rates at 6300# with our rear end, normal commute trans temps are about 150. We took an hour run north this weekend with trans temp sitting at 165, and hit 185 on one uphill stretch a couple miles long but temps would drop soon as any strain was over.
Cylinder head/water temps stayed about same as normal, MPG dropped from normal 18 HWY to 8 running 55-65MPH
All in all its a fun tool to play with !