I don9t know what kind of Explorer it is, but I do have a little knowledge
in this area and I can DEFINITELY second what Kevin is saying. Late model
Ford OD trannys (AOD, AODE, 4R70W) are, um, not that great. If you don't
have a V8, don't even think about it. If you do, go first thing and put the
biggest aux. transmission cooler on it that you can find.
Then when you're pulling, keep it locked out of overdrive until you're well
up to speed and on level ground (actually, it might be best to slightly
exceed the speed you want to cruise at) THEN drop it in to OD. If you feel
it start to bog on any kind of grade, don't be afraid to kick it down to
third and lock out OD until you're back to level ground.
Like other people have said, you don't have to be passing Porsches up
grades, if you have to creep it up a mountain in 2nd doing 35 or 40, so be
it, just watch the temp and keep the revs up. The chassis should be able to
handle the load no problem (if it's got a V8, it should have a beefier
rear-end too,) my biggest worry would be smoking the transmission. Second
to that would be brakes. The nice thing about using a full-size trailer
would be having that extra set of brakes back there...
On 2/17/03 10:31 AM, "kevin.s.brown@gm.com" <kevin.s.brown@gm.com> wrote:
> You also might consider using 3rd gear instead of 4th gear when hauling the
> truck. When you are in 4th gear you might be turning too low of rpms for
> the transmission to pump enough fluid through the transmission cooler to
> properly cool it when you are towing a heavy load. At least that works for
> the Chevy trucks - don't know for sure about F**ds.
>
> Kevin
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