Re: Auto vs. manual for towing

["Sandy Bolinger" <bolinger@bigsky.net>]

WE hauled a friend's horses plus ours to the Tevis one year(from Montana) We
used his truck and trailer...the truck was a Ford one ton gas engine with an
automatic transmission. The trailer was a four horse fully enclosed
gooseneck...and was REALLY heavy.

Our first problem was making it between gas stations without running out of
gas!(we were getting about four miles per gallon). We made it to Truckie but
had to unload the horses to make it up that little, steep hill into Robie
Park.

When maneuvering the rig out of Robie Park the morning of the ride, my crew
guy caught the full length trailer running board on a tree and peeled it all
the way back(looked like the opener thing on a can of spam!)  Then as he was
bumping his way down to the hiway, a bucket fell onto the emergency brake
cable, locking up the brakes which he didn't realize until someone got him
to pull over about 20 miles later.

All four of us ended up getting pulled...I made it as far as
Francisco's....and had to be driven out of the canyon on a road not too much
wider than the trail by a guy who seemingly wanted to die in a horrible
fiery vehicle accident.

THEN there was the drive back to Montana...with temperatures over 100
degrees and a terrible head wind, we were having a problem with the engine
temperature...nothing to be done except avoid looking at the temperature
gauge...Made it part way across Nevada when they shut down the interstate
because some stolen van full of explosives  had rolled over. We sat there in
the miles-long line of cars in the sweltering heat for about an hour before
the patrol men came and told us that it would be closed  for at least 24
hours....;About this time we started to notice a burning odor not to mention
smoke in the truck...Whitney explored around and discovered that the road
atlas...which was behind the seat on the floor directly over the
transmission...was on FIRE! We doused the atlas and the entire back floor
with water...and figured we would just throw water on the floor about every
hour or so and should be OK.

We headed back to the closest little town and got on some obscure little two
lane road that headed north...went a few miles when we started noticing huge
plums of smoke ahead of us.  Then once again we found ourselves stopped in a
line of cars...in a cloud of very thick smoke.  After about an hour a patrol
man came an told us about the big fire just ahead and that they were going
to let us go ahead and to be sure to drive fast if we ended up IN the fire!!

WE made it through the fire and eventually found a place to camp for the
night...

The next day's drive home we had two flat tires on the truck..(all
rears)...WE got home and when I woke up the next morning the truck had
another flat and the trailer had a flat tire.  I was told that the automatic
transmission was having such a hard time pulling the trailer in the head
wind that it was constantly shifting itself up and down and everytime it
shifted, the tires left a little patch of rubber on the road until there was
no more rubber on the tires.

Turns out the heat from the transmission melted all the wiring the ran under
the carpet behind the seat...the carpet was pretty well fried too.
SOOO...that was the first and last time I've ever pulled a trailer with an
automatic transmission!!!!!!!!!!



----- Original Message -----
From: Truman Prevatt, PhD <truman.prevatt@netsrq.com>
To: <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2001 5:43 AM
Subject: RC: Auto vs. manual for towing


> Most dealers will tell you that an automatic is better designed for
towing.  Their argument is the automatic will absorb the motion of the
trailer with less long term wear than a manual. I know more than one person
that has burned out a clutch and a manual transmission towing. Of course I
know more than one person that has smoked an automatic towing - yours truly
being one.
>
> The real problem seems that pickups now come with high torque diesel
engines in front of transmission that were originally designed for gas
engines.  GM probably has solved that problem by going to someone who makes
heavy duty automatic transmission to design one for their new HD pickup.
>
> Ford claims that theirs is better than it used to be, but it is still made
by Ford and Ford goes out and buys transmissions from real transmission
people for their commercial trucks. Do do I believe Ford when the promise
that their "new" transmission can really pull as much weight as they say.
Hmmmmmm... probably not.
>
> So after a lot of talk with a mechanical engineer friend, I have come the
the following conclusion. If you have an automatic, put a oversized (after
market) pan on it. Get the biggest you can - say one that holds a couple
gallons more transmission fluid. Next put in a temp sensor on the
transmission fluid. This is easy since there is already a port there and
these sensors are
> available at most good after market places. That way you will know when
the transmission is running hot and can back off before you boil all the
fluid away and cook the transmission.
>
> Standard transmissions can also overheat so it wouldn't hurt to have a
sensor on them.
>
> By the way, the Allison in the GM has comes with a huge pan and a temp
sensor build in.
>
> So I don't know if automatic or manual is best. The thing I keep thinking
about with a standard is one ride I'm going to come up lame 10 hours away
from home and not be able to drive a standard. It's happened and will
probably happen again. That's why I lean toward the automatic.
>
> Truman
>
>
> >
>
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