Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I have a 24ft tritoon and I was curious what my transmission temp should be when I'm hauling it. I pull with a '09 Silverado. At what temp should I be concerned?

I'd be concerned over 190 degrees, as heat is the enemy of any auto. tranny. Speed and long uphill pulls heat them up fast.

Why don't you spend $150 on a B&M or TruCool auxiliary transmission cooler/radiator? They just take a little while to install, and it's the cheapest insurance that you won't have to spend $4,000 on another tranny. I put one on my F250 diesel.

I'd be surprised if any newer 1/2 ton with a factory towing package would need another tranny cooler, my 12' F150 has a transmission cooler that's 3/4 the size of the radiator and never gets over 195*. My transmission has a 190* thermostat so it's always warms up to 190* also for "fuel economy" from the factory.

My 3/4 ton has the camper and towing package, and its tranny cooler didn't approach the size of my TruCool cooler.

I just had to cut into one tranny fluid hose going to the front end and use a barbed fitting into each end to splice the cooler into the old line.

My 2010 Sierra 1500 w/5.3 trans get up to about 190 when towing. It puked on me once at 40,000 miles. But it wasn't from towing. The valvebody's 3rd gear servo had a faulty piston in it. No preventative maintainence could have prevented it from failing. But since its on trans #2, and its now out of warranty I watch my trans temp closely.

Current (2014+) Silverado's normally run 190-205. 200* F is normal. For comparison you also need to know where people are getting the temps: outlet to cooler, return from cooler, pan, transmission port, etc. An '09 Silverado uses the same 6L80-E so I wouldn't be concerned unless it's over 210*.

I towed my Harris from Panama City Beach back to Georgia yesterday. My F150's tow package includes the transmission cooler and a temp gauge.

Highway speed (speed limit +8) with no boat in tow: transmission temp was 194°.

Towing the boat: range was 197°-204°, with the gauge displaying 201° most of the time. We left the beach just before noon when the air temp was 92° and got home 5 hours later to 99°.

Other useless details. My MPG was 8.1.

Also drove through 2 frog-choking downpours which was great for rinsing the salt spray off boat and trailer.

Thanks for help. I'm thinking I'm fine as I'm normally running 190 or so and pushing 200 in the hills. I'm a little concerned about my dad pulling his Camper though now. He is hitting 210-215 on a regular basis. He is towing with a 2009 Tahoe.

I just towed my 1100 hundred pound stove to Ky and back for family reunion in a 14 foot enclosed trailer, ran 190 at night on the way up, the Cummins diesel ran from 200 to 210 at the really big hills, it was a hot day coming back, the engine and transmission are tied together in a cooler on the transmission that help warm it in cold weather and help cool it with the cooler up front and keeps them both close to same temp.

When I hit the flat lands it stayed at 200 running and it would cool quick when I stopped and left it running and go down to 190 quick, I stopped in GA to walk the dog and her water I had in the bed with a topper on it was up to 120, I had to put ice in it to cool it, super hot everywhere last Wednesday

I got 15.5 mpg in the mountains, dropped to 14.8 in the flat lands because I left it running while stopped to cool everything down, so it ran about a half hour sitting as my GPS was showing I was going to hit Jacksonville at 6 pm so I made them two stops and slowed down to get me out of the worse traffic and hit town at 7 pm

Just back home from a 800 mile pull to and from LotO. 194 was the hottest trans temp on a 96 degree day. Truck pulled it fine, until I got bad fuel in Ladonnia Mo. Went from 8.3 mpg average to 3.6 and pulled terrible! Stopped and filled up with 93 non-ethanol in Palmyra and it ran great again. Never buy gas outside of Ladonnia on HWY 19 again! Absolute CRAP!!!

Good rule of thumb is 80-100 degrees over ambient is normal. (without a thermostat)

Tim

I pulled my toon with a 2015 Grand Cherokee. The normal temp without the boat is 203*, while the temp with the boat during a trip to the Smoky Mountains was 204* most of the time. On a long hill, the temp would get to 206* for a very short period, but quickly came down when I topped the hill.