goodcruisin
Greenwood, IN
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Joined: 04/17/2007
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Install a trans cooler. I had a trans get so hot once that it caused the engine to overheat. Yes, the trans was toast. An additionally cooler may have prevented the problem.
John (USN Ret) & Debbie
Tux (APBT/Dalmation)
'96 Monaco Windsor 36' DP 8.3 Cummins
Ready Brake & Demco Excali-bar
'02 F250 V10 w/ Banks Power Pack
'03 Ford Explorer
'04 Volvo S80 AWD
'05 Acura TL
240" Dragster 540 BBC
26' trailer
14' Boat w/9.9 Merc
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carringb
Corvallis, OR
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Joined: 07/28/2003
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A couple things jump out:
1) Your van is not rated for 10,000 pounds. Only the cargo cans are, and that is only with 4.10 gears.
2) Almost all Express passenger vans have 3.73 gears, which I believe results in an 8600 pound rating.
3) Chevy rates the vans without any passengers or cargo. You must subtract any passengers and cargo from the tow rating.
4) I would be surprised if your 28' trailer really weighs 6800 pounds. That sounds more like a dry weight, which means your actual weight could be much more.
So, I'm pretty sure you are near or at the limits of the van's ratings. The Express does not have a robust cooling system. Every one I have towed with saw the temps rise when towing. However, I was never towing as heavy with the Express vans, so I never had it go into the red. But I have had one go into fail-safe mode on a long hard climb, which I suspect was due to transmission temp.
In short, your van's behavior does not surprise me. I don't think any thing is mechanically wrong. To control the temps, you will need to add additional cooling capacity, or slow down.
Bryan
2000 Ford E350 DRW Wagon (14-pass all captains chairs)
V10 w/ Banks PowerPack, Diablo Predator, 4.56 LS, 300,000+ miles
Had: Weekend Warrior 41' FSW
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eric james
Sioux Falls, SD
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Joined: 07/21/2004
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carringb wrote:A couple things jump out:
1) Your van is not rated for 10,000 pounds. Only the cargo cans are, and that is only with 4.10 gears.
2) Almost all Express passenger vans have 3.73 gears, which I believe results in an 8600 pound rating.
3) Chevy rates the vans without any passengers or cargo. You must subtract any passengers and cargo from the tow rating.
4) I would be surprised if your 28' trailer really weighs 6800 pounds. That sounds more like a dry weight, which means your actual weight could be much more.
So, I'm pretty sure you are near or at the limits of the van's ratings. The Express does not have a robust cooling system. Every one I have towed with saw the temps rise when towing. However, I was never towing as heavy with the Express vans, so I never had it go into the red. But I have had one go into fail-safe mode on a long hard climb, which I suspect was due to transmission temp.
In short, your van's behavior does not surprise me. I don't think any thing is mechanically wrong. To control the temps, you will need to add additional cooling capacity, or slow down.
This is very solid advice. Bryan is the google of towing with vans.
2009 Keystone Passport UL 290BH
2003 Ford Expedition EB 5.4L/3.73
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JJBrown
Whitby, Ontario, Canada
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Joined: 02/14/2008
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What year is the van? A 1 tonne van is only rated to tow 8600lbs?? wow
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HappyTrails2U2
Atlanta, GA & Augusta, GA
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Joined: 11/11/2009
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When you decide to buy a transmission cooler you might want to look at getting one that the fluid line makes as many passes (bends) through the fins as you have room for in front of your radiator. The more passes it makes the cooler the fluid will get. Some of the universal models are pretty small with just 2 or 4 passes and it sounds like you need as much cooling as you can get on yours.
I put a Hayden 8 pass transmission cooler on my 1500 Silverado that I bought at O'Reilly's Auto Parts for approx. $49.00.
These Scan Gauge's that plug into the computer port in your vehicle are nice to have to that show the transmission temperature among a bunch of other read outs including reading error codes and turning off the check engine light.
http://www.scangauge.com/products/
2010 Rockwood Signature Ultra Lite 8315BSS
2003 Chevy Silverado 1/2 Ton Extended Cab
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JJBIRISH
Butler, PA, USA
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Joined: 10/06/2002
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Your problem is a surprise to me but I have no experience with the Express van, but have do hundreds of thousands of miles towing with the G 20 and G 30 series vans, and never had cooling problem with any of them… I have always added transmission and engine oil coolers and don’t use OD and engine temps are relatively flat towing or not uphill or downhill…
Either the radiator is to small or you are pushing it to hard on the hills trying to maintain speed if that is the only time you have the problem…
I have been thinking about getting a Express van and have talked to a few people that have them and they didn’t mention having this problem…
Do you have to add coolant ever, maybe there is a head gasket problem when working it hard…
Love my mass produced, entry level, built by Lazy American Workers, Hornet
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LarryJM
NoVa
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Joined: 11/09/2007
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carringb wrote:A couple things jump out:
1) Your van is not rated for 10,000 pounds. Only the cargo cans are, and that is only with 4.10 gears.
2) Almost all Express passenger vans have 3.73 gears, which I believe results in an 8600 pound rating.
3) Chevy rates the vans without any passengers or cargo. You must subtract any passengers and cargo from the tow rating.
4) I would be surprised if your 28' trailer really weighs 6800 pounds. That sounds more like a dry weight, which means your actual weight could be much more.
So, I'm pretty sure you are near or at the limits of the van's ratings. The Express does not have a robust cooling system. Every one I have towed with saw the temps rise when towing. However, I was never towing as heavy with the Express vans, so I never had it go into the red. But I have had one go into fail-safe mode on a long hard climb, which I suspect was due to transmission temp.
In short, your van's behavior does not surprise me. I don't think any thing is mechanically wrong. To control the temps, you will need to add additional cooling capacity, or slow down.
If you look HERE for a 2009 3500 Express Van the "MAX trailer" is only 7,700 and that is for a base model and only the driver and all optional equip, passengers and cargo reduce that.
It looks like the OP might be severly over in possibly several areas.
Larry
2001 standard box 7.3L E-350 PSD Van with 4.10 rear and 2007 Holiday Rambler Aluma-Lite 8306S Been RV'ing since 1974.
ALL TRAILER MODS>>ETERNABOND INSTALL>>RAINKAP INSTALL
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Drbolasky
Allentown, PA
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Agree with carringb, however a trans cooler is not the fix if you are over your tow capacities. Also, vans tend to run hotter due to restricted airflow around the engine. We towed our current TT with a Dodge van for 8 years and it always ran a LITTLE hotter towing but not to the degree you are experiencing. When I was shopping for a tow vehicle back then I don't recall encountering any van rated to tow 10K unless as carringb points out it was a stripped-down cargo van with the 4.10 axle ratio.
Doug, Linda, Audrey (USN) & Andrew
08 Sequoia SR-5, 5.7 L V8, 6 sp. Auto, 4.30 Rear, 2000 Coachmen Futura 2790TB Bunkhouse, Dexter E-Z Flex Suspension, Reese W.D. Hitch & Dual Cam Sway Control, Prodigy Brake Controller, McKesh Mirrors, Nuvi 650 GPS
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carringb
Corvallis, OR
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JJBIRISH wrote:...towing with the G 20 and G 30 series vans, and never had cooling problem with any of them… I have always added transmission and engine oil coolers and don’t use OD
Your upgrades, combined with your turning off OD, cartainly will help the problem. But biggest thing is how hard to push them.
Under normal driving, not a problem, but under extended WOT, I always see the temps in the Express vans start to climb after about 5-7 minutes of it.
I agree the G-series did not have this problem. Just the Express with the 7.4L, 8.1L, and 6.0 (and the 6.0 not being as bad). I suspect it's because these motors put out more power, and therefore more heat compared to the old motors. Also there is less room around the motors in the Express compared to the G-series, since the dog houses were shrank down significantly, and more stuff was added under the hoods.
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JJBIRISH
Butler, PA, USA
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Problems like the OP reported have a cause and is solvable…
But people use the advertised tow ratings a little to much… they have more to do with marketing today than anything else, these half tons rated for towing 10,000+ pounds are little more capable of towing that much than a older truck rated for 6,600 pounds was…
My Excursion that had a much higher tow rating than my G 20 van has, but wouldn’t hold a candle to the van on towing… the only thing the Excursion did better was climb hills at a higher speed… the van with the same trailer steers better, stops better, and is less susceptible to cross winds, and it has more than twice the mileage than Excursion had… while I have a set of 4:10s for the van the 373s have worked perfectly for 200,000 miles now running the east coast hills (if I went out west I would use my 4:10s)…
Fortunately for me I don’t need to climb a mountain at 60+ MPH nor do I come down the other side at high speeds, but everywhere else it is quite comfortable running 62MPH on curse…
I wish it had the G 30 chassis but I am not over on any axle weights (close on the diive) and get very good tire, brake, and disk/drum service… I still get almost 4,000 on a qt of oil never had a engine, tranny, or rear failure… so while I am way over the advertised tow rating, there I absolutely no indication it is over worked or over loaded in use…
I have driven trucks of all sizes and pulled trailers of just about every kind and successful towing is about 60% operator and 40% vehicle… all trucks will tell you where they are comfortable if you listen…
There are many on here that will disagree with me, and none of this comes from any book…
Maybe I am tooting my own horn here but it is with the benefit of real world towing experience, years of competitive endurance contest, and being to cheap to have to make unnecessary repairs, I have learned to use and not abuse the equipment I have available to me…
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