New GM Suburban, Tahoe, etc...

[Guest Homer J.]

On another bulletin board I belong to the following post was made:

'07 Burbs and Tahoe Caution!!!!

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On a GM forum that I also belong to, a fellow camper was discussing his new '07 Suburban and his upcoming trip from Maryland to Orlando. In the discussion we talked about trans coolers and he mentioned that he could not see his aux trans cooler on the new Burb.The made me very curious.

I had a chance to look closely at a new Tahoe this morning which was equipped with the HD tow pkg. It has no auxilary trans cooler. I could not believe it. At first I thought it may be sandwiched between the A/C condensor and the radiator but the lines come from the trans into the radiator and back out. They go nowhere else. I am a big GM fan but am now wondering what they are thinking.

If you own a new Tahoe, Burb, Yukon or Yukon XL and are towing with it, I would encourage you to add a good (large) stacked plate design cooler. The same "A" shaped support frame is still there right behind the grill and the install would be very easy.

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I am bringing this to the attention of the emergency services due to the crazy stuff we tend to expect of our vehicles. Sorry to make a negative comment about the new toys

[mfc2257 464]

On the same line sharing a little something I picked up over the years.....

I towed a 44 foot 5th wheel tri axle race car trailer with a Ford F-350 Diesel Dually. Unfortunatly the truck was bought by my brother to get our race cars to the track, but he also wanted his wife to be able to drive it in a pinch so it was an automatic.

We found that an aluminum finned oversize tranny pan as well as a similar differential cover had the greatest effect on temp.

Going to Watkins Glen heading up the huge hills out of Montour Falls the tranny nearly got cooked the first time. After the new pans were installed, the temp never passed 200 degrees. For the Fords it seemed that sustained temps above 215-225 were where damage started to occur.

I will tell anyone who tows heavy loads (or just heavy for the type of vehicle that you are towing with) that the single worst thing you can do for an automatic tranny while towing is to have it downshift while under a load. Don't allow it to sit in drive heading up a huge hill until it's lugging near 1000rpm and then BANG it drops to the next gear.... Learn when the tranny is getting close to it's shift point, get off the trottle, shift it to the next gear manually, and then put your foot back in it. The second item to be aware of is hitting a stretch of road where the tranny is seeking into and out of overdrive. This creates a ton of excess heat and wear. Lock the tranny out of the gear that it keeps seeking in and out of and run the motor at a higher RPM for a period of time. This won't waste as much fuel as you think. Those repeated shifts suck a ton of fuel. This can significantly add to the life of a transmission that is used to tow extreme loads.

Edited August 5, 2006 by mfc2257

[cas2383 22]

Got a transmission cooler on my Dakota, tow behind a 16 foot boat weighs about 1200 lbs, and usually have a full bed of equipment, haven't had an overheat warning yet....