hauling with my Flareside

[5.0Flareside]

ok guys within the next week ill be hauling the 88 on a trailor with my Flareside to take it to Tim (torkum) his house to replace the intake gasket.

yall think my truck will be fine?? well better question will the transmission be fine? cause it is a E4od. that was rebuilt 85k miles ago at the same time as the motor was swapped in. i know the motor will be fine it aint that weak. and i have a good rear end gear for towing. my only true worry is will the tranny get to hot. im thinking as long as i baby it as i should itll be fine. and also should i haul in overdrive? i dont think im supposed too. but i would like some more opinions.

 

[john112deere]

What are you using for a trailer? I'd be more worried about brakes than anything else.

Two schools of thought on towing in OD. One says as long as it's not hunting in/out of OD, you're OK, the other says never tow in OD. While I tend to subscribe more to the first, the second is the "more conservative" approach...and on a tired truck pulling a moderately heavy trailer, I'd probably be inclined to keep it out of O/D and the speeds lower. I've never heard anybody claim you'd hurt anything other than gas mileage by keeping it out of OD, so long as you don't drive too fast.

 

[5.0Flareside]

What are you using for a trailer? I'd be more worried about brakes than anything else.

Two schools of thought on towing in OD. One says as long as it's not hunting in/out of OD, you're OK, the other says never tow in OD. While I tend to subscribe more to the first, the second is the "more conservative" approach...and on a tired truck pulling a moderately heavy trailer, I'd probably be inclined to keep it out of O/D and the speeds lower. I've never heard anybody claim you'd hurt anything other than gas mileage by keeping it out of OD, so long as you don't drive too fast.

well ive got brand new brakes and rotors and the rear shoes were new when i swapped the rear end in and when the fronts were done they adjusted the fronts.

and honestly the truck doesnt feel as tired as i think it is according to my dad. he has a 95 w/302 MAF and he says mine will roast his. and he has driven my truck several times before and after the rear swap but he doesnt know bout the swap. but ANYWAYS.... any other opinions.

 

[DNFXDLI]

Given the info that you have, I'd leave it out of O/D....I agree with what Ian says.

 

[FordF-SuperDuty]

The E4OD isn't a bad transmission. Skan towed a boat that I think weighs more than than your 88 with his.

 

[Skandocious]

My two biggest concerns will be brakes and transmission.

Will the trailer have electric brakes or a surge brake? If electric-- do you have a brake controller?

Does your trans have an auxiliary cooler? And I tend to agree with Ian about O/D. If you're going fast enough and on flat enough road that the trans doesnt need to hunt for gears, O/D is probably fine to use. I can't see a reason why pulling in O/D would cause any issues in terms of damage or heat in general.

What kind of trailer will you be using and how heavy? I'd venture to say that the 88 probably weighs in at somewhere in the range of 4-5k. Do you have a hitch that will support this kind of weight? Better question-- do you have a frame hitch or are you planning on bumper pulling? Probably too heavy for a bumper pull if you ask me.

 

[5.0Flareside]

My two biggest concerns will be brakes and transmission.

Will the trailer have electric brakes or a surge brake? If electric-- do you have a brake controller?

Does your trans have an auxiliary cooler?

What kind of trailer will you be using and how heavy? I'd venture to say that the 88 probably weighs in at somewhere in the range of 4-5k. Do you have a hitch that will support this kind of weight? Better question-- do you have a frame hitch or are you planning on bumper pulling? Probably too heavy for a bumper pull if you ask me.

ok. like said before i have brand new brakes all around.

and i do have a tranny cooler. and its not the one that came stock. somewhere down the line someone swapped in a larger aftermarket one.

and i do have a frame hitch and will be using that. not sure on the weight capacity. but im fairly certain its the one that came witht the truck. it came with the towing package from the factory.

and yeah the 88 is probably 4.5k pounds.

and as far as the trailor. im not sure im gonna talk to the guy im borrowing it from and see.

 

[Skandocious]

Look for a sticker or even just a part number on your hitch and make sure it's stout enough.

 

[5.0Flareside]

Look for a sticker or even just a part number on your hitch and make sure it's stout enough.

any idea on where it might be for sure???

 

[Skandocious]

any idea on where it might be for sure???

Dunno, varies between makes and models. Shouldn't hard to find-- there's only so many places it could be on the hitch. Most often it's on the large cross-tube that connects the two sideplates.

 

[5.0Flareside]

ok. im gonna go check it now.

 

[5.0Flareside]

hard to see but the lowest capacity is 7,500. there is another listed that says 10k with weight distributing something something....

 

[Skandocious]

If I'm reading right-- it says 7500 on a weight carrying hitch. That's just your regular run-of-the-mill ball hitch, so you're looking at a max of 7500 trailer wait which should be more than enough. But you also need to look at the max tongue weight-- that's the downward weight that will be exerted at the very front of the trailer (the tongue). Usually the tongue is 1/10 of the total trailer weight-- eg a 7500lb hitch will generally have a tongue rating of 750. And if I can see through the blurriness I'm pretty sure yours says 750.

Just make sure you load the trailer in a way that keeps less than 750 lbs off the tongue. With a big truck like that having the big heavy V8 in the front end, you need to be careful not to put it too far in front of the trailer axle(s).

 

[5.0Flareside]

its 750 lbs.

 

[Skandocious]

See my edit about loading the trailer and distributing weight in my previous post.

 

[5.0Flareside]

yeah i see it now. ok so i should load it with the front of the truck just a bit closer to the axle of the trailor. so the rear end will be a bit further back than centered.

kinda hard to explain what im thinking.

 

[Skandocious]

The idea is to center the weight over the trailer axles as much as possible, with a slight bias towards the front of the trailer. You dont want to be pulling a big trailer that's heavy in the rear cuz it'll act like a see-saw over the axle(s) and pull up on the rear of your truck and make for some very dangerous drivability.

 

[5.0Flareside]

The idea is to center the weight over the trailer axles as much as possible, with a slight bias towards the front of the trailer. You dont want to be pulling a big trailer that's heavy in the rear cuz it'll act like a see-saw over the axle(s) and pull up on the rear of your truck and make for some very dangerous drivability.

yeah i understand the logic. i was just wondering bout how centered should the truck probably be. like front gas cap over the axel or where the cab and bed meet? like some generalization like that.

 

[Truckin4life]

Along with leading the trailer to start swaying from side to side if its loaded to heavy out back.

 

[Skandocious]

Placement of the truck on the trailer will depend on the side of the trailer and the center of weight on the truck. I'd ventrue to say that trucks center of weight is probably near the back wall of the cab. I think placing roughly that part of the truck over the axle(s) should make for a good distribution; but it really just boils down to loading the truck on and watching the trailer to see how the weight is distributed. If loaded properly your truck should squat a bit but not a lot.