2019 XLT Towing questions

[tpagolfnut]

Yeah, I am real gun shy now.. This was the first time we tried towing in the mountains and we overheated. It is very expensive to have your trailer and expy towed. I just think my expy runs hot during normal driving.. I was towing the trailer today on flat interstate and the temp got up to 207... going to try this again next month going to head out for a 4 week trip from AZ to CO, through the mountains... will be keeping the speed at 60 and trying to manage the rpms at 2k...

 

[Craig Payne]

I'm hoping I can provide some advice here as I have a 2018 Expedition with heavy tow, pull a trailer that's just below 8k pounds total gross weight, and also live in the Phoenix area.

First, let's eliminate the possibility of engine issues because that could be at work and would make all advice meaningless. I did have to have my thermostat replaced a while ago because it was faulty, so I think most advice should assume the engine is functioning as it was designed.

I've been pulling trailers for years and have pulled with the above setup for about 4 years now and almost 20,000 miles across most of the western continental US. The best advice I can start with is to trust but monitor the vehicle while towing and to use speed as a tool while towing. I'll take each of these below:

Trust but monitor - The 2018+ models are pretty fantastic towing machines, and Ford has some great software to assist with that process. The easiest way to do this is to put your vehicle in tow/haul mode. You'll find the vehicle does a pretty good job in this setting managing acceleration, shifting, gear usage, etc. That said, you'll primarily want to monitor the engine temp and transmission temp with the gauges in the driver instrument cluster. The little engine temp meter for instance begins to show actual temperature when it gets over about 220. That's not an issue, but it starts showing you the temp so that you can monitor it when it's increasing. The gauge will turn yellow if it starts to get too high. In general, when it starts showing exact temperatures, I usually know I'm probably pushing it too hard and reduce speed. The transmission temperature often lags the engine temp, but you can bet if the engine temp is climbing and you keep pushing it, the transmission temp will most likely start climbing as well. All signs that you should probably pull a bit off the acceleration.

Use speed as a tool - I never really exceed 65 when towing. Maybe sometimes a bit over depending on the circumstance, but I find keeping it to 65 max is pretty easy and safe. Sure, you can fly down the road at 80 if it's flat, straight, and cool outside, but it won't be an awesome towing experience. Beyond that, if the engine is having to lug that much weight up a steep grade, lowering the speed will exponentially decrease the amount of engine work needed in the moment. It is why you often see truckers going slower in the right lane when pulling up-hill. Obviously our loads are much lighter, but our engines are also not diesel engines and can spool up pretty hard trying to hit higher speeds if that's what you're asking from the vehicle.

At the end of the day, don't be gun shy. Honestly, when it's 116 outside and you're dragging the weight of the vehicle, passengers, and a heavy trailer behind you, up-hill, with the sun beating down on the vehicle, it can get hot quick. There's no defying the power of physics. If you let off the speed when you see the engine temp start to increase, I guarantee the temp will stay in a reasonable area and fall pretty quickly when you make it over whatever pass you're crossing.

Hopefully this helps, happy to provide any other info as needed.

 

[tpagolfnut]

Thanks for the insight. Do you remove the top 8,9,10 gears when pulling or just use it normal in tow/haul mode? I am going to be making another attempt to get to flagstaff next week and was going to try it with at least 9,10 gears removed.

 

[rollinstone]

Thanks for the insight. Do you remove the top 8,9,10 gears when pulling or just use it normal in tow/haul mode? I am going to be making another attempt to get to flagstaff next week and was going to try it with at least 9,10 gears removed.

I don’t understand the phrasing “remove gears.” How does one remove gears?

 

[tpagolfnut]

If you switch to drive, you can then hit the - which will disable gears starting at 10. I was told to do this to 8,9,10 in order to keep the rpms high, 2500 - 3000 and keep speed low around 60. This is supposed to keep the engine cooler.

 

[Craig Payne]

Full disclosure - I am not a Mechanical Engineer nor do I claim any true scientific expertise in this area. That said, I would not specifically lock-out gears, though maybe for a less profound reason than you'd think.

First, I'll just get it out of the way that my understanding of how heat is generated in the engine is primarily about the amount of mechanical work occurring. This is why, for example, the engine generates less heat at idle at 1,000 RPM's than it does when propelling the vehicle forward at 1,000 RPM's. It's too complex of an equation for me to figure out, but I feel I generally get the idea that there are both positives and negatives to the engine using more revolutions but more combustion vs less revolutions and less combustion to achieve the same amount of work.

All of that said, in general, I've found that the software driving the transmission does a really good job of managing the transmission. Honestly, I've only ever seen my engine temperature's creep up when trying to climb a steep grade with the trailer at high speed, and in those situations, the engine has usually down-shifted and revved up quite a bit anyway to the point where I'm no-where near 8th, 9th, or 10th gear. I've never seen 10th while towing, and only occasionally see 9th if I'm on flat smooth road with little wind. The temperature is rock solid in these situations. Keep in mind though, I never really go above 65, so maybe it would try to put it in 10th if I was pushing the speed higher.

With that in mind, my anecdotal guidance would be not to worry about locking out top gears and focus on monitoring temp and managing speed.

I was up near Heber 2 weekends ago and I did see some temp increases on those long stretches of 7% grade climbs on the beeline highway when it was about 113 outside. But like I said, I just dropped the speed to 55 until I cleared the pass and the temp dropped to normal within a minute or two of clearing the pass.

I hope this helps!

 

[JasonH]

With that in mind, my anecdotal guidance would be not to worry about locking out top gears and focus on monitoring temp and managing speed.

I have a 3rd gen with the six speed, so behavior on the 4th gen might be a bit different. But even in tow haul I would regularly see 6th gear, even while towing. I actively tried to keep it in 6th because I thought it was so cool that it could handle the load in top gear, and I wanted to maximize my mpg on long trips. Then my manifolds warped.

So the issue isn't just the load, it's how the engine handles the load and where the heat is generated. By using the higher gears, the engine will generate more boost. This will result in higher temps in the coolant, oil, and manifolds as well. The newer Ford stainless manifolds are supposedly more resistant to warping, but I wouldn't bet they are completely impervious. Point being, don't assume that because the coolant temps are managed that there isn't excessive heat elsewhere in the engine plumbing or fluids.

 

[Craig Payne]

I have a 3rd gen with the six speed, so behavior on the 4th gen might be a bit different. But even in tow haul I would regularly see 6th gear, even while towing. I actively tried to keep it in 6th because I thought it was so cool that it could handle the load in top gear, and I wanted to maximize my mpg on long trips. Then my manifolds warped.

So the issue isn't just the load, it's how the engine handles the load and where the heat is generated. By using the higher gears, the engine will generate more boost. This will result in higher temps in the coolant, oil, and manifolds as well. The newer Ford stainless manifolds are supposedly more resistant to warping, but I wouldn't bet they are completely impervious. Point being, don't assume that because the coolant temps are managed that there isn't excessive heat elsewhere in the engine plumbing or fluids.

That's fair, I don't have enough knowledge or experience to know if that is what caused your manifold warping. I have heard the revisions to the 2018+ Expeditions helped tremendously to improve the towing performance of the vehicle, so maybe the newer parts really do perform better?

I suppose at the end of the day, it probably still wouldn't affect @tpagolfnut 's issues of the engine temp rising when pulling weight at higher grades as I would bet his transmission had shifted down below those gears anyway. I would say to tpagolfnut, try adjusting speed down if you see temp rising and see if it improves your experience, and if you're not satisfied, test if limiting your gears gives you satisfactory performance.

 

[Left Coast Geek]

gen 4 Expy's (2018+) have a Tow/Haul mode that causes the engine to use a gear or two lower than it might otherwise... it can still shift up into 10th, but only if you're just cruising on level or downhill where there's no real load, otherwise its more likely to use 8th cruising at 55-60 mph. Highly recommend using this any time you're pulling a trailer over a few 1000 lbs. Tow/Haul mode also improves engine braking, if you brake down to your desired speed on a downhill, then let off on the brakes, it will downshift several gears and hold that, letting the engine rev to like 4500 rpm. this is far better than riding the brakes down a long grade.

You can tell a G4 has a HD tow package if there's a 4L and rear axle lockup button aroiund the drive mode knob (only use these at low speeds off road, however!).

towing 5000+ lbs, I recommend using a WDH, Weight Distribution Hitch.

check your engine oil and coolant levels daily. at about 8000 miles into my 10000 mile Mexican adventure this winter, my Expy developed a coolant leak from one of the heater hoses. I was adding a gallon jug of ready-mix coolant daily for about a week til I could bring it to a shop that was able to bypass the heater core (the correct hose would have taken a week I didn't have), I got the heater hose fixed properly at a dealer in Phoenix the day after I crossed back over the border.

 

[tpagolfnut]

I really appreciate all your help on this. I took my camper back out on the road this past week. Drove from Phx up to Flagstaff with no problems at all. After reading all the comments in this thread It really is pretty easy to tow with the gen4. I have a 5500 lb camper and there were no issues. Now i know that I have to really monitor my gauges and adjust the speed accordingly i feel like a pro. I am now up in colorado camping for the next month. A couple weeks ago I never would have thought it possible. Just takes some practice and nice people to assist.... thanks again...