Install Success

[Jackpine]

It's fairly normal to see the lock only in O/D, BigSur (sorry I'm late getting back to you but we took the trailer off camping up on Mt Graham and there's no internet, or anything else, including potable water, where we were). There IS a beautiful mountain stream though.

If you lock out the O/D, I'm sure you'll see the TC lock up in third. When I'm pulling my trailer up the mountain, I usually put the transmission into 2nd gear, to keep it from shifting so much. The TC will lock up in 2nd too, when the loading is right.

The shifts I was talking about are the "Part Throttle 1-2, 2-3 and 3-4 upsift/downshifts". They're in the custom options menu, I think next to the TC lock/unlock choice. These only effect when shifting occurs in "normal driving", when you accelerate like average traffic in town. The WOT shifting behavior is completely separate from this.

Part throttle shifting is governed by speed and by throttle position. If you increase the throttle, up and down shifting occurs at higher speeds. With a positive adjustment, up and down shifting would occur at an even higher speed at a given throttle position.

- Jack

[BigSur]

Originally Posted by JackandJanet

It's fairly normal to see the lock only in O/D, BigSur (sorry I'm late getting back to you but we took the trailer off camping up on Mt Graham and there's no internet, or anything else, including potable water, where we were). There IS a beautiful mountain stream though.

If you lock out the O/D, I'm sure you'll see the TC lock up in third. When I'm pulling my trailer up the mountain, I usually put the transmission into 2nd gear, to keep it from shifting so much. The TC will lock up in 2nd too, when the loading is right.

The shifts I was talking about are the "Part Throttle 1-2, 2-3 and 3-4 upsift/downshifts". They're in the custom options menu, I think next to the TC lock/unlock choice. These only effect when shifting occurs in "normal driving", when you accelerate like average traffic in town. The WOT shifting behavior is completely separate from this.

Part throttle shifting is governed by speed and by throttle position. If you increase the throttle, up and down shifting occurs at higher speeds. With a positive adjustment, up and down shifting would occur at an even higher speed at a given throttle position.

- Jack

Thanks for clarifying. I might give that a try. The truck has only done this once since my May camping trip, and that was over this past weekend when starting up a hill. I went a spoke with my mechanic yesterday (Ford specific), and he stated that I shouldn't have any worry of damaging anything and that it would be hard for them to diagnose the problem if it can't be repeated. With that said, I think I'm going to wait for my custom tune, load it, and see how it drives. I'll either need to make changes all the way around or hopefully just to the tow tune.

Hope you had a good time on your trip. Sounds fun.

[Jackpine]

Just a quick note to add to 88's great graphs on transmission temps and longevity - About three weeks ago we took a trip with the trailer up north to Mesa Verde, CO. The interstate north of Phoenix drops down into the Verde Valley and then climbs (and climbs) back out. The outside temperature on that trip was about 104 degrees, and I was in 2nd gear on the incline at between 60-65 mph. My TFT reached 225 degrees briefly in that pull. When on the flat though, it stayed more in the 170 degrees region.

Pulling the trailer up Mt Graham last week (about a 7000 ft climb), the TFT only got to about 208 degrees. The outside temperature was in the nineties (dropping as we climbed) and because of the VERY twisty road, our speed was about 25-30 mph, again, in 2nd gear.

So, towing does heat up things, but not unduly unless you are doing a lot of uphill pulls in hot weather. In my case, the "average" temperature stays in the "safe" zone.

- Jack

[BigSur]

Originally Posted by JackandJanet

Just a quick note to add to 88's great graphs on transmission temps and longevity - About three weeks ago we took a trip with the trailer up north to Mesa Verde, CO. The interstate north of Phoenix drops down into the Verde Valley and then climbs (and climbs) back out. The outside temperature on that trip was about 104 degrees, and I was in 2nd gear on the incline at between 60-65 mph. My TFT reached 225 degrees briefly in that pull. When on the flat though, it stayed more in the 170 degrees region.

Pulling the trailer up Mt Graham last week (about a 7000 ft climb), the TFT only got to about 208 degrees. The outside temperature was in the nineties (dropping as we climbed) and because of the VERY twisty road, our speed was about 25-30 mph, again, in 2nd gear.

So, towing does heat up things, but not unduly unless you are doing a lot of uphill pulls in hot weather. In my case, the "average" temperature stays in the "safe" zone.

- Jack

My apologies...I do have one more follow-up question. SO, since I'm not noticing any premature TC locking in 1st or 2nd gear, I will probably leave this setting alone. That leaves me to the part throttle adjustment. Your recommendation is to scale it back a little, hence causing the truck to shift a little earlier, correct? Being that this is for my tow tune, would I want to do that? Wouldn't I want to shift at higher RPM's when towing?

Again, hopefully my 87 perf tune will run better and I won't have to adjust much but I might as well get my Level 2 in good working order now...while I'm running it. Thanks again Jack. Can't say enough how much I appreciate all the help.

[Jackpine]

You're right, I probably confused things a bit in my last post, since I did not go back a reread the entire thread. Yes, I said to REDUCE the part throttle up/downshift points (negative values). I wanted to get the truck into higher gear sooner to reduce what you felt was a hard 1-2 upshift. (I was thinking there would be slightly less torque being applied at an earlier shift point).

You can only change this value for 1-2 and 2-1 by +/- 2, so the change is not going to be great. I doubt it will hurt anything even when towing. Bill has said he feels the truck is geared too low in 1st anyway. I agree. I just want it in 1st long enough to start moving, then I want it in 2nd.

I think I'd still INCREASE the TC lockup/unlock points for 1st and 2nd gears though. You COULD be getting such a momentary lockup that it doesn't register on the Gryphon.

- Jack

[BigSur]

Originally Posted by JackandJanet

You're right, I probably confused things a bit in my last post, since I did not go back a reread the entire thread. Yes, I said to REDUCE the part throttle up/downshift points (negative values). I wanted to get the truck into higher gear sooner to reduce what you felt was a hard 1-2 upshift. (I was thinking there would be slightly less torque being applied at an earlier shift point).

You can only change this value for 1-2 and 2-1 by +/- 2, so the change is not going to be great. I doubt it will hurt anything even when towing. Bill has said he feels the truck is geared too low in 1st anyway. I agree. I just want it in 1st long enough to start moving, then I want it in 2nd.

I think I'd still INCREASE the TC lockup/unlock points for 1st and 2nd gears though. You COULD be getting such a momentary lockup that it doesn't register on the Gryphon.

- Jack

I'll do this sometime soon and will follow up to let you know how it does. Talk to you later.