What is the right way to tow?

curious54 · 11-04-2006, 12:27 PM

I just bought a Titan Crew cab 4x4 with the big tow package. I have a Forest River Surveyor SV235rs travel trailer with a dry weight of 3699lbs. I have been towing this with my 2005 Toyota Landcruiser with overdrive on (4th gear) all through my trips. Reading the forums here re: turning overdrive on or off is a bit confussing. I need to know what the right way to drive with this kind of load and any other helpful tips I can get. thanks

Ramon · 11-04-2006, 01:53 PM

I have a 04 (XE) titan without the big tow package. I tow a Forest River Surveyor SV264 dry weight of 4053lbs with no problem at all. The owners manuel says to drive in 4th gear. I have alway used 4th with the tow mode on. I would highly recommend you change your rearend fluid after every couple of trips.

Smoke05 · 11-04-2006, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramon

I have a 04 (XE) titan without the big tow package. I tow a Forest River Surveyor SV264 dry weight of 4053lbs with no problem at all. The owners manuel says to drive in 4th gear. I have alway used 4th with the tow mode on. I would highly recommend you change your rearend fluid after every couple of trips.

Why on earth would you change rearend fluid after every couple of trips? That is expensive and nuts considering the Titan runs synthetic fluid that doesn't breakdown and has a much longer service life than nonsynthetic. Doing a change in the first 5,000 miles to get rid of any debris that may have worked itself loose during break in I could understand. If your worried about potential failure, stop wasting your money on fluid changes as that is not the problem.

**loufish** · 11-05-2006, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Reading the forums here re: turning overdrive on or off is a bit confussing.

No problem, here at TitanTalk we are the confusion eliminators

For the Titan towing a trailer such as yours, leave it 4th, don't run the cruise control in hill/mountain roads and use the Tow Mode.
Now IF you're on really flat terrain, you might be be able to get away with small uses of 5th(OD) long as the torque converter is locking up, otherwise stay in 4th.

Another poster mentioned changing rear end fluid every few trips or so. I would not recomend that, a waste of money, but I would change the fluid(even if it was synthetic) after a few thousand miles to allow max break-in time, then after a re-fill with the correct oil you can kind of forget about it for quite while.

Nice trailer choice, I'm looking at trailers right now in the size range.

Ramon · 11-05-2006, 07:09 AM

The reason why I recommend you change your rear end fluid after a every few trips. I also own a 04 Armada that I towed a 3000lb pu camper on a 1000 mile trip. I just changed my rear end fluid with synthetic before the trip. A month later we went camping again about 100 miles from home. On my way home the rear end went out. The dealer replaced it under warranty. The tech said the rear end was real low on fluid. I used Royal Purple, I now use BG Utra-guard in my Armada and Titan. Nothing wrong with Royal Purple just think BG products are the best on the market. These rearends get real hot, that causes oil to break down. Time and synthetic oil is cheap compared to the problems of breaking down on the road.

AgTitan06 · 11-05-2006, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramon

The reason why I recommend you change your rear end fluid after a every few trips. I also own a 04 Armada that I towed a 3000lb pu camper on a 1000 mile trip. I just changed my rear end fluid with synthetic before the trip. A month later we went camping again about 100 miles from home. On my way home the rear end went out. The dealer replaced it under warranty. The tech said the rear end was real low on fluid. I used Royal Purple, I now use BG Utra-guard in my Armada and Titan. Nothing wrong with Royal Purple just think BG products are the best on the market. These rearends get real hot, that causes oil to break down. Time and synthetic oil is cheap compared to the problems of breaking down on the road.

Don't you think it could have been low because it was leaking when the rearend went out?

TitanBlue · 11-05-2006, 09:04 AM

If it was already changed to Royal Purple (a premium product with no detractors) then a leaking rear would be the obvious cause of it being low and causing the rear to overheat and burn up or explode. Just heat from towing should not causse such a loss of fluid.

What year is your truck and what did dealer say was cause of low level. The "why" is always more important than the "fix".

**loufish** · 11-05-2006, 04:56 PM

I'm sorry you had a rear end issue, there is no way with a good synthetic oil at the correct level that it should need changing after a few thousand miles towing a 3000 lb trailer.
Sometimes something happens right after we do something else, the first thought is "it must be because I did such and such..." It's actually poor logic. Not everything is connected and when you know more about the systems affected you start looking elsewere.

Smoke05 · 11-05-2006, 06:48 PM

Quote:

These rearends get real hot, that causes oil to break down. Time and synthetic oil is cheap compared to the problems of breaking down on the road.

They get no hotter than the other trucks in the Titan's class. Once again, synthetics are very resistant to breakdown. Dirt is the biggest enemy of synthetics. For example, synthetic motor oils biggest limitation, in most cases, is that it will outlast the oil filter. If running synthetic and if you are you're fast enough, you can change an oil filter and top off the crankcase without doing a full drain and the oil will return to a clean appearance in a day or two once the impurities are filtered out. Low rear diff fluid is the result of a leak or improper filling. There is no way it got burned out of the diff.

Ramon · 11-06-2006, 05:34 AM

I also own a 2001 Chevy HD2500 that I tow a 6000lb trialer with equipment. I have felt the rear end many times with my hand. I can hold my hand on it as long as like. The rear ends on the Armada and Titan are to hot to touch for long. My Nissans out tow my chevy, but I don't understand why the rear end gets so much hotter.

BigA · 11-06-2006, 06:15 AM

I was going to have my dealer change my rearend fluid, they said not worry about changing it until 30K, and even then its a little premature.

Quad T · 11-06-2006, 07:49 AM

I tow in 4th a good percentage of the time, but frequently on the expressway I shift into 5th and the rpms drop right down to where they should be with the converter locked. When running for hours at a time I see no reason to hang out in 4th when I can get away with 5th. I have also seen my tranny temps drop slightly in 5th, but again, this is on expressway driving only without much elevation change, all other times it is 4th for sure and keep in mind, my load is less than 5,000 pounds...

**loufish** · 11-06-2006, 08:13 PM

Quote:

When running for hours at a time I see no reason to hang out in 4th when I can get away with 5th. I have also seen my tranny temps drop slightly in 5th, but again, this is on expressway driving only without much elevation change, all other times it is 4th for sure and keep in mind, my load is less than 5,000 pounds...

Well said...Some people have no idea what their truck is doing..."Torque converter lock up, whats that?" If you don't know then stay in 4th!