I thought Ford Auto's were P.O.S. - Maybe not

[jimnance]

I had a hot shot load today. He had a Ford Dually with 250,000 miles pulling a 30' Gooseneck. He typically grosses between 25 and 35K. I was surprised to see that he had an auto transmission so I asked him how it was working.



He said that he had done nothing to the transmission in 250,000 miles except service it regularly. He has not chipped the truck and drives the transmission by the temp guage. At 180 F he starts backing off, and before 200 F he drops to a lower gear. He never runs in lock up except on the flats above 55 MPH.



On some very steep hills he has even pulled over to give the transmission a chance to cool down. It sounded like great advice, so I thought I'd post it.



If he can get 250K out of a Ford automatic we ought to be able to get 400K out of our 48RE if we treat them nice.

 

[TSterner]

i have a friend that had 450,000 plus before hers went south(ford). iamb not sure if she ever servicesed it not regularly for sure. she was only towing campers but thats still a lot of miles





ted

 

[Bertram65]

Interesting,

I wonder how he keeps it from locking up below 55?, the 48RE will lock 3rd and hold it while slowing down to about 45mph. I would think trying to keep the TC from locking would produce more hear from the fluid shear than letting it lock up.

 

[JCleary]

Interesting,

I wonder how he keeps it from locking up below 55?, the 48RE will lock 3rd and hold it while slowing down to about 45mph. I would think trying to keep the TC from locking would produce more hear from the fluid shear than letting it lock up.

He must have a controller for it. Each PSD I've had through work ( '96, '99, '00, '03, '04) all lock up in 2nd through top gear, even on acceleration. It's annoying driving a 4 speed that thinks it's a 7 speed. You mash the pedal and the torque converter locks and pulls rpms down.



I do like the new Torqshift trannies though. They click off positive shifts and behave well while towing heavy. I cannot speak to reliability though, as the two I have here have 43k and 53k.