Chevy & GMC Vans

I have towed with my Astro numerous times and was extremely impressed and pleased with it's capability. I couldn't even tell anything was hitched. I now am facing a much larger situation. I need to tow my 1963 Ford Falcon from Phoenix, AZ to Mission Viejo, CA; 400 miles. I've towed this exact set-up before, but it was only about 100 miles.
I have 3.23 gears which is not good, I know, but the air bags and tranny cooler is set-up to do this no problem and should help. My thought is once in Phoenix, to have my trans flushed as it's got 50k on the fluid and that way it will be fresh for the tow back. This original trans has 148k total with two flushes in it's lifetime.
I also want to install a temp gauge. I see a few on ebay for $10-$20 so I'll do that to help monitor the trip. Anyone have a pillar mount they don't need?
As for the gauge hookup, can someone confirm the threads please? It's on the driver side of the trrans, correct? I remember seeing someone's post with pics...
Any other thoughts?

Check out the "Transmission Cooler" topic stickied in the Trans section. There are pics from my 98 Astro installation.

got it, thanks.
Looks like I can get the gauge from ebay for less than $20 shipped from any number of places. The pillar pod is more than the gauge though, go figure. Best deal I could find on the pod, $22

http://www.re-racing.com/Gauges/Dual-Po ... 09802.html

Anywhere else to check for a better deal?

That's about as cheap as you will get for a dual pod. Make sure the gauge you get has the sender in it. You need 1/8" pipe thread.

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If it were my Astro/Safari van, I would install an LPD (Low Pressure Drop) Design Aux Tranny cooler that is rated tow up to 7,000 lbs. For example: http://www.makcotransmissionparts.com/OC-1679.html

As per my local tranny specialist (who rebuilt the tranny in my previous AWD Van), the Astro/Safari tranny oil always runs hot. Even for typical soccer parent driving conditions, the factory cooling system isn't enough. Thus, installing a larger size tranny cooler then needed (based on math numbers) is a great thing. Especially if one is towing / heavy hauling things with their van. When installing, I like to use 2 x vertical steel braces and keep aux tranny cooler approx 1" away from its AC Rad. To me, I never did like the idea of sandwiching the Aux cooler and AC cooler together via plastic pull ties. Having minimum 1" air gap between both rads make good sense to me. Especially when going with larger size aux rad.

And if wondering, my tranny specialst recommends aux tranny cooler (even minimum 5,000 lbs size) be installed in all Astro/Safari vans. Even if the van is only driven for soccer parents. The 460LE transmissions do NOT like heat. Even from a proactive perspective, keeping their transmissions cooler is a great thing to do - even if NOT towing anything.

I'd also install a transmission heat guage on the lower part of the vehicle's dash - instead of on the driver's side window pillar. If wondering, I installed several "optional" needle guages on several different vehicles. After 1 year of use and becoming "comfortable" with the new needle guage, one doesn't look at the guage very often. Especially under normal driving conditions. Thus, dash location for its optional tranny heat guage is fine. To me, having a guage on the window pillar becomes more of a blind spot - instead of a "most often used" tool. Especially if you don't tow things every day. Also... With a large aux tranny cooler, it takes much more effort to raise the tranny oil into its danger (too hot) zone.

Which heat guage location is better? Its up to you. But if one doesn't tow every day and they have a large aux tranny cooler installed, the pillar guage pod adds more blind spot - then being a usefull tool. Then again, I don't like things (like paper or stuff) on my front dash while I drive either. Some don't mind the distraction.

Hope this helps as well...

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Thanks Spike for your thoughts. If you read in my signature, you'll see my LPD cooler, been installed for years. I agree, it's needed. Having 148,000 on my original trans is proof enough for me.

I finished the trip. Whew!

I picked up the 2200 lbs U-Haul trailer and loaded my 2500 lbs (estimate) 1963 Ford Falcon on it and drove the 400 miles to CA from AZ yesterday (7-14-09). We left at 5am and arrived 4pm due to numerous stops to let "things" cool. The temps when we left were already about 90° and reached 112° along the way. Prior to leaving I paid $99 to have the trans flushed with 12 quarts of fresh fluid.

After about 60 miles on flat freeways in OD, I switched to 3rd due to rising trans temps. It reached about 250° when I decided OD was not going to be used on this trip. Upon dropping a gear, it immediately dropped to about 200°. Throughout the day the trans temps were approximately 30° warmer than the engine temps. Keep in mind I hava a 24,000 cooler installed, but on the downside, my rear gears, 3.23 make this situation much worse than if I had left the 3.42 installed. Ah, hindsight!

The Astro towed like nothing was back there and had I not installed the trans temp gauge, I would have never know anything was wrong. But with each long incline, the trans would rise and take a considerable amount of time to cool down, thus having to pull over to let it cool 5 times during our trip. Any time it rose to 230° or higher, I stopped.

At normal operating and outside temps, the engine is about 180° and the trans is 210° tops. If I were doing regular long distance towing, I would be forced to change the gearing and I believe this would correct these high trans temps. Keep in mind, I don't believe 5000 lbs on a 110° afternoon climbing a long grade is going to be easy for any set-up.

All in all, the Astro pulled through with no major trouble at all; we averaged 19.36 mpg! We never reached speeds over 60mph so I'm sure that had something to do with the high mpg, but still, towing 5000lbs? I'd say pretty damn good.

I hope I didn't do any damage when the trans temps rose. The fluid, changed just prior to leaving AZ doesn't look or smell burnt. I'm thankful I installed the trans temp gauge too. Cheap and easy insurance. BTW, I installed it just the way the stick described. I did find a slight radiator leak on the driver's side. I never noticed it before. I'll monitor it to see if it persist when not under such a strain. I guess I'll be swapping that out sometime in the future regardless.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO THIS FORUM. The information and insight provides so much help, I really appreciate everyone here. God bless.

Glad everything went well. These vans tow just fine. No worries.

Those temps are why the #1 mod is an aux cooler and a temp gauge. I also HIGHLY recommend synthetic fluid.

As the trans is 150k past new, I'll hold off on the synthetic fluid. After it gets a rebuild, hopefully not anytime soon, i'll start is off with the good fluid as you recommend.

And the Hugest Aux trans cooler, fit for a full-size Motorhome.... Biggest is better, because our trannies Hate Heat !

SoCalli V8 wrote:And the Hugest Aux trans cooler, fit for a full-size Motorhome.... Biggest is better, because our trannies Hate Heat !

I have a 24,000 GVW cooler installed now.

With my newly installed gauge, i see my trans consistently runs 30° higher than engine temp. I'm surprised as I have the huge cooler installed. Around town in stop and go, in 100° weather the engine hits 200° easily, that put the trans at 230°, remarkably high I believe. They state anything higher than 240° is damaging fluid, friction plates, etc.

On average, the engine runs roughly 175°, putting the trans at roughly 200°. That is as high as I'd like to see it reach. On the freeway, at any outside temp, all seems fine thankfully.

I bypassed my radiator trans cooler, because that is for warming and maintaining the fluid temperature in colder snowy climates, we don`t see those kinda lows here in SoCal / Arizona. I just use my 12 x 12 x 1inch thick air to air cooler, sized for a motorhome, I never see 180F on my trans guage while towing in 110f +, 200 miles each way out to Glamis (huge offroad sand dune area) or the Colorado river.

For trans longevity, you definately have to stay below 200f. When my trans finally takes a dump, I`m gonna get it built by these guys http://www.bowtieoverdrives.com they really know their ch1t and all the mods needed for our trannies. They have a phat reputation around here....

So you advise bypassing the rad cooler to lower the trans temps? I do understand being in SoCal, we really don't need to heat the trans fluid like other climates.

Anyone else have any advise on this?

I would def agree with Darren on this, where I am we run our aux tranny coolers in line with the oem tranny coolers because of the cooler winter temps, but in hotter climates it is best not to do this because as you see it puts additional heatload on the engine coolant which in turn heats up the tranny fluid more, thats why Darren mentions the biggest aux tranny unit you can find and running the fluid just thru it. This way the engine coolant and tranny coolant are cooled seperately and more efficiently.