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Hauling with 95 chevy 2500

R

rrman61

Well-known Member
About to haul an empty 20' shipping container about 170 miles with my 18' bumper pull flatbed trailer.my truck is a 8600 gvw with 5.7 gas engine and 4 speed (3 plus overdrive).my question is should I use overdrive or leave it in 3rd? The trailer and container weighs around 10,500 lbs.
 
I would use overdrive and just downshift on hills etc. probably more wind resistance pulling that container than anything else.
 
You are towing at max weight for that truck stay in third gear.If you read manual it will tell you to tow in third and not use the over drive.
 
That big sail behind you will start pulling hard about 45 and rapidly get "heavier" as you speed up. As for O.D. or not I let the truck tell me what it wants. With my V10 Ford if it is constantly shifting down or struggling I use tow/haul but sometimes drop a gear manually and everything seems happier including fuel usage.
 
Watch your temperature.

I hauled a huge plastic water tank once. It weighed practically nothing, but somehow it must have deprived the radiator of air. Anything over 30 MPH it would start overheating.

It is still a mystery what was happening. Once delivered the problem went away, found nothing wrong.
 
Your question will be answered once you start pulling. My guess is that with that L05 small block 350, you are not going to have the horsepower to pull it in overdrive anyway. It's only rated at 210HP, and that was when it was new.

That transmission is just the venerable old TH400 with an overdrive scabbed on anyway. Those had hundreds of millions of miles running in 3rd gear, because there was no 4th. No worries about running in 3rd either way.

Only thing is I'm pretty sure it does not have a lockup torque converter so make sure your transmission cooler is in good shape. Take it easy and it should be just fine.
 
Is a tranny temperature gauge in the budget? It will certainly warn you if there is a problem on the horizon.

Aaron
 
Pretty big load but we do what we have to. I would run in drive,3rd and set cruise at a safe speed 50-60 mph if road conditions allow.
 

The wind resistance will be more of a challenge than the weight. Forget using over-drive. Your truck will be happy if you do not try to exceed 40 to 45 mph.
 
Hold it out of overdrive!

When I was with Ford, we had a Crown Vic towed in that appeared to have a seized engine. It turned out there was nothing wrong with the engine, the transmission was locked up. The guy had been towing a camper in OD and the trans had gotten so hot there were actually aluminum parts welded together.
 
The truck will pull it in 3rd,wouldn't want to try overdrive at all. My other concern is how much weight are you putting on the hitch since you can't shift the load around and you are doubling the gvw of the truck
 
with an 18' trailer you will have trouble getting ballaneced properly. Make sure the doors are forward as that is the heavy and and hold it all the way forward.
 
That happened to me once. Had a huge tail wind. But the real reason was the radiator was packed with fescue seed. Only to see it or clean it was to take eberything apart up front.
 
It will be cheaper for you to buy a different container there once you figure all expences in. That truck-trailer combo will get you ticked and all the fines that go with it. That is after you wreck your truck because it cannot handle the load safly.
 
Your outfit might weigh somewhere between 16,000 to 18,000 pounds, but weight is not the only consideration. A shipping container will have an awful lot of wind resistance, maybe more than a smooth sided semi trailer. 40 to 45 MPH might be about as fast as you can or would want to pull that.
 
Must be a very heavy trailer. My 40' seal-land container has a TARE weight of 8602#. That brings a 20' container in around 4500# and that brings your trailer in at 6000# to get up to 10,5K.
Overdrive in not going to work anytime your pulling a trailer. Hope you at least have a transmission cooler to go with your endeavor and with that, the cheaper you go, the less distance you go.
 
(quoted from post at 05:23:42 07/23/18) HP is not the problem trucks hauled loads for yrs without 200 HP
Click to expand...

That's not the question. He can tow it, especially if he doesn't care when he gets there. He could chug down the road in 2nd gear at 35MPH if that's what it takes.

He's got designs of being able to move this thing in OVERDRIVE. That takes HP. More than 200.
 
The trailer weighs around 2200 pounds and yes it is very heavy but for some reason I was thinking the 20 ft container weighed around 8000
 
I will do what it takes I have nothing but time and I am making a spoiler I guess you would call it for the wind resistance attached to the container.
 
20' Dry Cargo Container SPECIFICATIONS
8'6" STANDARD
Inside Cubic Capacity 32.8cu.m (1,158 cu.ft)
Cargo Capacity 21,640 kg (47,716 Ibs.)
Tare weight 2,360 kg (5,204 Ibs.)
OUTSIDE: INSIDE: OUTSIDE: INSIDE:
Length 6.05m (19.84 ft) 5.90m (19.35 ft)
Width 2.44m (8.00 ft) 2.35m (7.71 ft)
Height 2.59m (8.50 ft)

7seas-group.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/sea_container-Sizes.pdf
 
so around 7400 lbs plus wind resistance.sounds like 3rd gear and a long trip.not my first rodeo just wanted a concencus on using 3rd for that long a trip.and yes it has heavy duty oil and transmission coolers
 
After see the weight of trailer and container you should be able to pull that. The wind would be you only problem if it hit on one of the front corners or broad side. If no wind you should make good time. If its a hot day you will have to watch how hot that tranny gets. I have a 97 Gmc K1500 with same engine and tranny with oil coolers on engine and trans. as you have in your 3/4 ton and had to replace the trans. several months back. I was pulling a tractor and trailer totaling around 13,000 lbs. and dealer said heat took its toll from pulling that much weight.
 
I have a 97 same truck,no OD, and the wind will be the only problem. My PU and camper weighs right at 14,000# and I can run 65 all day long, 70 is just a wast of gas and transmissions.
 
should only weigh about 7k total give or take a little the can weighs 5200 plus your trailer 2000? long way from 10500
 
(quoted from post at 13:26:28 07/23/18) so around 7400 lbs plus wind resistance.sounds like 3rd gear and a long trip.not my first rodeo just wanted a concencus on using 3rd for that long a trip.and yes it has heavy duty oil and transmission coolers
Click to expand...

Don't know if I said this earlier, but the trans in that truck is just a GM Turbo 400 3-speed, with the overdrive scabbed on. Many millions of miles were logged on that transmission design in 3rd gear, so no problem running in 3rd.
 
I bought a 97 Ford PSD that was on it's third tranny in 15K miles. Total miles on the truck was 258K. I put in a trans temp gauge and it pegged under load. It turns out that the garage had not cleaned the cooler which was burning up the new trannys. I upsized the cooler (stock was identical to a 94 Ford Tempo trans cooler) and all was well.

Hope your trip goes well.

Aaron
 
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