me and my wife are moving from Texas to Maryland. I have a 2002 F150 FX4 Crew Cab 4X4 w/ a 5.4 and an auto transmission in it. I am going to be towing our 2002 Jeep Wrangler. My question is can I use overdrive towing the jeep all the way up there? I think i've read somewhere that they don't recommend using overdrive towing cars or boats. But I would like to clear it up. its about a 1500 mile trip and would love to save some gas!!! thanks for any help.

 

It's okay to run OD as long as it's not shifting back and forth a lot.

By that I mean, if you are running in OD and you find you have to give it more gas to maintain speed and then it shifts into third and when it gets going again and shifts back into OD and then this happens again, it's bettter to just leave it in third the whole time.

Are you flat towing the Jeep or is it on a trailer? Only reason I ask is because on a trailer, you just have more weight to deal with....

Towing anything and running in OD is not going to save any significant amount of gas anyway unless you can hold OD for very long periods of time.

I find that even towing my little 4x8 utility trailer with about #1000 loaded on it, and being able to keep it in OD most of the time, my mpg's are about 2-3 less then running empty....

Now, towing my #4500 TT, I can only put it on OD on downhill runs and on the flats if there is zero head wind.... I get about 10 mpg towing the TT. Most of the time it's in third running around 2500 rpms.

I find even if you are in OD and it's holding speed, I have to press just a bit more on the gas to maintain that speed (~65 mph). Yes, the rpms are less... Something like 1700, but I'm having to dump more gas into the cylinders to maintain that.... Running in third at 2500 rpms, I don't have to press the gas pedal as much, so to me it's a wash anyway.....

All you can do it try it and if it holds OD, then let it stay there..... If you find you are having to press the gas pedal down more, and it's still holding OD, then you are still using more fuel anyway, so your savings start going away real fast!

Good luck!

Mitch

 

only thing i can think of is a tow dolly from uhaul
http://www.uhaul.com/guide/?equipment=towdolly if you have any suggestions i'd be all ears.

 

Good luck with your journey. i did the same back in 2001. Killeen, TX to York PA.
I bought a car trailer because it was almost as cheep as renting. the trailer was only $900 but i had to do some work to it once i got it home to make it legal in this state.
As for the towing in OD. most of the way its flat (and boring) so OD can be used but when the trans starts hunting then turn OD off.

 

I haven't yet had the chance to actually tow anything behind my three-weeks-new-to-me '02 Scab (5.4 and automatic); but I found out something last time I took a long haul over some hilly terrain with a heaily loaded horse trailer. In my wife's '02 Ram (automatic and the 5.9L H.O. - a "new breed" Mopar 360); I found the truck spent most of its time in third gear anyway, and that with OD "off" it would hold a particular vehicle speed at anywhere from 300-500 RPM's lower than with the OD "on" but kicked down into third! I don't know whether it was a different valve-body setting or if there was some difference in torque converter operation; but I do know that the lower engine speed made for around 1/2MPG improvement. Not a lot of difference, but it was a six-hour freeway-speed trip. Enough difference to make the fuel consumption only really bad as opposed to stunningly bad (I did mention this was a Dodge 360!)

I have a nice 3-day weekend coming up to lessen the the blow of working an 8-day stretch starting Tuesday; perhaps I'll get a chance to hang a brake controller in the F150 and throw the horse trailer (two horses and associated "stuff") on the back for a cruise out to East County and back - maybe see what this li'l 5.4 can do.

If anybody can help an old redneck electrician and radio geek understand the operation and idiosyncrases of modern AOD's, please help me out here. Last auto tranny I dug into was the C6 in my '72 F100

 

900 bucks wow. at the uhaul dealer i am getting the auto transport trailer. my jeep sits all four wheels on it. I get the trailer for 7 days w/ insurance for 350 bucks. so i'll probably go that rout. thanks for all info guys. i appreciate it. http://www.uhaul.com/guide/?equipment=autotransport

 

Why not a tow bar? Wranglers tow really well on all fours. Tow bars are readily available and you can re-use it or sell it later. I would remove both driveshafts on the Jeep so that you don't damage your transfercase. This only takes a few minutes but make sure you stamp the u-joints and yokes for reallignment on re-install to eliminate any drive line vibrations. Also make sure you check the transfercase fluid level before you drive it again, depending on your model of transfercase you will probably lose some fluid. Hang and temporarily wire some cheap trailer lights and you are good to go.
Check with Quadratech for that tow bar. www.quadratec.com

 

I think that some Walmarts may have magnetic mount lights for an application such as pulling on all four tires.

 

yeah that sounds great but I have plenty of money and I don't mind spending the money to rent the trailer above. thanks though

 

Send me some then!

Just make sure to keep the torque converter locked up. With 3.55s at 65-70mph, it should be at ~2000rpm. You can tell if the torque converter isn't locked up because when you give it a little more gas, the rpms will smoothly go up instead of sharply (like a downshift).