Towing question

[channelfats]

I have a 04 ranger, 4.0 RWD. I tow a fairly light boat, 14' with a 30 on back, somewhat basic aluminum boat. Is there a general top end speed(freeway) I should not go over when towing with O/D off? My manual is somewhat fuzzy in clearly defining this.

Thanks gentlemen

Joe

[auggie78]

I have an 07 Jeep liberty, 3.7 with a basic 14' with a 15 on back. I will set the cruise at 75 and have never had any problems

[channelfats]

The issues are mostly on the freeway. When I need to pass or just speed up in general from say 55 on the freeway to cruising at 70(never over for me)it takes forever to get to 70, then when I come to a hill it looses speed much easier than it seems like it should. When I shut the overdrive off I get enough power but it just eats so much gas. And it seems to me that my boat is light enough that it shouldnt really affect much hanging behind the truck. Hence my original ? of is the vehicles drive train designed to tow with overdrive off at freeway speeds? Or is there possibly another underlying issue I should be looking at?

All maintenance is kept up on.

Thanks

[channelfats]

P.s I cant afford another vehicle, and I really dont want to acquire any torque conv, or tranny bills. Im just trying to be mindfull of the longevity of this vehicle.

[sdpikehntr]

your truck is fine! You need to just be careful towing... you have to remember you have a load on the back, and a ranger is not a full sized truck. Basically the tranny is set to run with a very small load or non at all, SO, with that said, you need to drive for your truck not for the others on the road. You need to be aware of how the transmission shifts and handles the load. The main thing to listen to is the shift out of the torque converter, if you want to save on fuel try to keep it locked in. Keeping locked may mean you have to do 70 down hill but 50 up hill and don't use the cruise. You need to "message" the foot pedal and just get a feel for the transmission.

I had a ranger in the good old days and it went 170,000 mi. before I sold it, and i pulled a 14' lund with a 40 for year and it did just fine. But I never won any races with it!

[SkunkedAgain]

My '07 Ranger (4.0L v6) pulled my 16' Fisher with a 35hp for two years. It pulled fine and I never worried about turning off overdrive, although it would downshift if I used cruise control while going up hills.

Fast forward to last year and I've got a 16' Navigator with a 90hp hanging on the back. I really had to message the pedal going up hills, easing off a ton to keep it from downshifting. After a few trips I decided that it wasn't worth it and now just drive with the overdrive turned off.

Your truck is fine and can tow a lot. Keep in mind that the faster you drive, the harder it will be for the truck to maintain speed while towing a boat. There's nothing wrong with towing at 65mph in the right lane.