funtwodrv

So, we installed that same Haden unit after reading your earlier post. Our RV also has the “large” oem cooler as pictured in my earlier post.
We just got back from a four month trp to CO as well and the trans temp never exceeded 195 even on those long 6% grades.Our rv weighs about 20k with the Wrangler in tow. I thought this was a significant improvement over just the oem as it regularly ran 20 degrees hotter pulling long grades.
Now if I can just figure out why the instrument cluster goes dead every once in a while, I’d be a real happy owner!

Garner Ames

Thank you CJM1973 for such a detailed post and review of the outcome of installing this trans cooler. I have an almost identical set up, 2019 Chevy Express 3500 LWB 6.0L towing a 6500 lb travel trailer for family of six. Down here in central Texas I have been monitoring my trans temps with the factory cooler set up which averages 190-200 towing but as we are going to SD, black hills area this summer I was concerned about the mountain passes being that I'm already pushing 200 degrees when towing. Trans is usually running 180 when not towing. I purchased your exact set up and also went with the smaller hayden 1677 cooler mainly because you reported successful results towing over those same mountain passes where I will be going this summer and since you posted a great pic I was able to see that it will fit nicely in there while still retaining the factory cooler.

Mine was a former rental fleet vehicle purchased with 25,000 miles. After towing all over Texas last summer, I changed the trans filter and fluid and installed a trans pan with a drain plug. I was surprised to see the fluid was already reddish brown with only 30,000 miles. This got me thinking about adding the cooler as I agree the factory one doesn't seem great for towing. Although these vans make great towing vehicles, I suspect the majority of passenger van owners don't tow with them so GM didnt see fit to design something else. After one year of camping trips, I have yet to see another travel trailer being towed by a GM van but especially with the discontinuation of the suburban 2500, these are about the only game in town for larger familys that need towing capability.

cjm1973

Properly equipped, these vans are the unicorns of "travel trailer towing world". GVWR, payload and wheelbase are plentiful for most trailers under 9000K lbs. Since taking ownership of ours 2 years ago, we've only seen a handful of GM vans towing larger trailers (greater than 30'). I've seen a few Nissan NV3500s too but the GM platform seems to be a rarity at campgrounds. We have a family of 5 and only use the first 3 rows of seating. This gives us so much interior space to load all the kids toys, bikes, bbqs, inflatable kayaks and anything else that's essential for a camping trip. I think most RVers don't realize how capable these vans are with larger families. That mentality to have a "4x4 truck" is also a big influence as to why vans aren't used very often. For the value, our GM vans can't be beat (only spent $36K on a fully loaded 2019). Unfortunately, I had fly to St. Louis to take delivery of the last one east of the Mississippi spec'd they way I wanted (tow package, sliding door, G80 locker).

I recently took delivery of a new GMC Sierra 1500 6.2L with max trailering pkg. MSRP was nearly $69K. Yes, it does have all the bells and whistles at a significant price. But what it doesn't have is space. Several weeks ago, I attempted to load the bed with everything that we would normally bring camping but found myself running out of room. This was the first time in 2 years I had to start making decision on what to take and what to leave behind. Plus, just getting the kids into one row of seating was a challenge with two being in car seats. I kept thinking the entire time, "let's just take the van". lol The truck is now decommissioned as a tow vehicle and will be only used as my summer daily driver.

We bought the van originally for an "RV trip to Alaska". Our plans have been postposed for over 16 months now. This past week, there has been US/Canadian talk of opening the border to non-essential travel by July 4th. So now it's a waiting game. If the border opens, we'll cancel our "east coast" RV tour and head north instead. I'm trying to get everything aligned if that does happen in the next 3 weeks (new trailer tires, new van tires, new van brakes, new van shocks, and transmission fluid change).

Regarding the Hayden transmission cooler, it's been a wonderful addition to the OE components. On average, it's lowered trans fluid temps around 20-25 degrees from where they normally were. We RV'd down to Florida over the Kentucky and Tennessee mountains about 2 months ago and the my torque app didn't see anything higher than 190. You definitely made the right decision to install one, especially if this is a long term tow vehicle for your family.

By the way if you haven't changed out the shocks yet, the OEMs are pathetic for towing and passenger comfort. I upgraded mine to KYB's at around 1000 miles. They worked great up until about 5K miles ago (currently van has 31K). Now, I think all 4 are starting to fail. The dampening and rebound control has taking a hit. The KYB shocks were cheap but this time, I'm upgrading to Bilstein 4600s. Hopefully, I'll see more longevity out of these. Will install them this weekend.

funtwodrv

[QUOTE=cjm1973;466299]Properly equipped, these vans are the unicorns of "travel trailer towing world". GVWR, payload and wheelbase are plentiful for most trailers under 9000K lbs. Since taking ownership of ours 2 years ago, we've only seen a handful of GM vans towing larger trailers (greater than 30'). I've seen a few Nissan NV3500s too but the GM platform seems to be a rarity at campgrounds. We have a family of 5 and only use the first 3 rows of seating. This gives us so much interior space to load all the kids toys, bikes, bbqs, inflatable kayaks and anything else that's essential for a camping trip. I think most RVers don't realize how capable these vans are with larger families. That mentality to have a "4x4 truck" is also a big influence as to why vans aren't used very often. For the value, our GM vans can't be beat (only spent $36K on a fully loaded 2019). Unfortunately, I had fly to St. Louis to take delivery of the last one east of the Mississippi spec'd they way I wanted (tow package, sliding door, G80 locker).

I recently took delivery of a new GMC Sierra 1500 6.2L with max trailering pkg. MSRP was nearly $69K. Yes, it does have all the bells and whistles at a significant price. But what it doesn't have is space. Several weeks ago, I attempted to load the bed with everything that we would normally bring camping but found myself running out of room. This was the first time in 2 years I had to start making decision on what to take and what to leave behind. Plus, just getting the kids into one row of seating was a challenge with two being in car seats. I kept thinking the entire time, "let's just take the van". lol The truck is now decommissioned as a tow vehicle and will be only used as my summer daily driver.

We bought the van originally for an "RV trip to Alaska". Our plans have been postposed for over 16 months now. This past week, there has been US/Canadian talk of opening the border to non-essential travel by July 4th. So now it's a waiting game. If the border opens, we'll cancel our "east coast" RV tour and head north instead. I'm trying to get everything aligned if that does happen in the next 3 weeks (new trailer tires, new van tires, new van brakes, new van shocks, and transmission fluid change).

Regarding the Hayden transmission cooler, it's been a wonderful addition to the OE components. On average, it's lowered trans fluid temps around 20-25 degrees from where they normally were. We RV'd down to Florida over the Kentucky and Tennessee mountains about 2 months ago and the my torque app didn't see anything higher than 190. You definitely made the right decision to install one, especially if this is a long term tow vehicle for your family.

By the way if you haven't changed out the shocks yet, the OEMs are pathetic for towing and passenger comfort. I upgraded mine to KYB's at around 1000 miles. They worked great up until about 5K miles ago (currently van has 31K). Now, I think all 4 are starting to fail. The dampening and rebound control has taking a hit. The KYB shocks were cheap but this time, I'm upgrading to Bilstein 4600s. Hopefully, I'll see more longevity out of these. Will install them this weekend.[/QUOTE

We put the Bilstiens on our 4500 at 17k miles. We’re now around 44k and they have performed very well!

cjm1973

Glad to hear. I hope to get at least a good couple of years out of them. I'll post an update after my installation and after I get my trailer hooked and towed for a few miles.

Garner Ames

Yeah I know what you mean. I looked for a long time to buy the Express. I finally settled on a used 2019 with 25,000 miles, white (unfortunately) and the 6.0L with sliding door and G80 option. No tow package though so I had to add the hitch, wiring and brake controller. I was shocked to see how rare the G80 option is in these vans but I refused to buy a van without it. On that note, I was actually looking for slightly used Silverado crew cab max tow package silverados when I ran across another one year old express van for 25K$ and I could not believe how much cheaper it was than say a 5 year old silverado with alot more miles. Granted I was going to replace my old 1991 C1500 one day anyway and double the replacement as the tow vehicle, once I saw how cheap I could get into an HD platform with chingos of payload, 8 lug axles, HD brakes and so on, I started thinking, why not a van? We had three kids at the time and now with a forth it works as a great road trip and towing vehicle. So much more room than a 2500 suburban which is hard to find as it is.

Ive been meaning to ask, what are your impressions on the sway bar you added. Feel free to PM as I dont mean to hijack your thread. You mod likst is impressive. Most things I have done or will do. I already put the bilstiens on a few months back. Very big improvement I must say. Tires are next on the list. Still doing research on that.

cjm1973

​​​​​​The passenger vans are usually optioned out as basic fleet vehicles. Not many are well equipped with all the goodies, unless it was a custom order. I was lucky to find the only one that was new within 1500 miles of my location. It was sitting on a dealers new car lot in St Louis. I had looked at some used ones but they were beat to hell. Plus, 2019+ vehicles were equipped with some of the safety features like lane guidance warning and forward collision alert. With blind spot warning mirrors and front/rear parking assist, the vans have some tech in them not offered in former years.

The 3/4 ton SUV market is pretty bare now. The aging fleet of Excursions and Suburban/Yukon XL 2500s are way past their prime. The only realistic family friendly tow vehicle with more than two rows of seating are the GM vans and the Nissan vans. I'm shocked that all of the auto makers havent capitilized on a void in this market segment. Considering the major uptick in RV sales, you'd think one of the car companies would offer up a capable 3/4 ton chassis SUV. I guess auto makers are confined to meet cafe standards among their entire line up. Gas hogging SUVs don't align with that objective.

As far as the sway bar, it's held up nicely and really eliminates the body roll inherent with these long wheel base, tall vans. Worth the $400 I spent on it. I tow with a premium hitch, a Hensley arrow, so I have absolutely no issues with trailer sway. The RSB helps more on the curves when not towing. When I get the Bilsteins on, the van should be back to its towing prime.

I don't need new tires but am looking at a new set if we travel to Alaska. I replaced the factory OEs with Cooper Discoverer ATPs and they have been great. Quiet for an A/T tire. Still have about 1/2 tread life remaining. But I found out over the weekend that they are no longer made. The replacement Cooper Discoverer ATP IIs don't come sized for 16 inch wheels. Now I have to find another A/T tire to live up to the ATPs. I just don't want anything too aggresive that'll degrade the van's killer fuel economy. Lol. Actually, I'm able to get 16 mpg highway at 65 mph and around 9 mpg towing that same speed. I really just want a quiet set of tires that'll do well on some of the rough roads of the Alaskan hwy.

If you have any questions or need a recommendation for your van, PM me. Always willing to help a fellow RVer.

Garner Ames

PM sent. Thank you.

ShadowMan81

How are you monitoring transmission temperatures? Is there a gauge for it or is it in the drivers information center?

cjm1973

An Android device, a OBD2 Bluetooth adapter, and a copy of the Torque Pro App. An alternative option would be to buy a scan gauge. That tends to be more expensive.