May I suggest, a simple idea, and cheap. Reroute the transmission cooling lines from the radiator to an isolated oil cooler behind the grille. You are towing, putting a lot of stress on the transmission increasing heat. The heat is trying to get dissipated when the oil flows to the radiator and it does somewhat, in that it is just transferring the heat to the coolant which makes the gauge move to a higher level that you are accustomed to. Radiator is at 195, trans is 225, radiator moves up, trans moves down. BUT if you ran an isolated trans cooler to ambient air/temperature then trans is at 225 but airflow running past the cooler behind the grille was 81(todays temp in NY). Incredible heat transfer and no possibility of overheating the trans.

Use the radiator to keep the engine cool and ancillary oil coolers for everything else.

 

thanks therewolf yes the truck is an hd . i did install a aux trans cooler with a fan inplace of the factory tiny one i believe the rear is a 3.73 but its really the water temp that climbs really high but thanks again for your responses

 

jasmith,
Were you able to find anything given the recommendations from the community?
Looking forward to an update,
Sarah (Assisting Louis)
Chevrolet Customer Service

 

Do a thread search here at this section for

"RPO" codes and gear ratios. You want to be certain,

because unless something changed, most 2500 HDs have

410 rears, E-rated, 10-ply, 80PSI radials,(tell me you haven't changed the

tires back to standard C or D 35 PSI tires.)

and this issue bears directly on your problem.

You should also have a transmission temp gauge at the far left of

your dash, next to your tach.

Average temp on it is usually@150-180 F. When towing heavy, it climbs

into the 220-250 F range.

Talk to me...

 

If you are running 4.10 rear gears then you are ok. All early 6.0 models came with 4.10 gears except for the HD1500's. Look in the glove box and if you see the code GT4 then you have 3.73's and if it is GT5 then you have a 4.10 axle.

 

yes i just looked it is a 4.10 rear hence the 12mpg when not towing!!!!!!! i would just think that it would pull alittle better then it does but yes the camper is 11000 lbs

 

and yes in regards to the tires it came with 245's iput 265's 10plys on it

 

OK, so now we have the basics out of the way.

You're pulling 5-1/2 tons. IMHO, it's fair to expect it to

heat up a little bit.

How hot does it get, how far do you go, and what type of terrain are

you crossing?

 

For one thing when you changed the tire size you changed the true ratio for your axles. And so that everyone is on the same page you have a trailer not a camper. A camper is placed in the bed of your truck and a trailer is towed. With the bigger tires you are probably closer to a 3.73 then a 4.10. The information you received earlier is correct that a 6.0 with 4.10 gears will easily tow 11,000 lbs not so much with a 3.73

 

the temp gauge gets awfully close to the red but thats on a pretty steep hill 2-3 miles maybe just need to back of off pedal alittle as for the tires should i go back to a 245 would that make a difference? thanks for all of the help