Quote:
Originally Posted by cal30_sniper
It's only an 18' jet boat, so about 2500 lbs with the trailer. Add to that another 3000 lbs of stuff that I had in the back, and that's what I was hauling down here. Never saw the temperatures get up, and nearly 5000 miles of towing hasn't been a problem with it yet. I don't know, maybe I'll rethink if I shell it behind this 454, but I'm going to run it for now because it's what I have.
I originally was going to go with a TH400 (already behind the 454) and a Gear Vendors, but there are a couple of large drawbacks with the gear vendors that made me choose otherwise in the end. One was cost, good luck finding a setup for less than $1300 bucks. Two is the lack of a lock-up converter. They don't make one for the TH400. The lock-up converter on the TH700 really helps with gas mileage during unloaded highway cruising.
-cal30sniper
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Actually my gear vendor was nearly $2500, that includes making a new $400 driveshaft.
I prefer not to have a lockup converter in my tow rig. Nice for my daily drivers for sure, I agree. But for my tow rig the 400 turbo is a must. Towing with lockup converters (just from my experience) they kick in and out all the time when you hit any type of grade (lots of those in arizona
), and gets annoying after a while.
For my tow rig, the gear vendor gets the rpm down about 600 rpms and gives me a little extra mileage while still having bullet proof durability. 6 speed auto = quicker acceleration, while towing it's less strain on the engine, and I can use the gearvendor while towing, (unlike an overdrive trans) so I get a gas mileage benefit while towing as well as empty.
I agree the price is a drawback for most people, but I can't think of any other drawbacks. Actually I was going to spend just as much to shove a 4L80E in there (trans, controller and harness, driveshaft, was actually slightly more money) and I'm told they still shouldn't be used to tow in overdrive with the kinds of loads that I pull (10,000 +), so I saw the gear vendor as having the advantage there, as well as gear splitting while going up through the gears.