Tow Tune

[Silver Surfer]

I think the Ranger does an awesome job towing overall but with the weight I pull (5500-6000lb TT) there are times I feel a bit more torque would be nice. I can't help wondering if the ford performance or similar tune would help out in certain scenarios.

For instance, when towing on flat land at 60mph, the ranger will start out in 9th gear (cruise on) holding 1750RPM and inevitably lose a mph or two and downshift to 8th at roughly 2000-2200 RPM. This tends to occur every minute or so. It's not a big deal but it did have me wondering if a tad more power would allow it to maintain 9th gear more often.

Any thoughts from anyone towing with a tune and the before/after results? Any reason to be overly worried a tune will decrease engine life?

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[Frenchy]

I think the Ranger does an awesome job towing overall but with the weight I pull (5500-6000lb TT) there are times I feel a bit more torque would be nice. I can't help wondering if the ford performance or similar tune would help out in certain scenarios.

For instance, when towing on flat land at 60mph, the ranger will start out in 9th gear (cruise on) holding 1750RPM and inevitably lose a mph or two and downshift to 8th at roughly 2000-2200 RPM. This tends to occur every minute or so. It's not a big deal but it did have me wondering if a tad more power would allow it to maintain 9th gear more often.

Any thoughts from anyone towing with a tune and the before/after results? Any reason to be overly worried a tune will decrease engine life?

I can't give you a before and after tune results for towing but I can say after tune towing was nice with my Ranger. I have the Livernois Tow tune and it does great for both towing and daily driving for me. I'm not sure what the power increase is since Livernois doesn't have a dyno graph but I could tell overall efficiency was increased without towing. I also have the Old Man EMU lift on my truck with Bridgestone Dueler Revo 3's. I got to tow a uhaul trailer with tool boxes in it(roughly 2,500 to 3,000 lbs) and my 280zx on a uhaul auto hauler(5,500 lbs). Both did great. With the tolls i held 65 MPH up a 7% grade for 2-3 miles and temps never got above 220°F up the hill.

Hope this helps!!

 

[dmeyer302]

For instance, when towing on flat land at 60mph, the ranger will start out in 9th gear (cruise on) holding 1750RPM and inevitably lose a mph or two and downshift to 8th at roughly 2000-2200 RPM.

I have found, for this particular scenario when it's borderline downshifting, I actually get better mileage if I just force it down and leave it. Use your instant MPG (average is useless for this) on a long, constant stretch and flip it back and forth a few times to try this.

 

[dallas121469]

The constant shifting is not good for any transmission. I would do what dmeyer said and manually force it to stay in the lower gear.

 

[geophb]

As mentioned already, lock out some gears if its constantly shifting. Keeping the revs upwards of 2000-2500 when cruising with 5k lb trailer is perfectly fine and you should be doing that anyway instead of letting drop below 2k IMO (because it will try downshift at the slightest hint of an incline). You may even see an mpg increase while towing because its not hunting for gears every 30sec, but most likely will stay the same.

Edit: I just wanted to add that a tow tune will not improve your ability to maintain that 1750rpm (9th gear) better, there is hardly any power that low.

 

[Frenchy]

As mentioned already, lock out some gears if its constantly shifting. Keeping the revs upwards of 2000-2500 when cruising with 5k lb trailer is perfectly fine and you should be doing that anyway instead of letting drop below 2k IMO (because it will try downshift at the slightest hint of an incline). You may even see an mpg increase while towing because its not hunting for gears every 30sec, but most likely will stay the same.

Edit: I just wanted to add that a tow tune will not improve your ability to maintain that 1750rpm (9th gear) better, there is hardly any power that low.

I will agree with this to an extent. The low rpm definitely doesn't make as much power which is where the lower gear comes in. As for the tow tune it does help on the low and mid range power.

 

[geophb]

As for the tow tune it does help on the low and mid range power.

Not at that low of an rpm. Remember OP wants increased power at 1750 to maintain 9th gear better, a tune wont help with that.

 

[Silver Surfer]

As mentioned already, lock out some gears if its constantly shifting. Keeping the revs upwards of 2000-2500 when cruising with 5k lb trailer is perfectly fine and you should be doing that anyway instead of letting drop below 2k IMO (because it will try downshift at the slightest hint of an incline). You may even see an mpg increase while towing because its not hunting for gears every 30sec, but most likely will stay the same.

Edit: I just wanted to add that a tow tune will not improve your ability to maintain that 1750rpm (9th gear) better, there is hardly any power that low.

You make a good point about the power band. I hadn't thought about that!

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