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Originally Posted by hingarfi
Ray:
I agree that trying to look at a laptop while driving is very dangerous. As I noted, “You can have your co-pilot watch the readings or you can simply log the data to the hard disk for later viewing.” I certainly did not imply that one drive around with the laptop sitting on the dash. You use it as a test under the most adverse towing conditions to determine if your cooling is adequate. Then you can tow at ease knowing that the transmission temp is OK. It's a one shot test. I had a 2500 Chevrolet truck with temp gauge. Once I had watched it under some heavy towing, I rarely ever looked at it again. But a temp gauge, as you have, is obviously the best solution. Most serious TV's have such a gauge. However, I suspect that many people towing TM’s do not have a transmission temp gauge and may be damaging the transmission unknowingly. My suggestion was for those who would care to check the transmission temp and have a device which has other DIY uses.
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Ooops...sorry, missed that "co-pilot" part.
As an Engine/DriveTrain and the Towing Moderator at TundraSolutions, I've had to deal with way too many guys who focus solely on the techie side of getting some kind of display (laptop, PDA, gauge under the dash) working without any consideration of the safety/human issues...and that tends to cause me to have a knee-jerk reaction. But, yes, you are correct, if the temperature is being monitored by the co-driver (or being recorded), then use of a laptop or PDA is reasonable and safe.
And you are probably right...a fair number of folks possibly do have insufficient transmission cooling for towing, especially those who are using minivans with their ultra compact transmissions and no external cooler.
And for those who do want to do this kind of monitoring...there are several ODBII readers that plug into laptops that are much less then $300. I have the "Car Code ODB-2" model from
http://www.obd-2.com/. Costs only $122 and comes with software and the needed interface cable. I use it to monitor fuel and timing trims as well as to have immediate readout of the problem codes should I ever have a "Check Engine Light".
Although I seldomly pay much attention to my truck's tranny temp gauge in normal driving, I still monitor it pretty closely when towing, especially on all mountain grades. There are four factors that will drive my truck's transmission temperature up...steepness of grade, length of grade, road speed, and ambient temperature of the air. Some of the highest transmisison temperatures I've seen so far (around 195 degrees) were on a moderate-for-Colorado 5 to 6 percent, 6 mile long grade with ambient temperatures in the 90s. A seemingly much tougher 8 mile long, 7% grade only caused a transmission temperature of 180 degrees...but the ambient temperature was in the low 50s...and I was able to hold 60 mph so had good airflow through the cooler and radiator. And a relatively easy 4 to 5 percent grade produced 185 to 190 degrees...but the ambient temp was around 95 and the road had so many sharp curves that I could only go about 30 mph and simply wasn't getting much airflow through the cooler/radiator. (As a reference, I normally see transmission temperatures of around 150 when towing at 65 mph on level roads with the ambient temperature in 80s).
So I would somewhat disagree that once you've seen the transmission temperature under what seemed to be "heavy towing", you don't have to pay much attention to the transmission temperature thereafter. All it would take is a little longer or little steeper grade...or 10 degrees higher ambient temperature...or driving at 35 mph due to curves instead of getting good airflow at 65 mph...and the transmission temperature could easily get into a danger zone (over about 210 degrees).
Based on literally thousands of miles of mountain towing, I would argue that anyone who regularly does mountain towing needs to have a real transmission temperature gauge mounted in their eyescan area where it can (and should) be monitored on
every climb.