towing with a ?

[Bill Harris]

My MH is a 33 ft 2004 Ford chassis with the V10 and 4R100. I have towed a 26 ft enclosed trailer with my junk for several years and about 20K miles. That vintage V10 (the two valve engine) does a pretty decent job. I just recently put a deep aluminum pan and trans temp gauge on it since I was a little worried about the trans too. The fluid coming out was spotless, much to my delight. I have only made one trip with it since then, to Gainesville, and I was astonished to see how low the trans temp was. The Ford MH chassis has a pretty large cooler for the trans fluid and it does not route through the radiator like it does on cars and light trucks. On my trip to Gainesville the temp never went above 130 degrees, and ran almost the entire distance at 100 to 110. It was COLD outside however, so it will be interesting to see what it does in August.

The engine likes RPM when you pull hills. You just have to get used to that thing screaming at 4500 RPM right next to you when your really pulling a hill. But it will pull!

Be aware, especially on a 2000 vintage engine, is that these things have two issues. First, they have a tendency to spit out spark plugs due to a problem with threads on the early heads. Second, they frequently break exhaust manifold studs causing exhaust leaks at the head, which would be really noisy with the engine sitting next to you. The studs usually break right at the head surface and are a bitch to get out. Newer engines don't have these problems.