Well, I took The BOSS and the horses down to the Ozark Mountains last week for a week of horse back riding in the Ponca Wilderness along the Buffalo River. Beautiful country and great riding, trip was cut short by weather, we had to leave before the rain caused the rivers to rise and strand us back in there..
HOWEVER!....To access the horse-camp at the Erbie Access point, you drive 7 miles of old logging roads that are minimally maintained and are some of the steepest hills I have ever driven! I was pulling a Bison 3 horse GN, fully loaded and probably overloaded.. I am guessing the trailer weight was somewhere slightly over 14K.
We had no problems until we crossed Sneads Creek and started up the hill on a one lane, dirt road that went straight up at around a 40 degree slope.
About half way up, the truck simply slowed down to a stop and sat there..
I was just a tad worried at this point that I had fried the tranny, but the temp gauge never went over 200* and I could feel it engage first gear when I shifted into park and back to drive again.
Another rider pulling the same size/model trailer with his 09 Ford F350 4WD auto managed to get around me, we hooked a chain from the rear of his trailer to the front of the truck and he pulled me the rest of the way!....
needless to say I am taking a LOT of ribbing from the BOSS about it!
Once we got to the top of the hill, we unhooked, and she pulled just fine the rest of the way to camp.
When we left, the guy pulled my trailer out to the blacktop for me , then went back and got his..
The truck pulled great coming through all the hills around Branson, and is driving just fine now.. even tho we bent a trailer spindle on the logging roads and eventually lost a wheel just before we got home! ( new axle ordered)
Soooo..... why would the auto tranny stall out? Torque Convertor? I had an RV TQ installed last year by John over at Floor-It Deisel.and it has run great, pulled great ever since..and the tranny seems to be working perfectly. EGT's never topped 1100 and tranny temp never topped 200, tranny fluid is full, clean and bright.
what should I be checking, because we want to go back, but not if it means having to be towed in to get there!

 

If you are 4x4, you could use low range. A 40 degree slope? holy crap!!!

 

Did you have it in low range? You were not pulling a 40deg slope with a 14k GN either, not even empty truck, (maybe a rock crawler could go up a 40deg slope). You probably weren't even on a 40% slope, but whatever.
Your torque converter isn't going to keep you moving at a crawl in high range with that much weight behind the truck on a significant slope.
Nothing wrong other than that. Put it in low range next time, or if it's a 2wd, take a different road!

 

yes it is a 40* slope, at least that's what the National Park Ranger and a couple locals told me , it reminded me a lot of some of the old mining roads I used to 4wheel on out in Utah and Nevada! you can feel your weight shift from the seat bottom to seat back as you start up it..
.. and I am 2wd Auto, no low range.. the Ford WAS 4wd, and he did have it in low.. what bothers me is that it wasnt spinning tires, acted like it was in Park.. the third guy with us was pulling his trailer with a Ford gasser auto 2wd and made it....
Oh, and there is no other road!!

 

Nothing is wrong with your truck, a auto is only designed to pull so much. You didn't spin because of the weight on your rear Axel.
With a manual you would have pulled the hill or powered out and killed the engine.

 

OK thanks RamRodd.... I am replacing both front brake calipers BTW, smoked them bad,even with it shifted down into 1st gear coming down the slopes...
I probably should have made a running start, thats what the others did, but the road was rough enough to have bent a spindle on a 6k torsion axle as it was..
and btw, the Ford really "assisted" me, didnt tow me as dead weight....
but yall dont think theres anything I need to check/look at or worry about?

 

Or you need a lIttle more hp and tq. Maybe a 3rd gen. I've been in your shoes only reversed. I pulled an 06 6.0 with his gn and tractor. my truck pulled him right up- but it wasn't that steep of a slope.

 

Chris, First off an auto will pull anything a manual tranny will if it has been built correctly. They don't have limits unless they are slipping or something is wrong or otherwise they wouldn't be pulling 40,000 pound sleds with them. Did your truck build any boost or rev any at all. Something isn't right. It should have at the minimum built boost and spun out on ya. Even with my oversized single and big injectors I can still build boost against the brakes and get a load of 22 round bales moving on hillsides. It will either spin or move the load. Have you tried to call John yet or better yet for you, I'd run over to his shop and talk to him about it. Something doesn't sound right. Catch ya later.

 

Sounds like some mods are in your future or a different truck altogether. Shoot, sounds like you even have the Boss' approval which is more than I get.

 

LOL, While your talking to John you could always see about getting a little more fuel and rpms.

 

Maybe you bottomed out the rear of the trailer on the start of the incline haha, **** axle wasnt even on the ground.

 

Chris ... that's the same story I told MY wife to get me out of the 1/2 ton gasser and into BERT !!! Hahahahaha


Seriously ... sound like something minor needs tweaking. When was the last time your transmission bands were adjusted ??

Cheers,
PISTOL

 

Eveything has limits. HP,Tq and rearend ratios are all big factors.

 

A 14000 pound load setting on dirt should have been limited by "traction" in a 2wd dually. There has to be a reason the truck didn't build boost or was revving up without moving whichever it maybe. Even a smallblock V8 gasser will spin out in those conditions instead of not moving. Chris if it was revving up is there any chance the fluid may have went to the back of the transmission pan while you were on the grade?

 

an auto in a dodge will stall out their are 2 companies that had them that stalled out on a road in subdivision here. One of mine did it on the same hill with a heavy load about 19k on the trailer. it was my wifes 98.5 2wd auto dually so dont bs someone that astock auto will do what a stick can do. If that was the case all us heavy haulers would run auto's