Hey man, I recently got a place at the lake and had a quick question for ya. I have a 2001 4x4 4.6L ext. cab 5-speed with straight 2 1/2" pipe and aftermarket "Y-pipe". (Don't know if that matters or not.)

I am running the Max Perf. non-tow safe program off my 1715. Now, when we go down to the lake, about 2 - 3 weekends out of the month, I occasionally like to drop the 17' Tracker fishing boat in the water. Our place is on the side of a fairly steep hill, so to drop the boat in, I hook up in the garage and coast down hill about 100 ft., turn around, and back her up to the launch ramp. Now, to get her back out, I have to pull straight up the hill about 100 ft. and back her in to the garage. The boat / trailer is really light and it's such a short distance, I'd hate to have to re-program each time I did this. I also have my exhaust opened up quite a bit so I wondered if that made any difference at all. I have been doing this with my G-PA's Z71, but he's not always down there so I added a receiver to my F-150 so I can do this myself. I would probably only have to do this 6 times a summer or less. Since I have the 5-speed and the launch ramp is a mess, not to mention the extremely rocky drive, I would be pulling the boat out of the water and all the way up the hill in 4 low at basically idle.

What do you think? I know you can't tell me that I will be 100% safe towing with the non tow safe program, but here's what my G-PA said that got me thinking. "I'm going to drop the hitch in your receiver so we can drop the Tracker in." I told him we couldn't use my truck because of the advanced timing, and that I didn't have my programmer. He said, "I'm not towing the damned thing, I'm droping it in the water then pulling it up the hill, not hooking up and towing it all the way back to the city."

Needless to say we used the Chebby 4x4 that day. Will I be alright because I'd be using 4 low and almost idling up the hill or should I not consider it? It's literally like a 100 ft. trip each way. Thanks!!!

 

Listen to your G-PA

 

G-pa hit the nail on this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Haha...thanks guys, I ALWAYS listen to G-PA, but I figure Mike might have something a little different to say about it. We'll see.

 

I'm guessing that in this case you're probably OK, but I'll give you some input and then you & G-PA can decide from there...................

(You don't know for sure if you can get away with any given scenario without an EGT gauge, is the actual bottom line.)

Sure, I agree - of course 100 ft. isn't much distance, and if it were flat ground I'd say go right ahead. But you're going UPHILL, and that is one of the things we have to take into consideration in a towing tune - the scenario where you're pulling a load up a grade, as that is when EGT's will be at their very highest.

Now in a scenario in which it's not much weight (say, not more than about 1500 lbs. or so) AND to get up this 100 ft. hill you don't need to use a "significant" amount of throttle, then that would probably be fine.

If you have to get into the throttle by a significant amount (say, more than about 20-25% throttle opening) to have enough power to get everything up that hill, *THAT* is when the EGT's will climb - so I'd probably just want to hustle that load up that hill a bit quicker in that case, so as to have the EGT's elevated for as short a time as possible. (Once the load on the motor drops, the EGT's drop back down pretty quick.)

G-PA's common sense will probably guide you OK here - you guys know how steep the hill is and how much throttle you're having to use to get up the hill, so let that be your guide.

Good luck!

 

Thank you Mike, that's why I figured I'd use 4-low to basically keep the tach below 2,000 and basically have it idle itself up the hill with a little help from me.