Hauling Horses - Service Your Truck's Tranmission

Truck and Trailering Tip - Service Your Transmission.  I see many people that are under trucked when pulling horse trailers. SUV's pulling a two horse trailer; a half ton pickup pulling a three horse slant - all very common and you have probably seen the same. With the price of 3/4 ton and larger pickups hitting just south of where the price of a starter home begins, many people don't have much of a choice if they want to keep trailering to horse events.

A few years ago it came time to buy my wife a new pickup. She was not fond of my truck of choice - a Ford Super Duty - so we looked at other options and settled on an new 2011 Toyota Tundra. The 10,000 lbs rated towing capacity seemed adequate for her two horse stock combination trailer which was around 5,000 lbs when loaded with two horses. And this truck trailer combo was pretty much going to be driven on flat, hard ball roads to and from events so I was pretty comfortable with her choice as we'd use my Super Duty for hauling horses anyplace else.

Recently we were using her truck to trailer a couple of horses to a team penning event and the maintenance light came on. I took the Tundra to Alamo Fleet Services who has kept my vehicles running all these years and whose general manager is an old friend of mine who broke horses for a local rancher until he was forced, like a lot of cowboys, to get a job that paid the bills.

Alamo told me what I pretty much knew, that the Tundra wasn't made for routine trailer pulling and if I want that truck to last for the short range, flat ground hauling that I had in mind, I would have to have the transmission serviced more often, and they recommended every 20,000 miles. They also told me that the majority of transmision failures are from worn out old fluid.

Normally, most transmission are serviced by draining the fluid, dropping the pan, replacing the filter and re-filling the fluid. According to my mechanics this not allow the fluid in the torque converter to be replaced, leaving several quarts of old fluid in the tranny and the contaminated transmission fluid can cause gear grinding, delayed transmission response, or stalling.

Alamo Fleet Services uses the BG PF5 Power Flush and Fluid Exchange System which removes the old automatic transmission fluid completely while at the same time adding new fluid in a method that does not allow for the intermixing of new and old fluids, meaning the new fluid will last significantly longer and protect the transmission.

They also recommended I use a transmission additive from BG called BG ATC Plus Automatic Transmission Conditioner, PN 310, which restores seal pliability and prolongs Automatic Tramission Fluid life by protecting it.

Alamo also recommended a couple of more additives as well. A fuel system cleaner called BG 44K, which they said is helpful in cleaning the fuel injectors and carbon off of the pistons tops nd improves performance.

The other additive they recommended was BG EPR Engine Performance Restoration which helps to restore, fuel economy and power.

So consider doing yourself a favor and find a vehicle maintenance place that is knowledgeable and that you can trust. A little money spent, more often, will usually save you big in the end. Safe Journey.