I’d go more gear than power. Power just stresses things which causes heat. Gears give you the extra leverage. Ideally would be an even combo of both power and gear.
Thanks for the real world info. The driver of our KW at work is damn drama queen the sky is falling kind of guy so I can never depend on what he ever says. The other two Freightliners only haul pit to pit so they never are under any real load. I know my TH350 runs hot due to not having a 2nd gear so I will just change my fluid once a year and call it good. Probably overkill, but I'm good with it. I owe you and Wes at least a beer if we ever get a chance to meet up.I think that you are golden. I probably told you this before, but I have seen Eaton 18s get over 200* several times. Straight manual transmission with full synthetic oil, and we usually had two coolers on the trucks. Long hills and temperatures over 90* outside would do it. With those, Eaton told us not to worry unless we couldn't keep it consistently under 275*. Maybe the representative was full of it.
So I think that an automatic transmission sees 200 to 210 in those conditions is doing well.
The Allison 4K series in our mixers are over 200* quite a bit. The oil turns yellow after a few years, we service it and put it back to work. No major failures since '06 when they started buying Allisons.
That whole post is great , in my opinion!Update on trans temps. I have made my last two trips, towing 3k pd, to Lake Havasu in the late evening or early morning. Loaded pulling hills the trans stay below 200, even 180 most of the time.
So the ambient temperature is the biggest contributor to over 200 temps.
I have been using 3rd gear locked up for most of the hills. Engine pulls well @3250 rpm @60.
Once I get moved, I am going after drive line vibrations. install the new front springs, swap the front ring and pinion, front drive shaft.
This list is current minimum for Blazer Bash 2022 which I plan to attend.
The fuel lines on the frame are notorious for causing this kind of issue. Sucks enough air to not work under a load. Make sure you are maintaining a consistent fuel pressure
You may have a vacuum loss someplace as well after the conversion
