Hi Folks: Back from my trip to East Coast (Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland, Cape Breton and Bay of Fundy Nova Scotia, Maine and New York states)totaled 12000kms with no vehicle mechanical problems. Wanted to point out that the front cargo rack worked great but had to remove the rubber-mate container and store it in the camper while driving on the road as it reduced the air flow to the rad compartment and was causing overheating of the engine and transmission. As soon as I removed the middle container, engine and transmission temperatures returned to normal operating ranges immediately. As you can see from the pictures in this topic string the container sits well in front of the grill and I was surprised it had this great of an effect. Here is a picture of the container removed.Being able to leave the generator, scissor stairs and jack blocks at both ends of the cargo rack as shown was a nice convenience during the trip. I am going to try a lower height container to see if it will work without causing overheating. It is nice to be able to store the grey water bottles and hose, electrical cords, gas can and small tool box up front if possible. cheers

I really like my front rack..I have a trailer tongue toolbox mounted in a 5' basket. It leaves me just enough room to put a 5 gal bucket on each side. I have not had any problem with overheating on my F250 even in the mts.. Good luck nice looking rig..

Nice set up. Would be very surprised if you had overheating problems the way it is. Like the red clearance posts.

I like the sides and the tie off points on your rack.

Hi Christi,You can anchor that front carrier from flopping with a c-clamp. Get a small c-clamp and have one end of the c-clamp on the carrier tube and angle the other end of the c-clamp across/on the receiver tube so that you've clamped the carrier tube from moving. I did this and was surprised how well it works, and the price was right.Happy travels!Kurt

I have that same carrier and really like it. I like the tie down points you added I will have to add some to mine.

Added New Front HItch Cargo Rack | Good Sam Community

14 Replies

CaveRun
Explorer
Sep 23, 2013
Nice setup!

I'm been thinking about doing the same thing!

Thanks for posting the picture! :)
Butch50
Explorer
Sep 22, 2013
I have a Better Built 56"x20"x19" aluminum box on my front rack of my 2011 F350 CC LB 4x4 gasser with a 10 2 NL. It went to AK with us and back over 11,000 miles and never had any heating problems. For 2000 miles we were also pulling our boat. Pulled a lot of hills and passes and some of them were long pulls.
Christl
Explorer
Sep 22, 2013
SugarHillCTD wrote:
Nice setup.

I have a front hitch and carrier. A few weeks ago I tried one of these

and we were fine until we had to climb a few hills- then the trans temp really started to climb. On the 2500HD, the trans cooler had its own bumper opening, just below the grille. The box is blocking off too much air. Have to rethink/reconfigure.

Hi SugarHillCTD: I understand exactly what you are describing in regard to the 2"X2' opening in the front bumper of my 1500 GMC for getting air into the transmission cooler/rad compartment. Did you know that the 1500 Chev Silverado with the tow/haul package does not have this opening in the bumper and I am curious as to how enough cooling air gets into its rad compartment. I need to find this out as I do not believe I would have the same front rack overheating problem on a Silverado as I am on my GMC. Has anyone noticed this difference? christl
Christl
Explorer
Sep 22, 2013
Hi Everyone: Thanks for the replies, they were helpful. It makes sense what "Hey There" explained about the tow/haul mode in my 1500 GMC - that it raises the RPM of all the shift points where the transmission shifts gears. In hilly country I found using the tow/haul mode beneficial as the transmission shifted less and lugged the engine less resulting in slightly lower engine and transmission temperatures. On some long (>1 km) hills, steeper than 10%, I found out I had to shift the truck into 2nd gear and in some cases 1st gear to help hold the load back so I did not have to ride the brakes so often and over heat them. Down shifting early in combination with using the tow/haul mode was effective. Fortunately most of these steep grades also had sharp turns where you did not want to be going faster than 30kms/hr. so this was not an inconvenience to other descending traffic.
In regard to your "c" clamp suggestion, I did install a roadmaster anti-raddle devise on the 2" receiver before leaving on the trip and I can attest to it removing all of the flopping you described (looks like a big square "U" bolt).
Hey_there
Explorer
Jun 19, 2013
Hi,

On a GM truck, the tow-haul mode is different for the D/A and the gasser 4L80E. On the 4L80E, the tow/haul mode only raises the shift points and is of little value. In the Allison transmission, I understand that the tow/haul mode is much, much better.

Kurt
Jaxom
Explorer
Jun 19, 2013
Tow Haul should lock up the torque converter and that will help hold you slow on the hills. As well as keep the tranny temps down. Generally speaking the tranny temp will run about 100* above ambient temperature. You don't want to see over 290* or so.
Christl
Explorer
Jun 19, 2013
I am glad I did not find a big enough cargo trunk container to hold the generator and therefore went with a medium sized container "Action Packer" which was not to high to stop air flow. I wish the Action Packer was made a little more sturdy and therfore am looking at Sports Trunk made by Plano carried by Walmart. Thanks for the tip on the tow/haul mode and tranny temperature on steep up grades. Does anyone know if putting your vehicle in Tow/haul mode helps the engine to hold you back on steep down grades? cheers and thanks for the comments everyone. Anyone adding more tie-down points, figure out where you need them first before drilling; I spaced them equal distance along ends and sides and had to add more as they were not in the right place for what I needed.
DWeikert
Explorer II
Jun 19, 2013
SugarHillCTD wrote:
Nice setup.

I have a front hitch and carrier. A few weeks ago I tried one of these

and we were fine until we had to climb a few hills- then the trans temp really started to climb. On the 2500HD, the trans cooler had its own bumper opening, just below the grille. The box is blocking off too much air. Have to rethink/reconfigure.

This may or may not help but out of curiosity, did you have the truck in tow/haul mode? On my last trip out west I was climbing one "hill" with lots of switchbacks and the tranny temp really started climbing. I enabled tow/haul to lock up the torque converter quicker and the tranny temp dropped.
SugarHillCTD
Explorer
Jun 18, 2013
Nice setup.

I have a front hitch and carrier. A few weeks ago I tried one of these

and we were fine until we had to climb a few hills- then the trans temp really started to climb. On the 2500HD, the trans cooler had its own bumper opening, just below the grille. The box is blocking off too much air. Have to rethink/reconfigure.
Moomba2002
Explorer
Jun 18, 2013
I have that same carrier and really like it. I like the tie down points you added I will have to add some to mine.