Towing new

Nvr2loud wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
The 500 miles is to set the rear gears. When we had an 08 F150 2wd I was thinking of getting 4.10 gears. The mechanic told me that I would need to put 500 miles on them before hard acceleration or towing. Seems to fall in line with manufactures recommendations. What's it going to hurt anyway to put 500 miles on it before towing?

Too bad there wasn't a way to run the engine very hard during break-in and not run heavy forces through the rear gears...

My wife and myself both broke-in our 600 CC Suzuki motorcycles differently. I rode very very very hard out of the box. She followed the manual break-in period exactly.

She had a dyno reading of 98 HP at the rear wheel and I had a reading of 109 HP at the rear wheel after six months of riding. Her bike developed a couple of oil leaks past the rings, and also had a complete tranny rebuild after a year. Mine had zero repairs for over six years of riding.

Shoulda bought Hondas. Wife and I rode for years. Always followed the break in schedule. Zero issues with either. Her 1st bike was Honda 750 Shadow. She rode the cr@p out of it. Last bike I had was a 2006 Gold Wing. zero issues after 30,000 miles. Which was meager compared to most.

Breaking in an ICE is completely different than breaking in a gear set

ICE break in is mainly for the wear pattern on the cylinders to both seal and
have the valley's to hold lube for the next piston ring pass to pickup lube

Gear sets nothing to do with combustion ring sealing and lube reservoirs, but
gear face marrying the other mating gear face

goducks10 wrote:
The 500 miles is to set the rear gears. When we had an 08 F150 2wd I was thinking of getting 4.10 gears. The mechanic told me that I would need to put 500 miles on them before hard acceleration or towing. Seems to fall in line with manufactures recommendations. What's it going to hurt anyway to put 500 miles on it before towing?

Too bad there wasn't a way to run the engine very hard during break-in and not run heavy forces through the rear gears...

My wife and myself both broke-in our 600 CC Suzuki motorcycles differently. I rode very very very hard out of the box. She followed the manual break-in period exactly.

She had a dyno reading of 98 HP at the rear wheel and I had a reading of 109 HP at the rear wheel after six months of riding. Her bike developed a couple of oil leaks past the rings, and also had a complete tranny rebuild after a year. Mine had zero repairs for over six years of riding.

The 500 miles is to set the rear gears. When we had an 08 F150 2wd I was thinking of getting 4.10 gears. The mechanic told me that I would need to put 500 miles on them before hard acceleration or towing. Seems to fall in line with manufactures recommendations. What's it going to hurt anyway to put 500 miles on it before towing?

Interesting... while many manufactures do not recommend towing a trailer the first 500 miles, and then at reduced speed the next 500... the 2014 F-150 manual says "Do not tow during the first 1000 miles".

That's a little more black and white than a recommendation.



On a side note are there other owners manuals that reduce GCWR at elevation? The 2014 F-150 manual reduces the GCWR 2%/1000 feet. I haven't seen that before.

My 2005 Ford had a 1000 break in mileage while my 2015 Ram had none. I still put 500 light miles on the Ram before pushing it a little harder.

Another 200 miles is one evening, 500 a weekend. Wait.

Another point worth mentioning is this: the gears need to wear in ... the danger your wanting to avoid is heat build up beyond 250 f where the gear oil breaks down. While cruising down the highway at 50 mph you put about 50 HP through the diff gears. Towing on level terrain you might put about 80 hp through the gears. Accelerating hard your putting considerably more power through ... 400 HP?

I find this idea of breaking in gear sets to be quite interesting because in most heavy equipment applications it is never done. How does a motor home owner not tow for the first 500 miles? After searching the web for information I find the recommendation to not tow for the first 500 miles over and over again. I also read that after the first 500 miles the wearing in process has hardly started. What I found interesting is that there is some good reasoning for why a gear set should be run in. Apparently new gears have a roughness to them or small mountain peaks if you will that can protrude through the film of lube oil. As these peaks meet each other under heavy load they can produce a lot of heat. This heat can thin the oil exposing more mountain peaks causing more thinning of the oil and accelerate the wear. Because the real heavy duty applications of gears never have the priveledge of getting a break in period and failed gear boxes is something I have rarely seen, I doubt that towing a trailer down a hill is going to overheat a differential. In the future I will likely stop and check the temperature of my differential every 1/2 hour or so for the first while, if I need to tow with it prior to allowing it to break in. Something that hasn't been mentioned that I think is valid is this: if driving easy for the first 500 miles provides an adequate break for your tow vehicle then it stands to reason that towing a trailer the same weight as your truck in 4 wheel drive would provide that same level of protection as it would put exactly the same torque through the gears as if you had no trailer on running in two wheel drive.

Got a PM asking and best to show with a picture

Am confident in my abilities and will tackle most anything. Have 'tried'
to rebuild a couple of diff's while a master mechanic was teaching
and watching over my shoulders...could NOT get this and gave up
I'll PAY someone else to do it...as it is more art than nuts & bolts...




This is the classic wear spot/pattern
DiffRingGearWear
From: http://constructionpaletizedsystems.tpub.com/TM-9-2320-364-34-4/img/TM-9-2320-364-34-4_763_2.jpg



This is what it actually looks like
DiffRingGearWear
From http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Gear_Setup/images/Figure_1.jpg




These are different wear patterns
DiffRingGearWear
from http://www.e9-driven.com/Public/Library/BMW-E9-Manual/PICS/D/PIC33/12051038.jpg

DiffRingGearWear
From http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28152&stc=1




These are how they 'dial' it in by painting the gear face and then
manually by hand...turn it see where the paint/dye wears off
DiffRingGearWear paint
From http://image.fourwheeler.com/f/26689804+w660+re0/0911or_07_z%2bheavy_duty_dodge_truck%2bmatting_pattern.jpg


DiffRingGearWear Paint
From http://www.gearinstalls.com/kerry/k4.jpg

BenK wrote:
Risk management decision...AKA...gambling

Some have done that with no ill effects...others...not so lucky

The gear teeth face (the part that mates to the complimentary gear face) must
wear in properly.

If not, then they will NEVER be right and most will *WHINE* and that *WHINE* gets
louder and louder as the speed goes up

Why OEMs have a magnet in there somewhere (well most 'good' OEMs do).

That is to catch and hold the metal filings from wearing in...tiny,
tiny dust like particle sizes

It is NOT a hard 500 or 1000 miles and that is the OEMs recommendation
(which is a warranty position...if you don't follow their 'recommendation'
then they can deny warranty if it should come up)

It is up to you...maybe someone on this forum close might help you out for a
steak dinner in trade... :)