Transmission over heat temp warning display...

After reading these posts about the cooler it makes me want to hold on to my 09. Not sure why Toyota decided to do this just to save a little bit each truck.

 

Lets say the cooler cost them $50 per truck, and lets say they produced 100,000 trucks in a year, and this will be 3 model years with out it. $50 x 100,000 trucks = $5,000,000 x 3 years = $15,000,000. Not saying this was the sole motivation or that the trucks are bad without the cooler. Just showing the math.

 

Is it possible your A/T thermostat was defective? I have towed my 9k lb toy hauler up some nasty grades in 100F weather and the engine started to get hot LONG before the A/T pan temp ever rose above 210F. I'm not saying you're wrong in the sense that 4L would have probably gotten him up the trail without the light. I'm saying that I have seen these trucks operate in a variety of conditions and based on the OP's description of the trail, I personally do not feel 4L should have been necessary to prevent the ATF from overheating to the point that he got a dash warning.

 

It's always about money but why not add 50 to each new truck??

 

They add new features/change things from year to year, so dropping the cooler was a way to offset that cost. They also increase the base price every year, just like every other manufacturer. If it were increased more to offset the cost of the cooler, that they also deemed unnecessary for most applications, then it would have been a more significant price jump and people would have howled about that. I cannot honestly speak to their motivations, but I would bet it's not a single factor issue. They likely weighed many pros and cons before making the decision. They also know that a majority of the people buying a tundra, or any 1/2 ton, are not going to be towing much with it. Playing the averages would mean it's a mostly safe thing to remove.

 

I hear you, i feel like I lucked out when i bought an 18, have all the radar cruise goodies and still have tranny cooler.

 

That's very possible, I also have a theory that the fan clutch is going out since the only times my trans has been getting hot is when it's hot out and I'm barely moving. Whenever I'm moving and the converter is locked the trans is steady at 190F and engine at 203F.

Welp, guess that eliminates my theory entirely. I'll check myself out then , and concede my argument was wrong

 

FYI...when shifting to 4LO you should always come to a stop if you are not stopped already, put it in Neutral, and then switch to 4LO. Never shift into 4LO when moving.

 

I feel I lucked out with my 14 because I DON'T have all the radar cruise goodies, other nannies, and still have the trans cooler

 

My '10 needed the fan clutch. When you're stopped you have no airflow and almost no rpm to drive the fan anyways. Another solution is just pop it in neutral when stopped. Stop and go is tough on the TC regardless of gear reduction. At the end of the day when you're stopped your TC is always trying to drive the input shaft of the transmission- 4H or 4L. In neutral the TC is free to drive the input shaft that freewheels (or in park obviously).

 

As long as they don't do like GM and get rid of things like the big gas tank to try to force people who tow into a heavy duty. Though if Toyota made a heavy duty truck, I suspect convincing people to buy it would be pretty easy.

 

yeah, I don't think they'd have any trouble selling them. I don't think they'll do it though, because the majority of their buyers would be Tundra owners. They don't want to slit their own throat.

 

Yeah, they'd be hard pressed to get big 3 HD buyers to switch even if they built a way better truck that cost less.

 

Initially, yes. But with time there would some that would trickle over.

 

I did something similar, went out to some forest roads to shoot, tranny temps were hitting 240s when I left the Highway, couple more miles in 4hi up a pretty simple grade and my temps climbed to almost 280, warning light is supposed to come on at 302f. I've already ordered a cooler.

 

This is the said road, we went a little further up but it was dark.. so we came back down and set up at this spot.


47°11'12.0"N 121°39'46.1"W
https://goo.gl/maps/an8AAQo2vENKUPD19

 

Holy crap! Please share some info about your astronomy rig.

 

I keep waiting for the nannie to tell me to put a mask on when I'm driving.

 

Honestly I’m very green! We got the telescope a couple months ago and the kids (young adults) have been the first using it. It’s only my second time using it for a total of 3 hours...

It’s a Costco 10” Dobsonian telescope. The Dobsonian style has the plus side of getting a bigger mirror for you $ giving you good light, the minus is everything is upside down / backwards, so it can be really hard to track stars. You’d be amazed how fast stuff moves up there!

We got a couple starter lenses and it has a digital camera capture.

I have not tried the digital capture camera it’s another set up process with a laptop..

For these pics I used an attachment for my cell phone and I also just stuck my Nikon in the lens and took some manual shots.

With more time I can only hope to improve.

 

Honestly... after crawling around underneath my Tundra... in my opinion it IS already a heavy duty truck.

Just look at how beefy the tierod ends are... and also the 10.5" rear diff.

My brand new 3500 dually in 1998 only had a 10.5" ring gear in it... and I'm pretty sure my 2013 2500HD with 6.0/6L80 only had a 10.5" rear diff.

These new Tundras are really taken for granted.
In reality... they are incredibly overbuilt for a half-ton truck... and are more like a 3/4 ton.

Seems like not all that long ago I was working at a Chevy dealership (25+ years ago) and all the 1500's had an 8.5" rear diff in them.
(The 3/4 ton, 2500 trucks had a 9.5" rear diff and the 1-ton dually had a 10.5" ring gear.)

 

So why isn't the GVWR 9500 lbs instead of 7200?

 

Probably because Toyota would have had to put heavier springs and tires on which would have totally ruined the ride quality and inflated the cost of the truck beyond what their market demand is willing to pay.

 

Good question.

Maybe just another case of Toyota under-promising and over-delivering.

 

I also wondering how they came up with the payload number. The Tundra is built like a 3/4 ton with large ring gear, large tie rods and control arms and four piston calipers with large diameter rotors. My previous Silverado only had 2 piston caliper with smaller diameter rotors, tiny front suspension components and a 8.5" ring gear but has a higher payload.

 

How does the frame compare to an actual HD truck?

 

Not an engineer and a pretty tough question to answer. Personally I've never seen one fail from overloading. Maybe some of the body shop guys could give an answer?

 

I don't know either, but I do know that it's not fully boxed, and I was wondering if that's the big difference? Personally, I'm not super concerned because I'm willing to stay (mostly) within the Tundras numbers.

 

A fully boxed frame doesn't necessarily mean a stronger frame. Look at a highway transport tractors, all the frames are open channel.

 

True, but it is significantly thicker. Perhaps it's the gauge or quality of the steel that toyota uses?

 

Is it cause in 2007 these were good #s for towing and payload? I don’t know what gm and Ford #s we’re back then. And they just never retested to update them.