New 1500 Crew Towing Questions

lstoker · July 10, 2004

Hi All,

After lurking on this site for a long time, I finally broke down Thursday traded my F150 and bought a new 2004 dark gray metallic 1500 Z71 Crew Cab with 4.10's. It should be delivered to me from Houston this Monday or Tuesday. I have been looking a long time for one with 4.10's in it (They are very rare in Louisiana), anyway I found this truck and it had everything that I wanted except the factory tow package. So I bit my tongue and got the truck anyway. I will be adding a Draw-Tite to it, and would like to find a factory tow package wiring bracket and whatever wiring would be required to connect the factory harness that is tucked up behind the bumper to it. Does anyone know the part number or where I can find these items? I will post pics of the truck when it gets delivered, the dealer is currently waiting on a new firewall liner to come in, the hood and firewall liner were falling apart for some reason. The truck only had 40 miles on it, and the liners had large chunks falling off ?!? My guess would be someone got too happy with a pressure washer.

carguru · July 11, 2004

Welcome to the forum. The bracket on the factory tow package is welded on to the hitch. You should be able to find an aftermarket bracket to mount to the Drawtite hitch. Enjoy the new truck.

snoman · July 11, 2004

Make sure you add a aux tranny cooler before you tow as stock cooler does not have much reserve, otherwise you are in pretty good shape.

lstoker · July 11, 2004

Snoman,

How important is it to add the trans cooler if you are only occasionally towing light utility trailers with mowers, atvs, etc. ? I never installed one on my Ford and it never showed any signs of trans. overheating.

snoman · July 11, 2004

Snoman,
How important is it to add the trans cooler if you are only occasionally towing light utility trailers with mowers, atvs, etc. ? I never installed one on my Ford and it never showed any signs of trans. overheating.

It is very cheap insurance and when you see signs of tranny over heating, it is to late as damage is done. For long life you want a average tranny temp of 200 degrees and lower. 220 to 240 while not overheating enough to make itself known, can greatly shorten oil life and tranny as well. In over 30 years I have never lost a tranny in truck and I have had aux coolers on all of them. I have a 700R4 with 170k that still works like new.