towing with suburban

nocturnal30 · March 30, 2006

Hi guys.Just wondering something.I have a 1993 suburban k2500 with a 350 engine and 4l80e trans.The truck has a built in trans cooler on driver side of radiator.What I was wondering was, I am thinking of buying an older 16 foot camper trailer from my buddy.Should I add an aftermarket trans cooler to tow this trailer, or is the built in one sufficient??????Any advice would be appreciated.Thanx.....

pwall · March 30, 2006

An after-market cooler will certainly help the life of the transmission....a very worthwhile investment.

How much does this trailer weight? Older trailers were often very heavy. Depending on the weight, an after-market cooler will most likely be required.

redvett · March 30, 2006

If it does not have an auxiliary cooler in front of the A/C condenser than i suggest you add one.

C & A s Dad · April 3, 2006

I have a good friend who owns a Coleman Taylor Trans shop and his advice to me on my 02 Yukon XL was to ditch the wimpy factory cooler and add a nice cooler. My suggestion is a "stacked plate cooler". They will out perform tube and fin coolers and do so in much less space. The OE unit on my Yukon was a stacked plate cooler but it was only about 5" x 11". I removed it and replaced it with a 11" x 11" stacked plated design from CARQUEST which is a Hayden cooler.

I would alos strongly recommend you change the fluid to a premium syn such as Amsoil. Their website has really good instructions on how to flush the old fluid out and replace it with all syn. Warning, it will take about 14 to 15 qts to do this and it is pretty expensive but IMO, well worth it.