Water temp climbs when towing

[jayhawk238]

I have a 2005 F-250 6.0 PS. just bought a 32' 5th wheel travel trailer which weighs just under 10,000 lbs. I noticed when climbing a steep grade the water temp gauge starts to climb to the hot side. When I hit the top of the grade the needle goes back to normal. Does this sound normal to anyone? I installed a coolant filter system after having to replace the EGR and oil cooler.

[jd4010]

Are you relying on the dash guage which is really nothing more than a glorified idiot light or do you have a monitoring system like an Edge that can read the actual temps?

When I haul my 16k# 5er, my ECTs will get into the 215 or 220 range when hauling up a steep grade. Usually then, the engine fan cranks way up too.

Suggest that if you don't have a system to read actuals that you obtain one and not rely fully on the dash guages. You'll be able to better sense how things are actually running and what may be coming down the pike (e.g. cooler failures, etc).

[FourFun]

If you stop and think about it, coolant is designed to do just that, cool or maintain a reasonable operating temperature. If your working the truck more(climbing a hill with a 5er out back) its gonna get hot, so its probably your oil and coolant will also increase in temp. I think your over thinking it. Now wether or not its "too hot" is another question. Like ^^^ he mentioned above if your using just the gauge cluster all that is = glorified idiot light. IF you dont have gauges, its time to invest

[nylyon]

As the others mentioned and especially if you are towing, you need to get gauges. It's critical to know what your temperatures are and monitoring these temperatures and their differences can realistically save you thousands of dollars in repairs down the road and allow you to spend more time camping.

[jayhawk238]

Thanks to all of you. Feel much better about the temp reading. Will diffidently look into some gauges.