Towing with a Dodge Caravan?

Regarding the Caravan - When I replaced the radiator this past fall I could see the inner cooler for the transmission is metal while the old OEM one was plastic.
Better heat transfer with the metal tank I hope.

Well, I gave it a try and it didn't tow very well. Not well at all.

Down on power and it just didn't have a good road feel. Brakes sucked too. Sold the van.

Bought a good used V8 Explorer & made my wife happy.

fornetti14 wrote: Well, I gave it a try and it didn't tow very well. Not well at all. Down on power and it just didn't have a good road feel. Brakes sucked too. Sold the van. Bought a good used V8 Explorer & made my wife happy.

An engineer a few jobs ago had a 2003 or 2004 v8 exploder that he used for towing. I think it was the first year of the 5spd. He had issues with 2nd gear and was going to replace the transmission with the 4spd F150 trans but the car died in a wreck before he could. I do not know if his failure was typical, but he did mention about many people on the internets having the same problem.

It can be done. The van had no problems. That is a '97 Caravan SE, short body, 3.3 liter V6. The car was about 2100 pounds, and the tow dolly was a couple hundred more. The brakes were iffy at points, but never overheated, and the engine was always solid as a rock. We used it about 10 times a year for a couple years in a row.

The only recommendation I have is make sure your van has new transmission fluid (if it has a trans cooler, even better), replace the fluid more often that you normally would, and make sure the tire pressures are good, especially out back.

My van had 224,000 miles on it so I knew it was iffy.

They trans. on my Explorer is 40,000 miles old and was replaced by the previous owner. All the work was done by the Ford dealer. I sold the old van and bought the Explorer and it cost me $5.5k total including the additional cost to insure. I thought that was acceptable.

Plus, my wife is happy (very happy) that the old van is gone and she gets to drive the Explorer.

If mama is happy.. everyone is happy.

Take VERY good care of that Explorer. I went through 3 of them before learning my lesson. If you don't already have one, add an EXTERNAL transmission oil cooler. The one's that use the auxiliary cooler in the radiator aren't sufficient in my opinion.

The tranny's in two of my three died and I traded them in shortly after they were replaced under factory warranty. They got the internet nickname "Exploder" for more than anecdotal reasons.

If you cool them and change the fluid religiously, you should be ok as long as you don't tow for extended periods of time over hilly terrain without changing your tranny fluid between events.

canoe caravan?

Why not just put a tranny temp gauge on it?

Well then! Thread got hijacked by canoes...

My thread! Hijacked by canoes twice!

I'll updated this thread since we're all looking at it anyway.

I sold the Ford Exploder. Motor and differentials were getting tired and making a racket.

I've moved on to two possibilities for towing... my '99 Chevy Venture or my '00 Mercury Sable 24V wagon.
I'm leaning towards the wagon at this point.

Proper maintenance when towing with an automatic helps extend the life.

Wondering , since the GM vans were so superior,why are they no longer in production ?