Boat Towing with NV3550 Question

I just bought a 17 foot Boston Whaler Montauk and want to tow with my 2001 Sport with the NV3550. Not sure of boat/trailer weight, but assume it is in 2500-3000 range fully loaded.

I had towed a 18 ft sailboat with my prior sport and the ax-15 without incident.

Any suggestions? I know stopping may be an issue since the trailer does not have surge brakes. New fluid in diffs, trans, transfer case etc

For some reason I just feel more cautious this time around mainly due to fact I will travelling from Long Island NY through the Bronx and back home to NJ

I don't see any potential issues you don't expect - the NV3550 is often compared rather favourably to the AX-15 anyhow (I'd like to score one myself, but at least I've got an AX-15 to replace the fourth Peugeot I've stuck in my 88...)

Apart from that - the usual would apply. Make sure you've switch to the recommended towing lube (75W-140, methinks) in the axle and gearbox, since you will be increasing heat due to increased stress on the geartrain. The engine should be fine either way, and I'm assuming your cooling system is already up to scratch (since you mention towing with a previously-owned rig.)

Thanks 5-90. I will need to change the rear axle fluid to the higher grade. Just did it recently with regular

I am happy with the NV3500, but it is noisy.......It rattles in neutral and also rattles when taking off in first or reverse and creeping around at slow speed in 2nd. Everyone tells me this is the way they are, but it does not sounds right to me

My other option for this trip is to borrow my friend GMC Denali pickup, which is overkill and will make me want once I am done using it

Were I to do a lot of towing, I'd just have done with it and go with a Diesel (probably a mid-1980's out-of-warranty Dodge with the Cummins turbo - then convert it to run waste oil.) Diesels will give you way better mileage when towing than gasoline can hope to do!

I do seem to want to recall something about the NV3550 being picky about lube, but I can't recall what it likes (I know the AX-15 wants GL-3 or lower, the higher sulphur levels in GL-4 or GL-5 are antagonistic to the bronze used in the synchroniser rings.)

3550's are VERY picky about their lube. The only two types of fluid I've been able to find for it are MOPAR Manual Trans Fluid, and Penzoil Syncromesh. I've been told by many that these are currently the only two fluids safe for them.

And they are very noisy by design. Mine sounds like it's got rocks rolling around in it at idle and it noisy starting off. This is a design flaw inherent to the 3550's, and its not an indication that the tranny is going bad. I've been running one in my '87 for about three years now and the noises started right after I put it in, and they haven't changed since. It's strong though and I love running it.

King A

You get the rattle when taking off in your trans then too? Makes me feel better, since it is not a pleasant sound. I love the NV3550 overall even compared to the AX-15. Having a little extra grunt in 1st is nice in traffic and should help towing as well.

I have Royal Purple Syncromax in it now after researching and finding favorable reviews.

Royal Purple... I'll add that to the list. Maybe I heard that would work too and just didn't remember.

Yeah, the noise is pretty common - everyone I talk to who's run the 3550 has said the same thing. I've never had noise in reverse or second though. There was a batch of trannies a while back that were bad and would grind gears and pop out of gear rather quickly. But if you had a bad one, it would probably be shot by now.

The way it was explained to me is that something dealing with the reverse gear doesn't get covered with oil at idle. So it's spinning around up there without any oil to deaden the sound. It apparently doesn't need to be covered with oil at idle, and I guess the engineers just didn't consider the noise. Once you start going forward, oil slings up to the gear and deadens the sound.

Just what I've heard.