Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox
I don't see how damage can occur to a transmission from towing. The engine puts out X amount of torque. That is all the transmission ever has to deal with. It simply can't put out more torque than it was designed for. Strapping a trailer or packing in hundreds of pounds of whatever into the car does not change this. What COULD happen is the cooling system for the transmission wasn't designed for sustained higher heat loads from hauling around more weight than it was designed for. So, keeping this in mind, you'd either want to monitor the trans temp, or just take it easy so you know you're not over stressing the cooling system for the transmission.
The only other things I can think of to consider when towing is chassis structural strength, tongue weight, and braking power / capacity / cooling.
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While the extra load won't increase the torque going through the transmission, Having that torque present more often will increase transmission wear. Won't break, but will wear faster. But that's only a concern if towing frequently. If towing is 1% of total driving, I agree heat is the only real concern. And that will only be an issue up hills or at high speeds.