On the Road again and trip report- B190s RULE!!

Road stories, questions about driving the B190, lessons learned
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Denco
Weekend Camper
Posts: 93
Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2011 1:00 am
Location: NORCAL Sierras

On the Road again and trip report- B190s RULE!!

Post by Denco »

Hello Everyone,

Its been a while since I posted. Just wanted to say/brag LOL.

We are still lovin our 94, we went on a 8 state tour with almost zero issues. Glacier Park, Yellowstone, Craters of the moon, and many many more. We fired full auto machine guns, ate the best food, hiked the most insane trails, saw the biggest animals, and camped at some of most awesome places on the planet. What a blast in our RV we had.

Only a bad over temp sensor on the water heater. Otherwise 5k plus miles added to the clock. These vans are so awesome.

The only thing at least on mine is dual tranny coolers are the bomb in my area of Norcal and other areas of high outside temps.

IMO this is a must have on my van, I have read these vans have zero tranny heat issues, mine did and I am happy with my choice to install them.

True or false but I did a lot of research and found many charts of tranny temps vs. life expectancy of the trans. amazing info and I took it to the bank on mine. After my trans temp gage install I saw temps at 100 ambient outside in town driving- we was hitting 240 at stop lights and 220 running.

OK Ford says that's within the limits, well IMO thats way too hot. If you can get them lower facts say it will last longer. Mine shifts just fine at 170 degrees at any load or speed. And I can block a cooler if i encounter freezing outside temps. I like the option. Prior to this my fluid in short order was burt.

I would guess if you dont have a gauge then you have no idea what your temps are.. These vans are heavy and always working hard, to me it only makes sense to have a trans temp gauge if you need to count on your trans. I would guess the area's ambiant temp you live in drasticaly affects these temps. I live in a hot area and the van new -originaly came .from a cold climate, so those issues I had may not been of concern. It only had approx 42k when I bought it.


By no means and I telling anyone to do this, just my experiance and I am extremly happy with my desicion. My vans tranny and data shows a history of a hot tranny with repeated burnt fluid. After 5k miles of heavy service my tranny and fluid is working perfect. I use the newer Ford fluid, not syn.



I am heading to southern UTah in the coming weeks towing 2k lbs to do some offroading in the desert, I may have to block a cooler but that remains to be seen until I hit the road. Obviously the weather is cool now.



Happy Airstreaming everyone.
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skater
Site Admin
Posts: 2569
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 1:00 am
B190 Year: 1991
WBCCI: 13270
Location: Annapolis, MD

Post by skater »

Yep, I had them install a temperature gauge when they put in the new transmission. I never saw it go above 180-200 degrees, even when towing on hot days, but it's still nice to know. I was glad when I saw the F-250 we were looking at (for towing our trailer) has one stock, so Ford has wised up.

I'm glad you had a good trip!
1991 Airstream B190 - bought, 2005; sold, 2011; bought 2017
1995 Airstream Excella 30' trailer

WBCCI #13270, Washington, DC Unit
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