Ford ranger idled a smidge higher whenever i towed my boat?

[The motor guy]

I always wondered why it did that. I don't own thst truck anymore. By a smidge I mean the rpm guage went from below the hash mark to right above it. I have a feeling the engine a d transmission was a bit hotter towing that boat, but don't see what that has to do with the rpm change.

 

[Superflan]

maybe oil/water cooling requirements mapped, or you are bottoming the idle map by having a very thin oil due to high temp, leading to higher rpms?

 

[The motor guy]

maybe oil/water cooling requirements mapped, or you are bottoming the idle map by having a very thin oil due to high temp, leading to higher rpms?

Oh yeah they always called for 5w20 in that 3.0 v6, but I'm pretty sure 5w30 was usually used because 5w20 was scarce at the time. It was only a Cafe thing

 

[Vercingetorix]

Bet the rpms kick up to compensate for the voltage drop on the trailer wiring.

 

[eljefino]

^ Yeah and the truck probably sensed the trailer being plugged in and upped the system voltage, turning off the fuel economy stuff.

 

[The motor guy]

Bet the rpms kick up to compensate for the voltage drop on the trailer wiring.

They did this whacky stuff back in 2004?

 

[Dave9]

^ Yeah that didn't seem to be worded well. It wouldn't *see* voltage drop on the trailer wiring, yet that could cause a lower total system voltage, so what would remain is just a little more load on the alternator, all else equal. That "could" cause a PCM to kick up the engine RPM, or the truck was just happy to finally be doing something interesting. OMG... a... BOAT!