Well, got the car back today. $1300 tranny rebuild. Ouch. Had a long talk with my mechanic about what he found, causes, etc. Basically the tranny self-destructed, but that towing 1000 lbs (or most likely less - dunno, never had my boat and trailer weighed, but can't imagine it's any more than 1000) with a 50 lb tongue weight should be/have been OK. Most likely just a lemon. I hope so ...
I asked him about a tranny cooler, and he said that probably wouldn't really help, that those are normally only on heavy duty setups.
At least I wasn't towing when it went KC ... whew! I do feel now that I prefer the manual trans like I had on the Altima I used to tow it with. At least when the clutch finally gave out I had some advance warning ...
Sorry GL, didn't mean to hijack that other thread, it kinda just went there. Funny how the last post here was me showing off the new ride!
I do love the PT in all other respects, for everything from taking the boat out to carting the kid and dog to the park.
Bruce, forgot to ask the mechanic but I will, but I don't believe the PT has overdrive. It just has the usual PRND31 shifter. I normally just keep it in drive while towing, and if it feels like it's lagging (as it did going up and down the Tallahassee hills in May) I'll drop it into 3. I always use 1 when pulling the boat up the ramp, but only on the actual incline, then drop to 3 or D to get to the parking area. He told me that this was the way to drive it while towing, so I guess I'll keep doing that ... ?