04 Transmission cooling?

[DisneyExplorer]

Ok, I have been trying to find info on transmission cooling regarding my 04 for a while now. After poking around the explorer, I discovered something I want to get verification on. It appears my o4 V8 has a plate and fin style transmission cooler sandwitched between the radiator and AC condensor, however it is not as tall, it measured 6" tall x 22" wide. But here is the kicker, it is not an aux cooler, it is the ONLY cooler. The trans fluid does not go through the radiator for the water/fluid heat exchange, just the plate cooler (This is what I would like verified). It is also on the bottom, so it is not in the path the fan pulls through. So going slower pulling a load up a grade, I can't see how this will keep the trans cool. To me this explains why I get some trans fluid leakage only when towing our trailer up hills, it gets too hot and vents or leaks past a seal, but there is no indication whatsoever of the trans getting hot, not even the water temp gauge going up. It ONLY does this after pulling out trailer. So now I need to figure how to add more trans cooling!! Not as easy on the 3rd gen as the older ones. Any suggestions?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Try a larger cooler, and an auxiliary fan. You could still use the same stacked plate cooler in series with another one. Your California weather is usually warm all year round, so the internal cooler in the radiator which heats the fluid up on freezing days might not be as necessary. I would recommend an external filter, and temperature gauge for the transmission. JC Whitney has stacked plate coolers.

 

[DisneyExplorer]

The internal cooler in the radiator also cools hot trans fluid, and a liquid to liquid heat exchanger is very efficent when compared to a liquid air heat exchanger, which is why it is usually recommended to keep the original cooling loop when adding an aux trans cooler. It appears ford figured what they believed to be the air liquid heat exchange equivilant to the liquid liquid one in the radiator, and eliminated the radiator cooler. Anyone added an aux cooler to their 02+ explorer, or have experience with 02+ trans cooling? Where did you put it?

Thanks!