If I had to drive 40 miles per day, I would keep the 3.73. I towed my 11k pound 5th wheel with the 3.73 with no problems but thought I could do better. After I switched to the 4.10 I did see improvement in the uphill grades but it probably never paid for itself. It improved my towing mpg by about 11% but decreased my highway mileage by about 15%. Since I only towed about 5% of the time you can see the difference.

 

As for me.....the gears worked just great. Plan on keeping my truck so I did not feel it was a waste of money. Truck and 5th wheel gross out to about 18.5K. Use the tow tune for 89 towing and it worked good....gears made the combo just right.

 

With a truck this old, it should be more about building what you want out of the truck, and not so much about recouping your investment. I personally think 4:10's with tunes would be the best setup if money were no object. You would get a little more grunt with the gears, a little more grunt with the tunes, and not really sacrifice any of the daily driveability.

 

As was said, gears will help but you wont get your money back, i did my mods with that in mind and planning to keep the truck forever.

That said, i can also tell you a camper in ND, might be ok in the summer, but when the temps get close to 0 , things get a little dicey. Supplemental heat, keeping water lines and sewer hose from freezing, and it still gets a little chily. But hey, you do what you gotta do.

Was thinking, if you can pull that highway hill from jackson in 2nd with your camper, it wont get a whole lot better, but the engine wont have to work quite so hard with gears, it will still need to rev to around 4 k either way

Writing this from my "work" fifth wheel not too far up the highway

 

Thanks everyone. I have decided to get a 5 Star tuner and see what kind of difference that makes. I can always do the gears later. Or if I can find a shop to put headers on.


As far as investing money in my truck is just investing money into something I like and enjoy and will never sell.


"gfl" I lived in my camper for 2 winters in Wyoming. I know cold, having electric heaters under my trailer, in my trailer. The ND job is just for the summer doing construction work, then through the winter back in Idaho for my beat hauling season.


Sounds like you know the living in a camper thing also.

 

Have you done the zoodad mod on your truck? I see you mentioned the CAI in the signature line.

 

Stay away from tuner they don't really give you much on a gas motor...IMO. with a v10 4:30's are the way to go. You don't need anything else. No intake or exhaust. IMO.




Dick

 

Which tuner have you run?

Everyone that has added a 5star tuner to there V10 on here has nothing but good things to say. Even the guys in the Excursion section pulling a 11k lb trailer.

 

This is the way to go IMHO.
Anyone in the oilfield shouldn't be looking to blow cash right now, or invest in something that may take a long time to pay for itself.
Just IMHO.

 

I called 5Star today and have one of their tuners on the way. Before I found FTE I bought a superchips programmer and wasn't very impressed with it. The performance tune was good. But since being on FTE I have been impressed with 5star being a vendor and contributing to this site. If in doubt about them just do a search on them.


My company I work for, in the winter for 6-7 months I haul sugar beets. Then when that season is over. In the summer we travel all over hauling gravel and asphalt for road construction projects. Last summer I got to spend time in Grand Teton NP north of Jackson, Wy. This year I will be in North Dakota. Next year it is hard to say.

My work truck from last summer in Wyoming. That is the Tetons in the back ground. Hard to see through the thunder storm.


I worked in the oilfields in Wyoming for over 1-1/2 years that is how I bought my truck and trailer in the first place. They can't pay me enough to put up with that again. Working for 18 to 24 hours straight with 3 hours off in between shifts.