I'm a little disappointed in my 97 7.3. My mother in law rented a Bobcat and I volunteered to tow it for her. Dang that thing was heavy. It was all that truck wanted. I live in rural east tn we had some hills and had a lot of windy roads. By the time I topped some hills I was pushing 30 mph with it almost to the floor. Now it I stomped it to the floor it would down shift and crank about 3k rpm's and take off like a banshee but I didn't like those high rpm's. It is a auto. It doesn't hold a candle to my dad's 96 7.3 5 speed. I figured bobcat and trailer was pushing 10-11k lbs. I just thought it would do better. I have a 4 inch turbo back exhaust and a 6637 intake. The motor did fine but that dang auto really held it back. What's a auto to a manual conversion take?

 

Honestly that sounds about normal. Do you have 3.55 gears as well? If it's gonna make power it will have to have some Rpm to make boost. You can lock od out as you would not pull at that speed anyway.

If he has a 4.10 and 5speed then your auto and 3.55 is a whole different zip code on towing.

 

Add the tc lock switch mod, you will be happy you did

 

Unless you can drive through it lol

 

The biggest thing to remember with these trucks, especially if you're not used to towing, is let it rev!!!! If your truck has been properly maintained, 3k RPM's won't hurt a thing.

 

Yeah defiantly not used to towing with this truck. As long as you kept the rpm's high she pulled great. Get behind a slow vehicle right before you hit a hill and it sucks.lol 3k rpm's seem high when it red lines at 4k.

 

You can run it on the Rev limiter all day long and it won't hurt a thing.

I towed through TN last year and had a terrible time. I've come to figure out my injectors aren't healthy and am going to swap them out for a known good set.

My issues were lack of power, high EGT, and just overall poor performance. Even kicking down into 3rd and even 2nd at times just delayed the enevetable.

How many miles are on your sticks? Are your up pipes in good shape? Do you have any gauges?

Edit: I was towing a 6k travel trailer.

 

The truck has 170k on it. I'm assuming the injectors are stock since I bought it off the original owner. No guages. Was gonna get a ts 6 position tuner but figured I'd get gauges first.

 

Gauges are a good start. I recommend autometer if you can swing the extra loot.

My injectors I'm assuming are original which means they have over double the miles. ( see my Sig) you may have something else going on like up pipe leaks or something like that. Do you notice any black smoke from the exhaust under load?

Just spit balling out loud. But you definatly have the right idea of waiting on the chip until you get Gauges.

 

Lugging it before a hill is a sure fire way to lose momentum and be disappointed in performance while towing.

 

That's for sure!!!! On these freeway mountain grades where they split off a third lane for trucks I try my darnest to stay in the middle lane not holding up traffic and not get trapped behind a truck only going 25mph. Second gear, ***** to the wall about 40mph on 6% grade.

 

For reference Glenn, tell the OP how heavy you tow and what RPM you run when it's "***** to the wall".

 

Glenn, I think it would be blast to ride along with you sometime!

OP, like the others said, keep those rpms up and you'll be just fine. Since you're in East TN you ought to come out to RRE in July. Its in Newport.

 

OP, last year I pulled this at 18.5K (yes, Geo is hooked up) from AZ to MI. This year I will pull about 17K with what's in my signature (no Geo this time). When I'm on these hard pulls I'm in second gear at 3K rpm's. Some pulls can be several miles like this. I make my wife mad at me because I will hit the bottom of the hill at 80mph. Gets you up the hill more before your gutting it out! This will be my 11th year doing this and so far I haven't seen any pistons or chucks of engine in my mirrors, knock on wood, LOL

 

Don't worry about the engine. I've run mine right at redline while watching the egt's. The trans will let go first especially if you keep towing in OD doing WOT runs with 10k behind you.