I've got a 2004 F150 Screw, 5.4, 4x4, 3.55 rear end. Here is the situation:

Here in Mississippi, we don't have much in the way of hills. I pull a 27' Terry travel trailer that has a dry weight of 5900. I had a surprise this past week when we made a roadtrip to the mountains of north Georgia pulling the fully loaded camper. Although I have the 'trailer towing' package, it apparently doesn't consist of more than the wiring harness, transmission cooler and brake controller harness. I now know I made a big mistake in getting a truck with the 3.55 rear end.

I need to do something to increase HP. I'm looking for recommendations that some of you have tried and are happy with (programmers, chips, exhaust, etc). We want to hit the mountains again but this rig really struggled. My budget won't allow for an upgrade to a F250 anytime soon so I'm looking to get the most out of this truck.

Thanks in advance.

 

A tuner can do wonders! I have a Superchips tuner, and I absolutely love it. Not only did it provide me with more power, but also firmer shifts...and if you can believe it, better mileage (although not everyone can claim that).

 

Sorry to hear you had trouble. how did your truck struggle? did you have alot of gear search? have you noticed that you have low rpms over say 65 mph? i had lots of gear search and only turned 1800 rpms at 75 mph i got a reflash at the dealer and it made a big difference. if your truck is still under warranty it'll take care of it. here in al. we have some hills not lke the mountains but far from flat and the reflash sure did help. at first i hated my truck and thought i had made the worst descission i've ever made in trading my 97 f150 for my 05 fx4. now i'm glad i did.

 

3.73's would definately help but it wouldn't be night and day, so don't dwell on that. Some people are afraid to let the engine speed run up - but that's why they have an OD cancel button, use it!

There's no shame in slowing down a bit for a hill, you won't get there much faster trying to stay at 70 mph going up the hills but you'll burn alot more fuel trying to do that.

 

Thanks for the replies thus far. There wasn't a lot of searching for shift points going up hills. I drove between 60-65 mph on the interstates (I-20 from MS, I-75 north of Atlanta). Hitting some of the mountains (up around Blue Ridge, GA), I was lucky to hold at 50mph on an uphill grade (65 mph speed limit)

Has anyone installed a tuner and actually towed after doing so?

 

I have an Xcal2 tuner on my truck and it does make a difference towing, not night and day either but an improvement. The best thing it does for towing IMHO is alter the trannies shifting. I have the 3.73 gears in mine and wish I could have gone to at least 4.10's. If you're going to be doing a lot of towing in those conditions I would go to 4.10 gears, and hopefully you also have trailer brakes?

 

i would second the 4.10's....that will make a very signifigant difference

 

Wheeler,

Yes, I invested in a brake controller a few weeks ago. I could not imagine what stopping in the mountains would have been like without them! Like night and day.

Where did you buy your X-cal II? Price?

 

if you have to change to a 3.73 gear than you must also do the front diff the same way. i think the above posters are missing that point.

 

Man, I didn't even think about that. Am I looking at too major of an alteration here? It is a 4x4.

Thanks.

 

Yes, any gear change is big dollars. Typically a complete gear swap will run you between 1500-2500.

 

you are looking at 1200.00 a diff. so at least 2400.00

 

Maybe if you have the dealer do it. Going rate that I have paid is $250-300 a diff plus the cost of the gear set. I read the post and saw that he had a 4x4, so even given 2 diffs to chg I think a gear swap is a better way to go for towing than a tuner. Tuners can add a good amount of torque on the 5.4, 50-60 lb/ft or so on the max 93 towing tune, but still I feel a gear change is a better way to go if you're going to be towing very often in the mountains. So the Xcal2 I bought is listed at $400 (but was bought for less), or a gear swap $600 for set up, $400-450 for gears and install kit total $1050 or so. Yeah a swap is more but IMHO I'd go that route. Skip the dealer for the gears or install, you can buy online for less and find an offroad shop to do the install.

 

Id like to see ANYONE tackle a front end of an 04+ F150 for 250-300.

 

Wheeler - where did you buy the Xcal2 from? The cheapest I've found is $425. Only hitting the mountains about 2 times a year, I think I'll start with the tuner and go from there.

Thanks for the input.