Here the situation I have a 06 F150 5.4 2wd SCREW and I am trying to figure which will be a better upgrade putting in a edge or upgrading the gears from 3.55 to 3.73. I tow a 18ft enclosed trailer on the weekends and need some perofrmance upgrades. Any help would be greatful.

Thanks

 

You will be wasting your money only moving from 3.55 to 3.73. I would suggest 4.10s or higher (the performance gain with the proposed change is minimal, especially compared to the cost).

 

There is no comparison, The Edge programmer. Gears allow you to do more work, but hurt MPGs, and like WheelMA1 said, the cost make it a no brainer. Edge will give you more power, better shifting, and better MPGs. Gears only give you a greater mechanical advantage on pulling the load, thats it.

IMHO, you want something that will make a HUGE difference, go with the edge and a switch to 4.10s. but then your also talking 2k for all the work and parts.

 

He has a 2wd, so the swap would be quite a bit less.

 

I think the Edge will give you more bang for your buck.

 

I have a edge and it dosn't impress me. I used the tow mode when pulling my fifth wheel .pulled the same without the edge. no great gains to me for the money

 

The Edge cannot increase your towing ability.. it just helps the truck use whats available better. The reason I think gears are the best (ESPECIALLY if towing is a concern), is that with lower gears, you greatly effect your final drive ratio. That ratio is a torque multiplier. With an upgrade to 4.10s from 3.55s.... you should increase the torque to the ground by 15%.

 

i had an edge and it didn't impress me at all so i sent it back....if you want more power then the edge will give you that "i guess" but if you want to tow a load better i would suggest gears because that will give you a better gear ratio for doing that. i would go to 4.10's if your towing a lot. I have 3.73's in my truck and it does great but if i had 3.55's and i was paying for it i would go to 4.10's and be done with it. The gears will not give you any more HP but will give you a better towing gear to work with.


for towing every weekend 4.10's all the way...no other way to do it. the little performance gains you will make by doing a chip/programer, exhaust, CAI exc. will not net the gain you will feal from stepping up from 3.55's to 4.10's

 

I wish Ford would offer 4.10s in the half tons in all packages, not just some crappy obscure 'HD' setup. My new truck (whenever Ford decides to build it... but thats a rant for another thread) is going to arrive stock with a 4.30LS setup

 

yeah, 4.30's would be really cool with the 6 speed auto...nice set up that would be...

 

Mine will have the 5 speed Auto/V10 (although I guess "Technically", its a 6 speed but you cant use all 6 at any one point).

 

Thanks for all the help, if i goto 4:10's and not pulling a trailer do you think i would be suffering driving at hwy speeds around 70 to 80 mph.

 

A gear change wouldn't cost anymore than $800, more than likely closer to $600.

The edge does improve shift points, and give you tranny temps, and a little extra power, but that's it. No more mpgs with the edge.

Also, lower gears(4.10s) do NOT hurt mileage. IF you do 90%+ in town driving(acceleration), then 4.10s will help A LOT with mileage to get these heavy trucks rolling.





Since you plan on upgrading to 33" tires, you'd be back to a stock (3.55) affective gear ratio with 3.73 gears, so 4.10s would be a better choice for towing, accleration, and mileage.

 

At hwy speeds you will be turning more RPMs, giving you lower mpg #s, BUT!
it won't take as much effort(gas) to get up to those speeds, so on short hwy trips, you will actually be getting better mileage than with what you have now., but on a very long trip at 80mph, what you have now would give you lower RPMs and better mileage.

IF you do decide to put 285s(33" rubber), and want more power for towing, the 4.10s would be the best option.

 

Thanks again thats why I was looking at the 3.73 to get an over all mixture of good hwy and towing but that is the problem don't know which way to go.