I think I know the answer but I wanted to ask you guys. Wednesday I towed 5,000 lbs with my truck with the overdrive off and was wondering what kind of RPM's you guy's turn when towing? I have the 4.6 with 3:55 gears, Screw short bed XLT. I turned 2,500-3,000 the whole trip and still got 15mpg. I'm very happy with that. It towed it just fine, wasn't a screamer PSD, but maintained 65-70 the whole way. You guys have the same luck with yours and is that too many RPM's to turn for hours at a time?

 

thats not bad but 3:55 gears are meant for fuel mileage not towing. My Lariet has 3:55s but wifes XLT has 3:73s. Her truck has little power in low rpms but after about 30 mph hauls the house. Rpms maintain at about 2200 towing. But still I'm going to ipgrade it to 4:56s

 

Won't hurt a thing!

With your truck's specs, you wouldn't wanna try that load in o/d, as I doubt very much it'd pull it, so you'd be shifting in and out of o/d constantly, which is very bad for the transmission.

With the o/d off, your RPMs may seem a bit high, but it won't harm the motor a bit, and your transmission will not have to shift around constantly. That's exactly how you should tow!