Recently I towed the biggest load I've ever pulled with my F250. Let me say that it did well for how heavy the load was and considering the circumstances.

The tractor is a Ford 6610 II Special. It has water in all the tires. Attached to it is a small cutter. Because of the length of the tractor and cutter and the length of the trailer, we had to move the tractor all the way forward so that everything could fit. My Grizzly 550 ATV had to be in the bed of my truck.

The 5.4L and ZF6 manual transmission did well towing the 30 mile trip down country roads. If I could do anything over again, I'd put my 2 5/16" ball on my shorter drop hitch. I had it on the 5" drop but the tongue load was really too much for that drop, so the trailer pointed slightly "nose down."

My rear suspension was nearly on the jounce bumpers.





Here's a pic of the whole load.









Now that you've seen the pics and got the anxiety out of your system, it's time for the good, the bad, and the ugly.


The Good
Low gear in the ZF6 is awesome. Even with the base engine, getting this rig rolling was a breeze. Even as we towed the trailer through the pasture and off road, the deep 5.79 ratio really helps get things moving.

The trailer brake control was fantastic. Despite a less than perfect load distribution, stopping was good. Gone are the days when we'd pull a loaded trailer behind our half-ton pickups with out ABS; you'd hit the brakes and the front tires would just lock up and smoke. Not so here, even with a suspension that's "squatted down."

The "E" rated MT/R Kevlars can handle this kind of weight with ease. Talk about a tough tire, it didn't belly out or squirm around despite the rear suspension being dang-near bottomed out....


The Bad
No weight distributing hitch and too much drop in the receiver for the load. The trailer could have been more level.


The Ugly
Seven (7) miles per gallon. My truck is not set up to tow like this regularly with a 3" lift and 35" tires. And good thing I like waving... to the cars passing my by. 60mph was doable, but going up hills on those back roads made my rig lose speed quickly unless I could keep the engine churning 4500rpm. (which it didn't mind one bit. The water temp never climbed over 200deg on my ScanGauge)



All in all, it was a success. The tractor got moved, not body got hurt, and my truck didn't blow a head gasket LoL

 

That is awesome! I loved the ZF6 in the 5.4 I had.

 

Its just so beautiful!

 

loving it.
My buddy pulls alot with his and he put air bags on the rear to even out his truck when it is loaded to the hilt like yours. Works out great for him.
I think the bags cost him $250 or so and when he is pulling his travel trailer he airs them up and he's nice and level.

 

What do you think of the stock clutch and pressure plate? I don't tow heavy, but I sometimes haul heavy. I think my '09 stock setup is pretty good, especially compared to the '79 Ford four spd it replaced.

 

Great tow! The 5.4 really does do a good job.

 

Good write up. And some say that gassers cant tow!!!!! You know the operating range of the engine for towing a load like that and the truck did a great job. As far as mpg's, my old 6.4 got an average of 7.5-8 mpgs when I took a trip to Fl. and back this year. So I'm impressed that the 5.4 got 7 hauling such a heavy load. Ever since I went back to a gasser in August I've been extremely pleased. It tows like a dream! Nothing to it, just hook it, and it'll pull it. By the way, nice truck!

 

Wow nice load, Nice looking truck too... every time i see it it looks sharp

 

I think the set up is very nice. There's no way my 5.4L will give the stock clutch or pressure plate more than it can handle in this kind of towing or hauling situation. The clutch is kind of noisy in my opinion- if you depress the clutch at low rpm with the engine somewhat lugging- but it seems to have good pedal feel and good action. It's not a sports car manual transmission, that for sure! It is a truck transmission in every since of the word.




I was watching my ScanGauge pretty close and that 7mpg was a pretty accurate figure for that trip and that load. Going up some small hills from a dead stop at full throttle in 2nd on the ZF6 showed about 2.9mpg for that kind of maneuver. Talk about thirsty!




Thanks! As I and many others have said in the past concerning the 5.4L in the Super Duty- It'll get most jobs done, just a little [ok quite a bit ] slower than the more powerful engines. But in all seriousness- you will not power out with the ZF6 and its low gear. In a worst case scenario, you'd pull that 10% grade on the shoulder at 10mph in Low Gear screaming the engine.

We had a mid 90s Chevy extended cab long bed pickup with a 5.7L 350 and a 4L60E auto that powered out one time pulling a loaded creep feeder up a the driveway and out onto the farm to market road. It literally would not spin the tires. We had to engage 4x4 Low just to get it up on the road!




Nice tunes in the ECU as well. I was running your 87 Performance tune, as I have been for the last couple of months. Thanks again





EDIT-- What would you guys assume or guess that the trailer weighed? I know putting water in those rear tractor tires adds a lot of weight and the difference is very noticeable when plowing. So what would you guess the trailer weighs because I have no idea?

My ATV weighs right at 700lbs. My truck was weighed at a CAT scale right after I bought it, and it weighed almost exactly 7000lbs by itself. I'm just not sure what a tractor like ours weighs. I'm wishing I would have went out of my way to get on a scale.

 

I guessing that you had about 10K behind you.

 

Great pics! I love to see your posts, as they always have pics of you using your truck how a truck should be used!

 

Here's a little data on the Ford 6610... TractorData.com Ford 6610 tractor dimensions information

 

Now that's a cool link! It says that the 2wd Ford 6610 weighs 6800lbs. So by the time we add water in the tires, a front bumper (that's made of railroad ties, LoL) and the cutter, it would probably be a safe estimate that there's a healthy 8000lbs sitting on the trailer.

Nice. Thanks.

 

This chart will give you a rough estimate of weight added for the filled tires

Ballast Star - Charts

 

If thats a 10PI 20' Trailer it has a listed weight of 2,530 lbs. I'd say that tractor goes well over 8k with the deck and other stuff.

You got the job done safely, thats all that really matters.