I work my SuperDuty hard and reliability is more important for me than burning the rubber at green light. So I never considered installing any tuner, especially that my 7.3 seems to be better than average.
Just yesterday I had side by side comparison with other SuperDuty that kind of confirmed I made the right decision. But let me say what happen and than we can interpret the facts.
THE PLACE >>> I 80 in Sierra with + - 10 miles of 5-6 % incline.
VEHICLES >>> my 99 F450 towing a boat at total weight about 16,000 lb.
The other SD was F350 CC dually towing 3 axle 5w travel trailer, what I would estimate a bit more than 16k. The truck look like early 2000 model, so it could be 7.3, or 6 l diesel.
WHAT HAPPEN. >>>> I don't tow faster than 60 mph in CA, so coming up the grade the other SD was gaining on me and started to pass me over so with both of our sets over 50' long we drove side by side for about 1 mile.. Than the real grade started. and he slowed down, while I down-shifted and continued to do 50 mph. At this moment I started to pass him, while at some moment his truck got an extra power and visibly took off passing me by about 1/4 mile.
About 2 miles later his truck started to smoke and his speed dropped down good 20 mph. He didn't pull over, but continued on right lane. I passed him over and by the time I reached the top of the grade he was about 1/2 mile behind me.

So my interpretation is, that the guy was driving on low tune at the beginning and when he lost the momentum he switched to high tune, what gave him good power boost. But couple miles later something had to overheat, or blow up, so he lost lot of the power and even he didn't pull over, he was just crawling.
So those who tow with the tuners, is that something that sounds familiar?

 

It is hard to say what happened in this instance.....

But, towing with a tuner is no issue at all, provided that you have gauges to monitor your temps. Pyrometer (EGT) is a must, secondly trans temp(for those with autos) and boost is nice to have but not nessecary.

As long as the EGTs stay in check, and the tuning is written properly (i.e. custom tunes) towing is a much easier and nicer experience in a tuned truck and it won't hurt anything. (provided that you are watching the pyro )

 

I bet he didn't have a tuner, but had a 6.0, and you just witnessed a day in the life of a 6.0 owner. You also witnessed why guys like their 7.3's so much!

 

That would not explain why at one point he suddenly gained the extra power to pass me?

 

If he had any kind of thick black smoke out the tail pipe he had a tuner. Historically Fords dont blow smoke very much. Also most tuners to my knowledge dont offer switching on the fly, except DP Tuner. I'm sure there are others, just not as many. Sounds more like driver error to me. Or maybe not error but arrogance.

 

Banks has the 6-gun that will shift on the fly. That may account for the sudden extra power. But....banks also will turn itself off if it detects an issue...

So shift on the fly is out there.

It would seem he did have an issue.

I don't tow heavy with anything other than stock power.

 

Been towing with a tuned 7.3 and 6.0 for years and never had a issue like that or any issue! I just watch the temps and go baby go, full speed ahead! Damn the torpedoes!