Thank you everyone for the awesome advice. Towing 4 horse Featherlite fully loaded with living quarters so about 14-17k pounds depending on a few factors. Not including truck and passengers or hay/feed in the bed.

For the hills I get it going on the downhill and push coming towards the base to keep it going. It does fine with that, only drops to 65-60 but if someone is in front of me going 60 then it takes me some time to pass as the trailer is a bit long and a lot of people speed up when they think they are going to be overtaken by a horse trailer. Honestly a stupid ego thing or? Haven't figured that out. Anyways...

Hills only when on the turnpike, so not often (2x-5x a month), but I also drive through GA, SC, NC, VA so I get a bit more hills there. I have decided to take the BFs Chevy when driving to Virginia in May.

I'll grab a pic of the boost since I have no idea what it is. Air filter has been checked but I will get my new mechanic to look a bit more in depth to see if there are any issues farther down.

Injection pump and injectors recently replaced. Hoses replaced as well to clear up any leaks. It was sitting for some time so maybe some junk in the remaining lines? I'll be sure to get that checked. I don't think it has been timed, so how would I do that?

I don't think it is cooled by anything so I will defiantly check into getting an intercooler installed. I have a temp gage for the exhaust but that's it. Is that the same as a EGT?

God, I sound so stupid. Sorry about that. Thank you all for the advice it has been very enlightening. I would like this truck to go 325k miles or more like its predecessors, can I expect that?

 

Yeah, that's a lot of weight for just about any pickup. Your IDI isn't doing badly.


If you take care of that IDI, it'll make it to high miles.

 

The smoke shouldn't be black or grey? It only throws smoke when the boost kicks in, the rest of the time no noticeable smoke. Does that mean its burning the fuel? Again sorry for the stupid question.

Its an automatic, but it downshifts when we drop below sixty automatically. Just googled EGT and I have that. When I'm hauling it stays between 6 and 9 and almost never hits 10. Is that good/bad? It doesn't hit the red or even close to it so I never worry about it.

 

Thank you for the reply. I'm glad it isn't doing too bad. I love the truck, just different than what I am used to. When it isn't hauling its a fast little bugger, so I guess the load is just a lot of weight for it.

 

Yeah, up to 17k plus a load in the bed is a LOT of weight. I wouldn't be too concerned about it's performance.

 

Thats alot of weight sure. But i would expect it to pull with a PSD 7.3, unless i wonder, if the other trucks by chance had 4.10s and your IDI has 3.55s that would make a difference with that much weight.

Sounds like your pyro (EGT's) are right where they should be. Since Banks kits have the probe right before the turbo instead of in the manifold you dont want them over 900* for any long period of time. An intercooler would help out there as well.

As far as smoking, it should haze a little under heavy load, but not smoke. The smoke should go away when the boost kicks in.

 

I don't understand the bolded part. Could you explain a bit more? My last trucks pulled a larger load (up to 7 horses weight anywhere from 14k to 21k without truck) and they still had power up the hills. Except when the 99 had to haul up a steep steep hill in Massachusetts in 2nd gear to drop a horse off when the trailer and truck was overloaded. I could not imagine towing that large of a load with this truck.

I'll defiantly have the air checked to make sure it is getting the right amount. Thank you so much!

 

That is a reference to the rear axle gear ratio.

4.10 and 3.55 are factory gear sets, 4.10 is more desireable for towing but will give you less fuel economy and top speed while 3.55 is the opposite. Towing with 3.55 is still doable but the truck has to work much harder.

After reading through I wanna second the thought of not getting enough air. My truck smokes really bad trying to climb steep hills and I think I have a boost or exhaust leak. Lots of fuel with not enough air to burn it will cause thick black/greyish smoke.

 

Thank you so much. How would I check the rear axle gear ratio? Is there a way to set it to the 4.10 if it is at 3.55?

I am thinking the air as well due to the responses. Thank you all so much. I really appreciate all the help and advice!

 

If the truck is stock and original you can look on the build/warranty/vin sticker inside the drivers door. Look at the code under the axle block and look online, theres a lot of lists of axle codes. It might be in the owners manual too but I never looked.

Swapping out gears is doable. It's a big job and some guys just a whole axle because they find one cheaper than a rebuild. I was looking at about 1500 to rebuild mine and that was having someone do it on the side and me buying the parts through work (dealership).

There should also be a tag on the diff cover itself. It's probably covered in crud and hard to read.

If your truck is 4x4 you will also need to change the gears in the front axle fyi.

 

running 60-65 mph with upwards of 17k combined gross uphill and the fact your still even thinking about passing meanwhile suggest to me that old Betsy is running darn near her expectancy.

there are many here with idi trucks in the state of de-tune who would love to able to keep up with yours.
it's not a modern diesel engine (doesn't have the nuts of that 3rd gen/'99 7.3l) she's not going to have power to spare uphill grossing 17k unless you pull and overhaul (and build) the engine,add more cold air with a larger turbo and feed her a lot more fuel and intercooler (thousands.)
id suggest just hanging back with the slower traffic a bit on the hills at least and enjoying the scenery and don't worry about the truck.she's doing just fine.
your describing what you should be expecting from an idi dually truck in peak tune with the banks turbo (9-10 lbs of boost.)

your axle ratio code is on the drivers side door jam sticker.with this code,you can look it up here:
http://www.drivetrain.com/parts_cata...s_it_posi.html

for the EGT's.directly from the banks manual:
"High Load Conditions (uphill with heavy load): EGT
should typically be 900°F to 1000°F, with 1050°F as a
safe maximum."

i can see where your coming from.i came from the f150 trucks with 300-6 cyl and thought the world of the n/a idi.once i added the banks turbo i was like.......ok hang on.
however coming from a '99 diesel truck and going backwards....yeah that wouldn't feel as thrilling.you'll get used to her.remember she's extremely reliable and greatly cheaper to repair if needed too.so smile all the way up them hills,even if it isn't 70-80 mph while at max gross anymore.

 

I couldn't agree more with this post. Right on.

 

I have an n/a 7.3. only towed max 3500 lbs with it, but i definitly had to drop it in 4th and get the revs to 2800 or so. Hills were easy at that rpm (i was 3/4 into the pedal). 5th will always bog down with weight if my revs at at 2000 or under at the bottom of the hill. I also have 3.55s so I NEED the revs.

try shifting out of OD before the hill and get the revs higher to 2500+, should beam up nicely. Also, quite a bit of weight!

 

1 wheel drive lol. I know where a couple blue captains chairs are, but theyre pretty rough.

My grandpa always told it to me like this, (we used to haul alot of hay and the truck... err, wasnt fast) if the trucks not fast enough you can haul the hay yourself, in this case pull the trailer. lol Not much of a sense of humor, i know