I have a v10 with 3.73's and tow a camper about 6500#. Mileage averages 8-9 towing. Also 285 dura tracs and 3-4 in lift. 11mpg city and 13 highway. I really want gears just to make it easier on the drivetrain. I drive very easy and never over 75 mph. Never heard anything negative about 5 star and it would be cheaper than gears but I want the one that would give the best overall performance and mileage. Any ideas, suggestions, or experience with both of these?

 

yes, a tune will help BUT will never replace the need for gears

 

I say both. Live a little!! Then ask permission, I mean forgiveness

 

What year truck? Your tires aren't that much larger than stock, I would probably do 4.30's. And, as said above, you'll see the greatest gains from both, but I actually would do the 5 Star first.

 

Where do you live? What's your elevation, and what kind of terrain are you pulling that trailer?

 

It's a 2002 excursion. I live in central NC and tow to mountains maybe 2x a year. 2nd gear 45 mph climbing the steepest mountain up hwy 421. I can definitely tell the trailer is back there along rolling interstate hills. Going to the beach nothing to it though. Every where I've read they say skip the 4.30 and go 4.56. Next tires will probly be 295's to fill the wheel well a little more.

 

Gears will give you the best result for towing/pulling, but are expensive. The 5 star will wake up the engine and you will notice a difference and is the cheaper of the two. As for mileage, you won't see a significant increase from either, meaning more than 2-3 mpg's. These engines like to visit the watering hole.

If budget permits, get the tuner first with tow tune and see how you like. If you are not satisfied go with the gears. If budget does not, gears first, especially if you are wanting to put larger tires on in the future.

 

If it helps your decision at all, a while back I put some plots together for RPM vs. gear for my truck. I wanted to see what the different gears would result in for final engine speed.

I am running 285-75-16 tires, so you can do the math to adjust for your tire size.

 

Truckfella that is a good graph with info. I will bookmark and save for future reference. I myself would like to upgrade to 4.30's.

 

Thanks, I hope others find it useful as they're considering gears.

As or me, I also think 4.30 would best fit my situation. If my towing/hauling weight were closer to 10k, without a doubt I would go with 4.56. I'd like to salvage as much highway mpg as I can since its our winter month mountain transportation, too. 4.30 might be the best compromise. Also, I just determined that 4.30 is roughly $200 more than 4.56 thru RRP. Not sure I would let $200 get in the way of the ratio I really want but its still something to consider.

OneHigh4x4: I absolutely love the 5-star programmer. Running in Mike's tow tune with my setup is such an improvement over stock software. No regrets whatsoever in buying the tuner first. But...a gear swap is definitely in my future, too.

 

On my '05 V-10 4X4 EX with the factory 3.73 gears pulling our 9500lb ToyHauler I had averaged 7.25 MPG on trips South from Philly to SC and NC over the past 3 years. Last March we pulled the same setup to Savannah along the same route (I-95) and averaged 9.0 MPG, only changes were a set of Banks headers and new 4.88 gears. I tow between 60 and 65 MPH and will let it bleed off a little bit of speed on hills if it means I can keep it in OD. My EX is lifted 4" and runs 32" tires for now, when these run down I'll be upgrading to 35"s, thats why I went with 4.88's, the effective ratio will be 4.39 with the new tires. The deep gears made a huge difference in pulling, the rig did not drop out of OD a single time over the entire trip, in the past I had it dropping down on every one of the rolling hills in MD and VA along the route. Holding OD really helps to keep the mileage average up. I don't drive it much solo but it seems like I may have lost about 1.5 MPG while running solo with the new gears.
I just got my 5 Star tunes last month and haven't pulled with them yet, so far I've tried the 87 Perf (Woke the big beast up! Yippie!) and the 87 Econo, I like how quickly it gets through all the gears and I can be in OD and locked up by 35 MPH, I only have about a hundred miles on it since the tunes so no real info yet.

 

I tried the 5 Start tuner from Mike. Was a toss-up between gears or tuner. The tuner is great!! Towing my 5ver(approx.10K).....truck and 5ver at about..18K...the tuner made a world of difference.

 

Looks like everyone is happy with both options. Guess I'm gonna need a 2nd job and get both. Camping at the lake so I towed yesterday and the whole time was wishing for gears. Truck pulls but seems to have no guts to it on any kind of hill.

 

I pull my 5ver from Northern Ca. into Oregon over the Siskiyou mountains(highest pass on I-5 in the west.....and before the tuner....was doing about 40 mph. This a long 6% grade from Oregon to California...about 8 miles. After Mikes tuner....can do 50-55 mph.
01 Ford F350...V-10..CC/LB/3:73 gears...LT265/75/16R tires.

 

When I bought my truck, the PO had installed a CAI and Ypipe upgrade, the dealer told me it was "chipped" but I had no way to confirm it.

It ran great unloaded, but the first time I pulled a camper over a 6%+ grade, I could see that improvements were going to be needed. My previous rig was a 6.7 cummins with a 60+hp tune so to be fair, I was spoiled.

First mod was the tuner, the biggest benefit was the shift schedules, seemed to keep it in the power band longer, It seemed to run better but still wasn't a low end torque monster that I wished for.

Second was the banks headers, got a deal online, and after a couple months and some procrastination, I took them to my shop to have them put on.

I had a stud or 2 already broken and this felt like killing a couple birds with one stone. After reading more and more posts on header or manifold stud jobs, I'm glad I paid a shop to do it, I think I paid about what I'd have had to pay for tools to get the job done

anyway, this mod seemed to be a noticeable improvement, I still dropped to 2nd on the steep stuff, but didn't get the "dead pedal" , I could still accelerate in 2nd where I couldn't before.

My truck came without limited slip, and I felt I needed that for peace of mind going to some of the places I like to go. I originally was going to keep the 3.73s and just add the LS. as it turned out, my gear guy needed to put my job off a couple days, and in those couple days I broke down and decided to go with the 4:30s also.. so, after about $2.5k I have LS and 4:30s.

Its definitely an improvement, where my tranny used to hunt between 2nd and 3rd, it actually would hunt 3rd to 4th, but O/D off cures that. and running higher rpms makes it more responsive at highway speeds, acceleration is improved etc, and a bonus, engine braking is better. sure, all good.

I still have to go down to 2nd at times on the steep stuff, but I can keep it near 50 or so in 2nd if I need to without seeming to over rev. and if I don't mind it running at 3k rpm, I can leave it in 3rd and still do 65 (stock size tires on mine) so its an improvement , but it still didn't make it a "torque monster" , but I can live with it now.

I did all this to mine, because I hope to keep it, its clean an low mileage, and paid for, and at this time, I was able to afford the mods without too much pain. I have no doubt I lost money here, but I'm happier with my truck now.

My point being, all these things are an improvement, and if money isn't an object, do it, but I wouldnt sacrifice the kids college fund or mortgage the house. I'm happy with my upgrades, but I can see some might not think the improvement is worth the money spent to get it.

All this said, my new theory on gears is: go 4:56 if you don't spend much time on the freeway, and more time on 65mph or less roads, you'll be able to use all 4 gears more and keep the revs where they need to be, otherwise do 4:30s.

295s with 4:56 wont be much lower than stock with 4:30s, and if you're doing it, you wont want less than 4:30s with your trailer weight.

Tough choice! good luck with your decision.