Has anyone had Ford swap out a 3.73 rear end gear for a 4.30 rear end gear? My wife informed me after I bought my 2014 F250 4x4 with the 6.2L engine that she wanted a bigger camper.

I called Ford today and one dealership quoted around $600 for the pinion and gear and 8 hours for labor. Another dealership quoted 16 hours for labor because they need to change the front and rear differential gears.

I'm not the sharpest on gears, do you need to change the front and rear and what's a typical cost to do this?

 

If it is a 4x4 you MUST change front and rear. If it is a 4x2 you don't have a front differential to change.

 

You may have to get it done at Ford for warranty issues, best check with Ford Dealers for a est of total cost but I bet it may be around $3K since both axle gears have to be changed.

 

$3k is what I was roughly quoted today. Do you think I would notice a difference hauling my current 8k lbs camper?

 

I would think that with your current configuration a 8k camper would not be a issue. If you get a bigger camper a gear change would be helpful. I went with 4:30s and am happy with my truck....

 

What size tires do you have? If you're running larger than a factory size, use a gear calculator to confirm 4.30 is where you want to be. 4.56 might be a better choice overall depending on other choices you could make in the future, for a negligible cost increase now.

That said, 8k# might not be enough to justify the cost of a swap, so what's the new camper going to scale at? 10k#+, I might look into it.

 

8K you should be fine if that is your total weight with the 3.73's, my camper trailer at the most is 8K but since I was ordering a New SD, I went with the 4.30's.
I tow allot through the Mountains here in the Western States, so the 4.30 axles will be a plus.

 

Do you guys live in the same house or did I miss something?

Okay, okay!

When I pulled my son's 10k trailer with my 99 Expy with 3.73 gearing, it pulled but really strained.
Then again, it was an early version 5.4...235 hp, 265#'s of torque if I recall.

Today, maybe a different story.

 

I have a 154 F250 with 3.31's and pull a 14,000 lb trailer no problem. I do however have a 6.7 As for the 6.2 you should still be ok with 3.73's If you go with 4.30's fuel millage will turn to crap. I believe if you had ordered 4.30's from the factory there was a gearing change in the transmission to account for the taller gears on the highway.

 

What are you basing this on?

Here's an actual report from someone who did the swap, he says .5mpg drop:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post15282424

 

I wouldn't consider that swap. The 6R140 has a nice deep first gear, and enough gears between that and 6th to always put the engine where it ought to be. 4.30s would keep you in higher gears on the freeway, but what you may lack in rear end gearing can be made up by downshifting.

Different platform, but I've pulled 16,000 lbs with my '13 F150 and 3.73 gears. You don't need low gears with today's modern 6-speed transmissions.

 

You said your current camper is 8000lb. Is that loaded, or empty weight??
How big is the camper you want to go to??

I was pulling my 41'Raptor 5th wheel toy hauler (empty weight is just under 13000, loaded around 17-18) with a 6.2 and 3.73 gears in the mountain west, and the 6.2 pulled it ok, but I certainly could not get in a hurry. On the big hills, I would be in the slow lane, and the 18 wheelers were passing me!
4.30 gears would have made some difference for sure! Just how much, I don't know.

If money is tight, one thing you can do, is to do just the rear at first, and if you do that, remove the front drive shaft so that the truck can't be shifted into 4WD inadvertently, then when funds permit, do the front and re-install front drive shaft.
The reason for having the same gears front and rear is so that both axles rotate at the same speed. If you had 4.30's in back, and 3.73's in front, when 4WD is engaged, the front axle and tires would attempt to rotate faster than the rear axle, and that would lead to catastrophic failure of the drive system!!!

 

Current TT is 8k full, we are looking at a 11k empty 5er. I was a little disappointed this past week driving to Gulf Shores from Kentucky at the high RPMS I was pulling just going down the highway. Truck stayed around 3500 in 4th gear going between 70-75 mph. Honestly, my Tundra did a little better than that.

 

I'm Towing signature 5th wheel, weights in at 12,000 lb. been in some pretty good hills now and happy with my 3.73 gear.

From what I read...@ 300 rpm difference...not enough to change them out.

I lock out 6th, or better yet use Manual mode and switch betwee 4th and 5th when needed...down to 3rd for a serious run up a long grade.

As other have said, you have 6 speeds to play with and 1st is pretty low gear.

Oh...I drive at 65 mph...plenty fast enought for me for my normal trailer tires and safety.

If you really want to go that fast, it takes a lot of power and you might want a diesel and proper speed rated trailer tires.

 

Must have been a 2wd?