I have a 03 F350 v10. I use it daily for my lawn care business pulling a 18 foot car hauler. Then on the weekends i use it to pull my fifth wheel camper that weighs almost 14,000 pounds. I get about 7 miles to the gallon pulling my lawn mowers around. It does have a exhaust leak that i plan on fixing. But for pulling my camper going up hills it struggles bad and getting on a interstate it takes forever to get up to speed. If i was to fix my exhaust leak and put a cold air intake and possibly put high performance coil packs on will it help out with power and fuel mileage? Or am I better off stepping up to a diesel? Right now we dont travel far from home with our camper but eventually plan on taking long trips with it all over the US.

 

The "high performance" coil packs and the cold air intake aren't going to do anything for you. The best thing you can do for it is swap to 4.30 gears if you have stock size tires and then maybe a 5 star tune the tune is really more of a transmission tune but its makes it shift way better. Your not going to get 100 hp out of a tune on a n/a gas engine and the spd y-pipe that replaces the restrictive stock y-pipe. Gears will by far make the biggest difference. Its expensive probably gonna run about $2k but it's cheaper than a new truck. Don't expect to win any races with 14k behind you even with gears but it should be better

 

Gears!! 4:30s or 4:56s if you have bigger than stock tires. Then Thorley or Banks headers, free flowing cat back. Maybe a tuner. Upgrade the tranny cooler to the 6.oh cooler.

 

I think you're asking too much from your 2V V-10. That's a lot of trailer.

 

I am trying to decide if it is worth dumping the money into this truck or if i should go to a diesel. Right now i only have 6k into this truck total. the truck has 175k miles on it. I would do all the work my self. So if i did all that I should still be under 10k. But will the v10 and the transmission hold up? I change the fluids regularly keep up with it pretty good on maintenance. I dont have any issues pulling cars around with it on my car hauler. It just seems to struggle at times pulling my camper. What would you all suggest?

 

Im no expert, but if money isn't a concern, go ahead and get new for peace of mind. You said you're looking to do a lot of traveling the country in the years to come....diesel MPG may be a factor to consider.

 

As long as neither your engine or transmission overheat that trailer won't hurt them. Did you install any kind of upgraded transmission cooling? Do you monitor your transmission temperatures? The stock cooler is a bit weak for that much trailer. Engine cooling should be fine as long as it's been maintained.

 

It is all stock. It has never had any upgrades. I do monitor the gauges and the motor and transmission have not over heated pulling the rv

 

What kind of fuel milage would a diesel get pulling a rv the size of mine? I'm lucky if I get 200 miles out of a tank of gas pulling it. If I can get away with just dumping a few grand into this truck and have it preform better and give me alittle better fuel mileage I would probably just keep it. If I was to go the diesel route I would only want to spend around 20k. I do enjoy going to the dealerships though and looking at the new $60k-70k super duty trucks and drooling on them.

 

I would step up to a diesel, not only for the power and MPG, but also if you get a 6.0 you have a much nicer transmission. Great factory cooling, and the tow/haul feature works amazing for towing

 

You won't get any more performance or fuel economy out of that engine. Gears can help keep the engine higher in the RPM band and feel better towing, but there's no good way to meaningfully increase your power.

 

If you are getting 7 mpg with the V10, I doubt you will do much better than 10-11 with a diesel, at least that is the best we do at work towing with a 2002 F350 SRW and a significantly lighter trailer. It would take a lot of miles to come out financially if you bought a truck.

Go slower (if possible) and change those gears.

 

Any 4x4 auto diesel prior to 2011, towing 14k, maybe 10mgps.

 

Get a 3V V-10 with 4.30's. Cheaper than a diesel and is a lot better than your 2V now.

 

Get a diesel.