I now have two 6.2Ls. My 2013 (I bought new) with almost 98,000 miles and my 2018 I bought new back in January. It's getting close to 5000 miles.

When I bought my 2013, I remember being a little disappointed in its towing performance but I was coming off several Power Strokes, including my 2011 6.7 at the time. So it was an obvious step down. I pull a 5300 lb. landscape trailer 90% of the time. I also have a larger landscape trailer that probably weighs around 7,000 lbs. loaded but that's less than 10% of the time. I bought a programmer from 5 Star back then and as far as I know, that tune is still in the truck. I don't even know where the programmer is. But that 2013 was pretty good considering it's a gas engine. It's been a flawless engine internally. The only real issue I've had with it was a broken exhaust manifold stud. I just had the plugs replaced and they all came out fine. The truck still runs great and tows beautifully.

Now my problem. This 2018 has been a little disappointing. I think I read somewhere here how Ford was trying to improve the torque performance on this engine. In my opinion, a gas engine has little business focusing heavily on torque. I don't see the improvements. I know 2nd gear will run up over 60 mph without red-lining from a dead stop acceleration. But one huge thing I hate is this truck will not drop to 2nd when trying to merge on the highway pulling my trailer. It won't drop below 3rd and relies on its so-called torque to get up to speed. It almost falls on its face every time and in some instances, it's almost dangerous merging onto a busy highway. My opinion is the only thing Ford did to make this 6.2L more of a torque engine is lock out second gear while towing so you have to rely on what torque you have in 3rd gear. Long story short, my 98,000 mile 5.5 year old F350 is a far better towing work truck.

I quickly looked up a 5 Star Tuner online and saw prices starting at $549. Good grief. Is that my best option? I'm not knocking the price of the tuner if people are willing to pay. I just don't want to drop $550 on something if there's a better alternative out there at a better price.

 

How about put the truck in manual and shifting the trans up and down as needed?

 

Well thats what I did and to me it was worth it. I wished they offered something between 87 performance and 87 daily /tow. 87 Performance was pretty hot and I believe probably lead to my valve spring popping at 150k miles; granted i was ******* on the truck hard. Changed it to daily/tow and yes it makes a huge difference in shifting and mild power/response improvement.

If its 2wd consider a 4.30 swap or lower if always hooked to a trailer and not on the highway.

But first in all honesty I would run 89 Octane. It made a huge difference in mine but didnt start doing it till it had high miles.