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Well, I guess you can say I have officially begun down the dark road. It was simple, very simple. But a start none the less. I have done the pre-requisite to all other modifications, data! I installed a GlowShift 3 in 1. It is Boost on the sweep, EGT and transmission temp on the digital. I went with the single pod that fits at the bottom of the pillar. My initial take...my biggest concern was the fitment and such of the pod. I will say, fit and color is not completely perfect, but it is very good. I think the color is definitely close enough that I won't have any long-term regrets. The fit is also good. The kit came with some "Christmas Tree" trim clips to hold it into place nicely. I used a RiffRaff AIH delete for my boost tap, and also ordered the drill and tap from RiffRaff for the EGT probe. One thing I like about the GlowShift kits is that they are all electric gauges. From my past experiences, I do not like having to run the stupid nylon hoses for the boost gauge. So, the 10 different backlit colors is pretty cool. I need to clean up the install...I only had 1 add-a-circuit, so I need to get another one so I can wire up the the ignition and constant voltage seperately, I just have them tied together on the ignition feed. So picture...
Also, a couple of pictures of the truck sitting in Illinois before I bought it, as well as the fifth wheel we bought with the truck. The gauge install is also in preparation for a 2500 mile family trip we are making in a week to Kentucky with the trailer.
I used to drive a work pickup that belonged to my boss, 07 Classic Duramax, and it had a double pod with boost and pyro. I did not like it at all, so I had that experience going into this. Between the blind spot, and I just felt the gauges sat to high, and it was uncomfortable to view them, I was not a fan. I was really puzzled about what I wanted to do for gauges in this truck. Then I found the GS 3 in 1 units. I am sure that up against an ISSPRO, or other high end unit, there may be a bit of inaccuracy, but this should work just fine for what I need, and that is just something that keeps me close enough to the ballpark that I don't tear something up! If you are pushing the ragged edge to the point that 10 degrees of EGT is make or break on your gauge, break it will probably be!
I too like the 3 - 1 gauge, that is a good idea and perhaps one I should have adopted. Oh well, live and learn. When we bought our truck 8 years ago, we bought it 600 miles away from home. This was my first diesel truck and my first manual diesel truck. 40 miles south of where we bought the truck, we bought a 32 ft travel trailer for a steal of a deal.
So, there we are... 560 miles from home and I now have a new to me diesel truck and a new to me 32 ft travel trailer... That was a very tense and exhausting drive home, but we made it.
Have fun with it and the family sir, that is what they are there for. Keep us updated during the treatment of your PMS, we love to watch other people spend money!
Nice truck Rob. I too have an ‘02, has been a great truck with no serious hauling but a LOT of straight line driving for work before I retired. Take care of it and it will take care of you. These guys here on FTE are like no other, sort of family. Strongly recommend you set up FORScan on your phone as a minimum.
Take care.
Larry
I like the Glow Shift 3 in 1 gauge. I may have to look into it. I don't like my first generation Isspro EV1 gauges. Have issues with them. May have to switch to the GS.
So far running around today I am liking the gauge. It has another wire I did not wire up that makes it go from day to night illumination. I am going to keep using it for a little bit before I decide if I want to mess with wiring that up. This morning at 6:00 heading into town for breakfast the "day" illumination did not bother me, so I think it will be okay.
We bought our "pair" from a family member. That truck is all the trailer has been towed by, and the last several years, the truck has travelled very few miles without the trailer. It was nice knowing that we were buying a truck and trailer that worked well together. There is nothing worse than the worry about over-buying the ability of your tow rig. My uncle brought the truck and trailer to us when we bought it, so that also made us more at ease our first trip out, knowing that the pair had just travelled 1,000 miles together without a hiccup to get to us!
So, the family has not made it back from our family vacation hauling the fifth wheel with the 7.3, but we have covered enough miles (about 3000 with the trailer attached) to make some conclusions about the trucks performance and capabilities. The long and short, it has done absolutely everything we needed it to do. Has it done everything I "want"? Well no, because it won't tow the trailer at 75 MPH with no downshifting on hills and pull down 20 MPG. Now honestly, speed wise I have probably been pushing the truck. I think we have been pulling around 8 MPG running up to 65-70 MPH. Pulling through the Smokey Mountains we saw some EGTS of 1200, and occasionally we would see that going up steeper hills, especially if I let it loose too much speed before hitting the OD OFF button. I also did not see anything with transmission temps to cause worry, but we were also not running in high temperatures by any means, so some summer running will tell a more honest story there.
At a previous employment, I used an LB7 Duramax with an Allison to haul portable buildings. That truck was a 3500 cab and chassis. A major difference between the 2 trucks was the fact that the Duramax/Allison programming allowed the truck to loose too much speed before taking action to get the truck back up to the set speed. With a big load, this usually meant the truck had no chance of making it back to speed until you were headed downhill or back on level ground. I definitely like the way the Ford cruise control programming works much better. I could just watch the speed on the GPS, let it lose 1 MPH, hit the OD OFF button, downshift, and that was usually all the speed it would lose unless it was a larger incline.
So, I definitely do want to look at some improvements to increase towing performance as well as towing MPG. I believe I have my Hypertech in stage 1. I think one of my first priorities is getting a Hydra and some decent tuning. I do not know how much that will help, but I am sure I can do much better than what I have now. The turbo surge is definitely an issue and quite obnoxious, so turbo modifications hopefully will not be far behind. I am sure reducing speed would be a huge help in fuel economy. Hopefully at some point that will be a better option, but how many of you have travelled with a 2, 7 and 10 year old? At this point in our family situation, speed is almost more important than fuel economy! I do long for the day in the future when it will just be me and momma, and we will have nothing but time! For now, when trying to get 400 miles covered in a day, 10 MPH sure makes a difference in the late day misery!
While not 2, 7 & 10 year olds, our last cross country tow was with our then 3, 4, 9 & 10 yr olds. Still, maintained 62-65mph the entire trip cause the 15" trailer tires had a max speed rating of 70, and we'd already had 2 tire failures on the truck during the 7200 mile trip. Our biggest time suck was setting up and taking down the dinette every meal/sleep time, plus me being the only one setting up/down the jacks/hookups while wife kept kids entertained (confined/out of trouble) inside. We planned on 300 mile days between the cheaper state parks vs the much higher priced KOA style private ones. Had a crazy 800 mile day where everything went perfect and kids wanted to see more scenery thru windows than bathroom breaks and juice boxes with popcorn and a movie in trailer.
I do remember driving by the EGT gauge that trip tho, so feel your pain and stress. Truck had more power available than was useable so that began my rabbit hole of tow mods. Of course once I was ready to let it stretch it's new legs we had one tragedy after another preventing us from our planned summer trips. Hoping this summer the country is opened back up so we can finally squeeze in all our plans. When you are ready to begin reading up on your next course of action let us know, we like to help others spend their money with our first hand experience on mods. All depends on your end goals and budget tho, but we'll get your head swimming with options
I do remember driving by the EGT gauge that trip tho, so feel your pain and stress. Truck had more power available than was useable so that began my rabbit hole of tow mods. Of course once I was ready to let it stretch it's new legs we had one tragedy after another preventing us from our planned summer trips. Hoping this summer the country is opened back up so we can finally squeeze in all our plans. When you are ready to begin reading up on your next course of action let us know, we like to help others spend their money with our first hand experience on mods. All depends on your end goals and budget tho, but we'll get your head swimming with options
These 2 statements are so very true, except I would say we love to spend other people’s money.
The part about the truck having so much more power than we are able to use is exactly why I started down the rabbit hole. I always said “man this thing has so much power if I could just use it all.”
That MPG is not great. I've been able to get as good as 12.5 or so pulling smaller travel trailers between 60-65 mph with favorable winds. Usually somewhere in the high 10's or 11's though.
In the Summer time you're going to want to slow it down a little anyway. Those Chinabombs on many trailers are only speed rated for 65 mph. In very hot weather I would not try to push it much past that for extended periods. Also your transmission cooler will become a bottleneck if you get the motor to the point where it can blast up hills at 75 in overdrive. A 6.0 or Mishimoto cooler upgrade is almost as mandatory on the 4R100 trucks doing serious towing.
That MPG is not great. I've been able to get as good as 12.5 or so pulling smaller travel trailers between 60-65 mph with favorable winds. Usually somewhere in the high 10's or 11's though
Yeah but at 75mph like he said, that's where that extra mpg went, shoving that huge billboard thru the air at higher speed. I've gotten 12.5 towing our 5th wheel, but not at 75mph. Above 65 and I would lose about 1.5mpg per 5mph
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