Funny that we refer to the black smoke out of a diesel exhaust pipe as Soot. It's not the particles we can see that are necessarily harmful because we avoid walking through a black cloud but the particles that are smaller than 10 micron that are most harmful, once they enter the lungs they are almost impossible to expell.
We've learned a thing or 2 from burn pits.

 

Did you not read this, if you want to continue this start a new thread and I will move your posts to it but until then stop posting in this thread. One more and they will be all moved to Mod Delete. Last Warning ⚠️

Denny

 

Yet you feel enlightened enough to make choices for me.... Interesting perspective

 

What gear ratio do you have on the truck you have on order?

 

3.73.

Mike

 

If memory serves me correctly, I've driven four, or perhaps five, 7.3L Super Duty's.
I've driven two F350 DRW 4.30 (I drove one of these for a full week), one F350 SRW 4.30, one F350 SRW 3.73 and one F250 SRW 3.55.

The 4.30 trucks felt the best, the 3.55 was okay and I feel the 3.73 was the overall best compromise for my needs.

Mike

 

Mike,
Thanks for that feedback. We're looking at purchasing another truck for pulling fertilizer tanks and maybe the occasional gooseneck with round bales and was thinking a 4.30 would be the ticket since most of the driving towing these loads will be at relatively slow speeds. Should have purchased a 4.30 gear truck when we purchased the 6.2 powered truck.

 

His logic is flawed. If you have 4:30 gears your final drive ratio is 4:30. Changing gears in the transmission does not change that "final" drive ratio. It means your driveshaft must rotate approximately 4-1/4 times to rotate the rear tire once. It doesnt matter what gear you shift the transmission into, the pinion will still have to be turned 4-1/4 turns to rotate those rear tires 1 full revolution. What happens at the transmission is not the "final" drive ratio, your differential gear ratio and tire size determine the "final" drive ratio.

He is acting as if you cant downshift your truck if it has 4:30 gears in it and you can downshift only if you have 373 gears. Again his logic is flawed, not all trailers weigh the same, not all hills are at a minimum incline to suit your 373 gears even if you do downshift one gear, etc.... Claiming he gets better mileage is also flawed thinking in that everyone knows any given internal combustion engine gets it best mileage when the engine is running in its peak RPM range which means the cam, the exhaust, the cylinder volume, the tune, and nearly every other variable is going to affect that engines peak rpm range. Tires also play into the equation, i can go out and buy a 265/75-17 BFG KO2 tire and place it next to a Cooper 265/75-17 rugged trek or a Toyo and the tires are all going to have obvious visual differences in dimensions. For example, i can run a BFG KO2 on my dually truck with no issues, but i cant run a Michelin in the same size because the michelins are actually wider and will rub.

 

The 7.3 makes peak power above 3k RPM and has variable cam timing. It makes it's best fuel mileage in 10th gear when the converter locks up. With a DRW 3.73 truck that was around 50mph or 1600rpm. My DRW 4.30 truck gets the best fuel economy at about 40-42MPH also around 1600rpm.
Have you driven 2 godzilla trucks with the same engine/10spd and different rear gears?

 

So your telling us final drive ratio is just the rear end gear ratio? LOL. WRONG! That is the axle ratio. Maybe you should read this:
https://www.gearvendors.com/hrgmratios.html Look at the the numbers. Axle ratio X transmission ration = final drive ratio.
https://apps.associatedelectrics.com...fdr/index.html

 

Man, reading through all of this can stress a person out

I just completed purchase of a 2022 F-350 Lariat CC/SB/SRW with the 7.3L and 3.73’s.

It hasn’t arrived yet, but now I’m kind of wishing I would’ve paid more attention to the axle gearing.

I imagine the truck will pull our little trailer fine either way, but if I were ordering new I would be stuck here for sure.

My only concern is the truck came from the factory with 275/65R20’s, so that’s around 34” tall.

We have no intent on ever upsizing and our current travel trailer is only 22’ with a scaled weight of 4,660 lbs and a 660 lb tongue weight. Although we do load the truck down a little with people, dogs, kayaks, camping gear, etc. and we do tow in the hills of TN/NC/CA/GA a lot.

I was excited to never worry about payload again with 3,997 lbs available, so now I can just worry about axle gearing instead I suppose…..

We’re coming from a 2021 Nissan Titan XD gas w/ 9-speed, so hopefully the F-350 will be an upgrade while towing even with the 3.73’s. The Titan XD handles our trailer well, but it also has an axle ratio of 4.083.

 

You'll be fine with 3.73 gears. The 7.3 has alot of grunt and dropping a gear isn't the end of the world that some make it to be.

A F350 with the 7.3 will be a world of difference from a cute Titan.

When it comes in start a thread showing it off and enjoy it. 😉

 

It amazes me that 7.3L with a 10 speed requires 4.30 gears to be effective. Ours has a 3.73 so we'll see how it does. Having said that our 6.2 6 speed really needed the 4.30 gears driving at slow to moderate speeds.

 

With the 10 speed you have the low gearing equivalent of 4.10 if it were a 6 speed due to the far lower first gear, you will not run out of torque by a long shot.

If you listen to certain people, you would think millions of gas SDs out there with 3.xx gearing should be burning up their transmissions from gearing hunting and engines blowing up left and right from lugging. If 4.30 were that necessary, all those 6.2L gas trucks with 3.73 should be dirt cheap on the used market from all the users who can't live with them.

 

Wow, less than 5k travel trailer. I would still be driving my F150.

I had a 6.7/3.55 and now a 7.3/4.30 and I will tell you the 7.3 has plenty. What’s hard to see is 12-13 mpg all the time. I have done the math and you get maybe 2.5-3 mpg back from maintenance and stuff.

Why are you trading the Titan XD?

Do you like your trucks loaded with options like me? Makes the F150 hard to convince yourself since they won’t let us have the HDPP with the higher trim levels, where it’s needed. I towed many <5,000 lb trailers with my F-150 and it was the right tool for the job.