Well, I said I would never do it, but I bought my first Ford tonight. I've been a die hard Chevy guy ever since I was old enough to drive. We bought a travel trailer in January and we were towing it with our 99 Chevy Tahoe. The trailer is a 25' trailer and when it's loaded, weighs around 6500 pounds. The Tahoe is inadequate as a tow vehicle. I've been looking at diesel's for a couple of months now and finally bought a 2002 F-250 crew cab Lariat tonight. 4x4, leather, heated seats, and every option available as far as I know. I'm sure it will tow better than my 99 Tahoe. I'll take it and hook up the trailer tomorrow and see how it does. Anyways, I had a few questions. The guy at the dealer doesn't know jack about this truck.

When I'm towing my trailer, do I need to have it out of Overdrive, or is that only when I'm losing speed on hills? Will I even lose speed on hills with the 7.3 PSD and a 6500 pound trailer?

Also, I think the truck has a chip in it and an aftermarket supercharger. How exactly can I tell? The supercharger that is on it is in the middle close to the firewall. The air filter is right next to the left fender.

Anything else I should know or keep an eye out for on this truck? So far, I am very impressed. Thanks! Matt

 

Congrats! The truck you bought is exactly what I am looking for :-) I hope you have many miles of happy trucking.

 

Welcome to the Family, Enjoy your new truck and the Power of a PSD, there is nothing like it on earth... When I tow I leave the truck in O/D and my trailer weights about 5K to 6K depending on how many bikes I put in it.. And if you set your cruise at say like 75 you should never feel it do nothing but make the Turbo sing... hahaha
Your in for a real treat...

DR JOE

 

That's your turbo, it's standard issue on these trucks. Also I doubt the dealer would have sold a truck with a chip on it, but there have been a few.

 

Ford says it is ok to tow in overdrive. I think the conventional wisdom here is that overdrive is ok as long as it isn't hunting gears (frequent shifts). In situations where it is trying to shift a lot, you need to lock it out.
That's your stock turbo, not a supercharger. The chip would be plugged into your pcm, inside the black box on the kick panel next to your parking brake pedal.

 

Congratulations on the new truck. Man are you really going to like towing with that. You won't even know that your trailer is back there.

 

Congrats! My dad has a 30' travel trailer that was around 7000 pounds and he went from pulling it with a Suburban to a F350 6.0 powerstroke, its a world of difference! The first thing you will say is "why didnt I do this sooner" thats what my dad said anyway. I liked his powerstroke so much I went out bought my own a few months ago, I'm a convert to the Ford Diesel now also.
He leaves his out of tow haul mode, just normal Drive, when he is towing and has no problems, we hooked it up to my 7.3 and left the o/d on and I didnt have any searching problems either.
Good luck and have fun

 

Congratuts on your new truck...! You will LOVE towing with it. I had a 26' travel camper that i used to tow with my Bronco,(5.0L gas V*). The camper weighed around 6k, and the Bronco pulled it, but you knew it was there. When I got my blue mule, (02 F350 Super Crew PSD - same basic truck as yours), I hooked up and went camping. I set the cruise on 74, left it in OD, and headed out..! When I hit the hills on the highway, she never even slowed down...! Not 1 mile per hour...! All you hear is the turbo spooling up, and you feel the truck start to do what it was made to do... TOW...! To quote a famous bad guy: "you don't know the POWER of the dark side...!" Have LOTS of fun passing Hemi's while you are towing uphill, but be ready for the hateful glares as you go buy...! Just remember... SMOKERS RULE...!

 

I towed a 7,000 lb. trailer with my 2002 F-250 PSD 4x4 CC from Texas to Nevada and back (2 horses + trailer). I used the cruise control most of the time, and set it on 65 mph for best fuel flow rate. It never even lost a fraction of a mph, even on fairly steep hill climbs. Honestly, it was hard to detect that a 3 1/2 ton load was back there.

If I remember correctly, my mileage went from ~18 mpg to 14.5 mpg on this trip. That aint' bad.

Have fun!

 

bspeake speaks the truth... i tow a 28' 5th wheel camper now with my 02 blue mule, the camper is about 10k and the combined weight of the truck and camper is almost 20k, which is the max load allowed for my truck by Ford. My mule tows this with no problem, although i do not use the cruise, and i don't push the truck up the hills. If she wants to go a little slower and downshift to get over a steep hill i let her do that. i have the 3.73 limited slip rearend with single rear wheels. Fuel mileage is right around 18 in the summer, (14 in winter), & 12-14 towing the camper. Try doing that with a gasser. the only engine ford makes that compares with the power of the psd is the v10, and I have been told they get as little as 6 mpg when towing. thanks, but i'll pay a little more for a smoker, especially if it'll last 3 times as long as a gas engine.

 

Yes I agree with everyone on the ease of towing but you will forget you have something back there after a while JUST because it does have the power to do the job.

 

oh, one thing you MUST remember.... there IS something behind you...! I had a couple of guys warn me not to "outdrive" my brakes, and they were right...! It is easy for the PSD to get you moving so fast so easy that you forget you might need to STOP...! Just because it doesn't FEEL like you are towing 6 or 8 or 10 thousand pounds, you still are...! have fun, take it easy, and be safe...!

 

Congrats on the new truck!! You'll enjoy pulling your trailer with it, you'll go more often just so you can tow it around.
No offense, but you sound like a newbie , just to familarize yourself with your truck, read thru the owners manual and diesel supplement a few times, they help out a lot with regular maintenance, which if done, will ensure a long life for your truck. Also, if you have questions, do some searching on here, there are hours of reading about stuff you didn't even know existed in your truck, and if you get stuck, post questions and there are plenty of knowledgable people to help you out.

 

KC
Welcome to the forum and congrats on truck your gonna love it.
Ya gotta realize that your old Tahoe was not designed to work for a living and the PSD was.

Since your new to diesel a couple of suggestions: If you should decide to do some performance mods make sure you check here for advice first because there is a definite right and wrong sequence; make sure you do routine maintenance as recommended especially the part about checking coolant SCA levels; consider using synthetic oil and a bypass filter system it will add years to the life of your PSD.

As far as towing in OD if the tranny isnt hunting, constantly changing gears, OD shouldnt be a problem.

 

What makes you think there is a chip in the truck? As mentioned before it would be plugged into the back of the computer. If it is chipped, either remove it or get gauges before you start towing. There is lots to learn about these diesels so look around the site and enjoy the FORD!