My sweetie and I plan to tow a 25' sailboat from Oregon to southern Baja California this winter with my newly acquired 91' F350 2wd dually w/460, E4OD, and 4.10's in an open differential. Now I know this is a lousy setup for mileage already, but it's an excellent vehicle otherwise and about 1/10th the price of a new 4wd diesel.

I've seen other 2wd rigs stuck on slippery boat ramps, and it wasn't pretty, with results varying from simply getting help from another vehicle to tow 'em out to the truck essentially sliding into the water.

I'm considering adding either a limited slip of some sort, or a locking differential. I've had pretty good luck with LS diffs in the past, but am told they 'drag' and reduce mileage (total trip will be over 5000 miles) I'm hoping some FTEers have first hand experience with lockers (manufacturer's reps almost universally recommend their product over anyone else's and assure me theirs is the one to get) ... is there anything that acts like a true open diff until it's locked? It'll be used infrequently; I don't care if I need to crawl under the truck to lock it when I need it, but I'd really like it to stay open when I don't want it.

Thanks!

 

I've towed my 26' deckboat with both our Excursion and my old F350 CC SRW with the same engine/differential that you mentioned. I've never had a "slipping" problem with the Ex, but have spun out several times with the F350. I determined the biggest difference between the 2 vehicles to be the amount of weight on the rear tires. Since I had people in the boat, I just had them move towards the front of the boat. After they sat back down, I pulled right out with no wheel spin. I've also been pulled out of the sand by a 2wd dually when the Ex sank to the axles. The dually's extra tire contact was enough to keep it up on top of the sand, and he pulled the ex and the boat out without any problems.

You may need some extra weight on the weels when pulling out, just bring some extra water containers (fill the cooler in an emergency) or move some weight over the rear axle. If you have a tool box and it's not bolted down, slide it back in the bed.

Aslso plan when you launch or retreive the boat to be at high tide. This will keep your tires on a portion of the ramp that hasn't built up a slime coating from the tide.

I wouldn't spend money on a differential change unless you're doing it for more than just pulling out of the ramp. Remember, boaters are some of the nicest/most trusting people in the world. You're sure to be able to get a tow if you need one. Just have a tow strap with you. Good luck and have fun.

 

Are you sure that its a open differential, DRW with 4.10 gears is almost always a LS. But anyway with the DRW you will have a lot better traction than a SRW, I pull my 20 ft pontoon out with my DRW with a LS but I have never slipped a wheel so the LS has never come into play.

Denny

 

Thanks guys. The axle code on the door sticker is 45, which is I think a 4.10 open. When I bought the truck I 'thought' it was H5, which is a limited slip. Perhaps we'll just go with the open diff, as there will be plenty of weight on the rear end in the form of a pop-up camper, other stuff, and of course the boat ... which incidentlly is a Catalina 25 water ballast that takes on an additional 1400 lbs of water, also have 2 gold cart batteries and 50 gal fresh water tank in the bow.

 

Dually trucks are not too bad for traction you just need to run a traction tire or a good A/T tire. The only selectable locker is a ARB for that you will be looking at a good chunk of change. The next option is a limited slip the Detroit True Trac but I don't know if they make one for a 10.25 Ford.

There really isn't much you can do when the rear wheels are on slime even a 4x4 has troubles with that. All you can really do is keep spinning till you burn the slime off down to the pavement or concrete.

You have to avoid the highway rib tires even the LTX M/S Michelin would be in that class. You would want to run a tire like the M-55 Toyo,Michelin XPS Traction,BFG Commercial T/A Traction. With F-350 duallies to get max traction on the rear tires you need to run 7.50R-16 which are tall and narrow with gives a better contact pressure. Michelin XPS Tractions come in this size they are only 8 ply which only will give you 8560lb tire capacity for the rear axle which should be plenty for what you want to do.

For the front tires you can run Lt-235/85R-16 10ply in the front they are the same height as the 7.50R-16s so the truck will look proper.