its not all that hard....people seem to run from gear swaps

its just an 8.8 diff in the front isnt it?

 

I tow a boat in the mid 7k range and the 3:73 work well. I would suspect the frontal area of the trailer you are towing could be causing you the grief. If you can get the towing guide from Ford you will see they specify with trailer tow package 60sqft as max consideration. Changing the ratio will help!

 

What speeds were you towing at in the mountains? Were the roads so steep that you were in low gear?

I tow a heavier load than you do and found that I need to put the transmission in a lower gear than it wants to be in when I tow in the mountains. If you are not getting into the lowest gear, your gear ratio is not the problem. The lower rear end ratio will help you when you startup but you can live with what you have by downshifting into a lower gear in the mountains.

The way I decide if I need to be in a lower gear is to keep the throttle position constant and select the between the two gears. Whichever gear gives me the higher speed is the gear I use. Just remember that these engines develop peak torque at 3700 RPMs so you want to be running close to that when you are towing up the hills.

 

Babock - I guess I really didn't pay much attention to the RPMs. Primarily noticed problems on some uphill grades north of Atlanta (I-575 to Hwy 76 and up into Blue Ridge, etc.) Altitude probably went from around 2000 ft. to 3500 or 4000 ft. (being from Louisiana, that is steep!).

OD off. Was either in 'drive' or '2nd'. On the 4 lane parkway (speed limit 65), I couldn't get much over 45-50mph on the long, uphill grades.

After all of this, I realized that I had been reading the trailer weight in lbs. when the sticker lists the weight in kgs.! The trailer, fully loaded, probably weighed 7500-8000! I think this explains my lack of performance.

I'm just hoping the transmission cooler did it's job.

 

I don't know how to say this, but pulling 7000 lbs (guessing @ loaded weight) uphill in the mountains at 50 mph ain't bad.

 

Aman. he didnt say how many miles that 1500 feet was spread out that could be some steep climbing there. i dont know if i want to be going more than 50mph. i hear what goes up comes down i'd hate to drop of the other side doing 65 with that weight behind me pushing.

 

Sounds like performance that I could live with. What percentage of your total driving is towing in the mountains?

As long as you are able to stay in second gear and keep your RPMs up in the mid 3Ks with your load, I would leave it alone.

I would also not bother with the programmers. They could actually hurt your towing performance.

When you tow and the transmission shifts down into second, select second manually and keep it there if the slope of the mountain is going to stay the same. it is much easier on the transmission if you can limit the shifts back and forth between gears. I have found that the transmission does not really downshift soon enough for my liking. Downshift to second manually and keep the RPMS in the mid to upper 3K region.

Also, you may want to invest in a transmission temperature guage and change your transmission fluid more often than what the manual states.

 

Quick question. You said that the trailer sticker was listing the weight in kilograms and listed a dry weight of 5900 kgs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldnt that mean the weight in pounds was 13,000? seems like you got good performance from your truck for being way over the weight rating.

Chuck

 

Isn't 13k a little heavy for a 27 footer? I'm not the smartest man on the planet, but I know that my late uncle used a 1/2 ton ford with a 302/aod for many years to pull a 26 foot fifth wheel camper. He never once complained about it... So I'd think if you really had that much weight at that speed up that grade then you did pretty deamned good. Better than my 2wd E150 with a 351 and half that amount of weight (up that nasty pass from southern PA/ norther maryland back into west virgina).. In second gear, and barely keeping up with the semis.

 

you were towing the whole way with the O/D off werent you?

 

I tow heavy stuff in really steep and crooked mountains with my truck (and my prior truck was a 6). The only thing you need to add to your truck is patience. If it takes you 10 or 15 minutes to get to your destination or top of the little Georgia hills, SO WHAT ? You just need to pay attention and downshift your truck before it lugs down. Mountain driving is a learned technique. In addition to having more poower at higher revs, the increased engine speed also increases the cooling to the transmission due to a higher fluid flow. One little thing to remember regarding manually shifting to second gear, it won't won't downshift to first if needed as it will do in drive. Mine downshifts fine on upgrades and I only use manual second for engine braking on downgrades.

 

Sorry guys, let me clarify. The decal lists GVWR as 3300 (KG), not LBS. I converted and found that I was about 6800 (LBS). I figure I added enough weight (passengers, cargo, supplies, etc) to increase it to about 8000 lbs.

For clarification, the uphill runs were very bogged down. The 1500 foot uphill grade was over about a 3 mile uphill grade, all in one rea. Probably had it down to about 40 mph (again, speed zone of 65mph).

I'm just trying to keep into perspective that I was just driving in some steep hills. These weren't the Rocky Mountains here.

 

The conversion factor if 2.2 pounds per kilogram.

Check out my gallery to see how easy it is to overload an F150 without towing anything.

I'm not arguing against using an F150 for towing, just against using one without the HD option package for towing a heavy load ( like your trailer).

I have a Predator tuner for mine and although I don't tow anything heavier than a light 14 foot aluminum boat, I can't imagine that towing power would not be a significant amount better with the highest power (ie. running premium fuel) setting. Just don't expect much in the way of fuel economy.

 

oh its a 8.8 alright but it is a IFS it is a very very hard one to do. the amount work is crazy. have you looked at them?

 

Gotcha. I was light by about a thousand pounds though. As a reference point, I put a new Silverado 1/2T Crew 4X4 on a trailer and took it to Bend, Or. Truck and trailer weighed about 7500 lbs, and I was pulling it with a 3/4T Silverado D-Max/Allison. One stretch of the route takes you from 2000 to 4300ft elevation in about 3 miles. On that truck (which pulls like jack-the-Bear), 50-55 felt comfy without straining anything. There's a pretty steep section going back down into Warm Springs, and I held it at 50ish coming down the grade. Soooo... I think your truck did just fine.