I have a '93 F-150 4x4 5 speed stick with the 4.9, I'm not sure on the gearing, I belive 3:55 but not positive. I tow often, cars and trucks ( I have a nice trailer and my friends abuse me for this )

Anyway, I love my truck but would like to make it more tow friendly. Here's the issue, I am not the worlds best mechanic, and there is so much info on this site, I am getting very confused. Many of my friends told me to change gearing to 4:10, but I dont want to lift my truck and the thread I just read said 4:10 on an unlifted truck is overkill.

Obviously I would have to pay to have the gears changed professionaly, but some of my friends are good mechanics and say I could do a SAS cheeper. Would this be a viable option, or did I bump my head? Or am I going in the wrong direction?

I really dont know, and the more I read the more I get confused.
Please help, any advise would be greatly appreciated
Thanx, N8

 

Personally i would not do a solid axle swap on a truck that is on the road most of the time due to the harsher ride and no real advantage. My first question would be if you have oversize tires on the truck and if your towing in 4th or 5th gear. I also tow a lot of cars/trucks with my stock 95 and i usually leave it in 4th unless im gonna be going over 60 on a freeway.
Personally i would keep up maintenance on it and dont be in a hurry when towing heavy loads, the 300 will keep pulling no matter what but your still stopping heavy loads with 1/2ton brakes. May not seem like a big deal until your brakes start to fade then your trip gets scary really quick.

 

This is what I did to make my truck tow better:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/5...installed.html

Vince

 

Well figure out what your gearing really is. Since it;s a 4x4 it's probably a 3.5, BUT look at the door sticker to be sure.

It really depends on what speed you run, but if you run about 60 towing keep it in 4th gear with 3.5's. If I had 3.08's I'd be running 55 in 3rd.

Both are right at 2500 RPM which is a good spot for the 300. It's just over it's torque peak so as you hit a hill and the motor revs down, it'll actually start to pull harder and you'll slow down less.

Justin

 

Thanx for the replys, I found alot of really good info. I think I was heading in the wrong direction. Thanx for pointing me in the right one. Any more input and opinions would be great!
N8

 

Upgrade your rear springs so your truck doesnt end up like a saggin wagon when you load it up.

 

I replaced the rear springs with an aftermarket pack with one extra leaf and the front springs with a heavier duty coil.

THANX, N8

 

I wouldn't think that a 5-speed with overdrive paired up with 4.10's would be overkill. It would make a huge difference in towing, though. You have the overdrive do help you out at highway speeds to save gas, but with 4.10's, you'd get a nice gain in towing. More beneficial than a header and exhaust system, IMO, for towing. Gearing is everything.

 

Are the TTB front ends much harder to change that the strait axels?

 

Just wondering what size trailer do you plan on towing?

Vince

 

What Iceman said. I have OD with 4.10 gears. Unloaded and taking it easy, my truck still gets decent in-town mileage (believe it or not!). My trannsmission is shifting smoother now too.

What all the other men on here are saying; take it easy, take it slow. just because your vehicle can tow a mountan doesn't mean it's safe. be careful!

 

Right now I have an 18ft tandem axel 7000# GVW bumper pull and I max it out frequently.
N8

 

4:10s, new rear springs and a new camshaft would really help, but if you plan on going over many mountain passes..
A big V8 is in your future (IMHO). I used to tow half your weight and none of you frontal area and my truck was on the verge (with a cam and 2K rear springs).

Vince

 

As long as you have trailer brakes on 1 axel you should be ok, just keep an eye on your brake pad thickness and rotor thickness.


As far as power and gearing goes... you have a 5 speed, which is great. In very rare situations you might encounter steep grades that will require 3rd gear, in most situations that have a good size hill 4th gear should cut it.


The best thing you can possibly do to your truck is keep it well maintained AND change your rearend fluid, switch to some expensive synthetic... diff's don't take much fluid and it's worth it believe me. If you can swap tranny fluid with snythetic do it as well, but a regular fluid flush is all it needs to stay in good shape, snythetic just makes it shift easyer and some claim is better on the syncro's. If you drive for 20-30 minutes in the summer time and then hook up a trailer fully loaded and pull it 20 miles the rearend will be over operating temp by the time you get to the destination.

My friend has a 3.4L 98' Toyota 4-Runner 5 speed 4x4. He has pulled 11,000lbs gross weight several times, pulled 4500lb loads 300+ miles a few times. He went threw 2 rearends before swaping to synthetic fluid. The rearend would just get so hot it would over time destroy the harden steal properties.


Power is something people say you need, gearing is the correct answer. This may sound funny, but I for the longest time did not want a truck... I've been a "Ricer" I guess you could say, fixing up old Honda's and Toyota's. I had a 1.6L honda crx (almost the smallest honda you can get these days) with a racing transmission, low gears close together, 4 wheel disc brake conversion, custom rear "twin stock coil spring" setup. I managed to pull a 86 D250 full size truck from san antonio to houston with no problems cruising at 55-60mph. Ofcorse I had it on a tow dolly with brakes. I pulled countless other cars with it without any problems. It got around 28mpg empty and about 10-13mpg with the dodge on its back, around 13-16 with another simular sized car behind it. I wanted to upgrade to a limited slip diffrential because sometimes it was hard taking off with 500+lbs of tonque weight on a front wheel drive. The crx ended up geting stolen though.

And if your wondering if I had synthetic in the honda tranny/diff (its all together) = No, but it was ALL aluminum and it didn't hold in the heat.

 

Yea about that. I think that with a cam and that much weight and frontal area third gear will be your friend more than you will want it to be.
Even in the flats, if you find any wind not going your way it will be a fight towing that much weight and frontal area.
The other thing to consider is at 7k you are 3 or 3.5k over the max rating of your truck in weight alone.

Vince