Maybe I should be ashamed of myself...Not bloodly likely......LOL......I'm tired of people who buy a "TRUCK" then hope for a great tow rig that gets 30 mpg and takes a corner at 90 mph without body roll..... so many people make a life of posting compaints over and over... there's a whole big world out there.... get a life..... You bought a truck!!!!! Deal with it or buy a bicycle....

 

Everyone is probably going to call BS on me but here goes. When I had my 2001 V10 i started with 33s and 3.73s. After reading everything on this forum I decided to go for it. So I installed 4.56s and 35s. I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference. Off the line, yeah it would roast em. But even at highway speeds with a trailer (that weighed approximately 3000 pounds) it would downshift quite a bit. And my V10 ran great. I'm not saying that I lost performance but I don't feel that I gained any either. I personally will never do a gear change again.

 

[quote=armynavyguy;6870681]Everyone is probably going to call BS on me but here goes. When I had my 2001 V10 i started with 33s and 3.73s. After reading everything on this forum I decided to go for it. So I installed 4.56s and 35s. I honestly couldn't tell much of a difference. Off the line, yeah it would roast em. But even at highway speeds with a trailer (that weighed approximately 3000 pounds) it would downshift quite a bit. And my V10 ran great. I'm not saying that I lost performance but I don't feel that I gained any either. I personally will never do a gear change again.[/quote

Changing to a larger tire lessens the impact of your gear change

 

I don't know, but I'm guessing if you'd have driven around for a month with the 35" tires and 3.73, then did the gear change you would have been surprised, but maybe not.

 

Gee, bigger tires take more hp to turn. Put on a set of 265's and see what happens. lol

 

I drove a couple of years with 31" and 3.73's towing the 34' TT and had very little problems. Really noticed when I switched to 4.30's with the 31" stock tires.

 

May I ask how badly that hurt your HWY mileage when NOT towing?

Thanks

 

I went from 39's with 4.30's to 44's with 5.38's and had a dramatic difference.

 

before the change (3.73) the highway milage was 11.75 to 12.5 mpg and city was 9.75 to 10.2 mpg.

after the change (4.30) the highway milage is now between 11.5 and 12.35 and city is 9.5 to 10

The highway mileage isn't long flat runs, but short (less than 20 mile trips)
The city milage is pretty consistant runs of less than 5 mile trips to and from work.

 

Thanks I appreciate the info.

 

wow thats a really small loss in MPG.. but i bet teh incresed throtle response makes it all worth it.

i know stepping up to 35"s on my V10 with 3.73s has made my truck noticably less powrful.. a gear swap would be a nice Xmas gift.. but sadly i dotn have much hope Santa packs around alot of gear sets with him, haahaha

 

I certainly had had none of the original posters experiences with my V10. I have an 05V10 SC-LB with a .410 rear end. Now the OEM continentals on it certainly leave a lot to be desired but I have never had a problem chirping the tires in my truck when empty.

My biggest load ever was about 11,000 lbs (including the trailer and what I had in the bed of the truck) up through the White Mountains of New Hampshire and it certainly was not a speed demon but I never had a problem making it up the hills.

My normal tows are around the 8,000lb range and the truck is perfectly suited for that. I am not saying it cannot handle bigger tows (such as the 11,000 that I do occasionally) but I feel it is getting into the upper range of the trucks comfort level.

I went with the V10 simply because I test drove a 5.4 and it felt a little underpowered. I also test drove a PSD. The diesel was something like $6k more. For the ~$600 extra I paid for the V10 I felt it made a heck of a lot of sense to buy and I am glad I did. For the towing I do it is perfect.

I also like the fact that it always starts in the winter, I don't have to worry about fuel gelling, it doesn't take a case of oil every change etc. If I was towing 11k+ constantly the diesel would have been worth the $6k, but I don't so its not.

For around town driving I also feel the V10 is more responsive than the PSD.

Nothing wrong with a diesel or a gas engine. They both have their pluses and minuses.

I wouldn't buy a diesel right now, however, if they were the same price as the gas engines. The new emission requirements are too new right now and I believe the engine manufacturers are still "experimenting" with the right ways to pass them. It reminds me of the gas engines in the early 80's or so when the stricter emissions came into play.

If someone put a gun to my head and made me buy a diesel I would want a cummins dropped into a Ford truck. Such a thing does not exist, but if it did that would be great.


Not meant to be a troll here and hoping it isn't interpreted as such. Just thought people may be interested in my particular thought process and why I bought what I did.


---aaron

 

Oh you can put a Cummins into a Ford.. but its neither a factory option nor cheap to do...

http://www.fordcummins.com/