I have a 1993 F-350 Crewcab 4x4 with a 460 motor and stock tires.
I have a 355 rear-end and tow a 8000lb travel trailer whenever I tow up a hill the truck seems to be way under powered. I have a K & N airfilter with a 3" cap back system. From people I have talked to everybody recommends that I change my gearing. I am not sure what to use 373's or 410's and I am not sure how much of an improvement changing gears will give me. It is an expensive upgrade, so if I do it I want to make sure I do it right.

Any information anyone can give me would be appreciated.

 

You have a heavy truck there to begin with, plus with an added 8000# of trailer,it's a load. I question whether a gear change would help that much. Plus the expence of changing 2 diffs. would be prohibitive. I would try more power adders, headers? Camshaft tailored to your RPM range when towing? Be sure you have a good trans. cooler if it is an automatic. good luck Greg 58

 

A few questions. What size tires do you have? How often do you tow? What transmission do you have? Depending on some of the above answers, the cheapest ways are either down shift, or change tire size. I pull 14K with a 460,E4OD,4.10 & 215/85X16 tires. I can pull nicely at 55 or 70. In between there is a gearing hole. If you've got the money, look at US Gear's underdrive unit that fits between the trans & T-case. Lets you split shift the transmission. Bob Elliott

 

Hmmm, everything is relative, but I have a 94 F250 4x4 460 4.10gears, E4OD Supercab and I tow an 8,000 travel trailer too. Other than the extra weight of a F350 Crew cab and your lower gears, our trucks should be similar. So, I would expect that the biggest differnce causing slow uphill towing is probably the gears. unfortunately, like the other guy said, changing the gears can be expensive since both sets must be changed or an underdrive would be needed.

You might look into some of those performance packages offered by companies like Banks. Supposedly their package for a 460 adds something like 80hp and 100 ftlbs torque. So in effect you get up to about 30% more hp and torque. Jacobs ignition systems claims something like 10%. I don't know from experience what they will do, but Trailer Life Magazine has had good things to say about these products.

I am a bit more tradition minded, so if it was me, I would probably go with an "RV" cam and headers. The F250/350 has been known to have very restrictive exhausts so a complete exhaust system has been said to work wonders for exactly your problem. If I had lots of money, I would turbocharge the engine. Turbos, don't do anything when the engine is loafing along, unlike superchargers which eat power all the time. When you need power, the turbo kicks in. As a side benefit, during normal cruise, you get better gas mileage.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson