I am a first time diesel owner. I purchased a 2003 F-250 crew cab short bed, 7.3 L to pull my 10,000 pound travel trailer after 20 years of using GM products. I am concerned about braking as I have never owned a diesel before. Do you recommend exhaust brakes? Or will the usual electric brake controller work well for me? I use the trailer about 4-5 times a year, and hope to travel from Texas to California at least once a year, which is why I bought the diesel in the first place. Any advice you can give on this and other things a first time diesel owner should know would be helpful. thanks.

 

Electric Brake Controller will work just fine...a "Jake" is really overkill for a 10k TT, but there are some who have that setup...good job getting out of the "Governmental Motors" drivers seat...lol

 

Regular brake controllers work great alot of people including me run this type.
Tekonsha P-3 Trailer Brake Controller - Proportional 90195 : Trailer hitch bike rack and trailer hitches - etrailer.com

Just make sure your trailer brakes are up to par.

 

Welcome to FTE. You are certainly in the right place. Great group here and lot's and lot's of information.

Depending on which route you travel if you would benefit from an actual exhaust brake. If there are a lot of big grades it certainly wouldn't hurt. These trucks can handle 10K pounds pretty well so the weight won't be an issue pulling, but the stock rotors and brakes are not the best in the world and are known to warp after decent amounts of heat build-up. You can certainly upgrade to some cryo'd rotors and hawks pads. Many here have done that and are very happy. Not super pricey, but not cheap either, but if you bought that rig for towing I think that would be the way to go. If you click on the link in my signature to the Roadside help network, you can read for days all you want about maintenance and upgrades galore. The thing I would tell you to do first is to ditch the stock air filter and go with a 6637 mod. It is less than $100 to do and it will greatly improve the breathing and filtering capacity of your truck. The next thing I would recommend is a good set of gauges to include exhaust gas temp, tranny temp if you have an automatic, and boost gauge. These are important when towing heavy which it sounds like you are going to be doing. That will be under $400 and will be the best single upgrade you can do to know what your truck is doing and to see if there is a problem very early on.

Next maybe you would want to get a tuner to add some power and economy. Ford engineered these things with quite a bit of performance left on the table and a good tuner will really wake it up. The large majority of us use DP tuner, they are a site sponsor as well as this forums' major sponsor, so many of us like them and use them. Jody and Diane (the owners) are very nice people with some of the best customer service going.

The other thing you may want to look into is upgrading your exhaust to a 4 inch. If you are going to tow heavy, you are looking at increased exhaust gas temps and they can kill a motor quick if allowed to rise much above 1250 degrees for more than 30 secs to a minute. These trucks have aluminum pistons and the melting point is about 1250*. This is why if you are towing those gauges are so very important.

I would call Clay over at Riff Raff Diesel performance. He is a site sponsor and a dealer for DP tuner. He can get you set up with everything you need. He will talk to you for as long as you need to feel comfortable and he is a fountain of information.

One other thing, if you are in Texas, you may want to think about Tony Wildman's tunes for a tuner if you decide to go that route. He is located in Texas and a lot of guys here use him and absolutely love his product as well. If you make changes to your chuck and it requires a re-burn or you want new tunes, he is very cheap to do that for you. Just another option.

Anyway, click on that link in my signature, read the Mods and maintenance tips as well as the new buyers information and go from there. We will be here to help you with any questions you have along the way.

Welcome and good luck!!!

 

Also to add onto Jason's post Matt at Gearhead automotive is very close as well in TX gearheadautomotiveperformance very good guy and does free reburns in TX. Live tuning and being able to drive to your tuner makes it alot easier then trying to tune across the country.

 

Riffraff Diesel

Contact Clay here is his link. He will get you up to speed. Really good guy.

 

Welcome to FTE.

These guys have you fixed up on the mods. I would change all the fluids on that truck so you know when the next interval time for the next maintenance is. Oil, trans, coolant flush, power steering flush using ATF not power steering fluid, flush brake system, rear and front differentials.

 

A good set of brakes would help along with the Prodigy brake controler. Not knowing what you want to do to your truck but IMO if you want to keep the truck stock you shouldn't need all the gauges. Its nice to have to make sure everything is working like it should but not needed inless you want to throw a tuner on it. Tranny temp would be all you need. The 6637 filter will help it breath better along with a straight pipe or an after market 4".

 

If you have never towed with diesel, you will be impressed. They make so much torque, they are great for towing, and they do it in low/medium rpm's. This site has tons of good info on simple modifications you can do. Hang around and you will learn on here.