Looking for some opinions. Upgraded to a 10K 5th wheel from a 7K TT. I have a '01 V10 with 3:73s. About 500 pounds under my max rating.Certainly noticable after the TT. I have no problem pulling at 65 mph at 28-2900 RPMs and more. Steep grades the truck does what it's supposed to at 35-4000 RPMs 45-55 mph not close to full throttle.

Not sure if I want to leave it alone or try to improve the performance.

It's going to cost me over $2200 (Cdn) to go to 4:30s. This will ad 3000lbs to my tow rating but what are the benefits of going 65 mph at 3000 RPMs? I'll be screaming up the grades at 4200 RPMs rather then 4000?

Would a SCT tuner be a better choice. Keeping the engine at the same RPMs I will produce more HP and TQ. Significantly more affordable.

So....what to do? Gears or tuner. What would give me the better bang for my buck. I am leaning toward the gears.

 

Gears will definitely help you with towing more then the tuner will. Especially when you are trying to get the load started. I had 4.10s on the truck before this one and I can tell a difference between those and the 4.30s with how the trucks got the loads going. To me, for towing, the gears would be the better choice.

 

Gears will make the bigger difference if you are willing to pony over the $$ to do it.

 

I concur with other posters. You'll have more towing performance with the gears in my opinion.

 

Gears will do far more for you. Tuners on gas engines don't have the massive effects like on the diesels.

If it's doing what you want, why not do nothing and save the money for a newer rig?

Mike

 

Both. A tuner doesn't add massive HP and TQ gains on a gasser but a good tune can make a huge difference in performance. Switching to 4.30s from 3.73s will add roughly 300 or so rpm at the same mph which can make a big noticeable difference, especially when coupled with a good tow tune.

 

Easy call.....go with the Tuner first since you need it no matter what. My tune increased low end take off power significantly. Call Mike @ 5 Star and explane what your after (tow tune). If you still want the gears then get them but remember gears will add zero horse power and zero torque at the same RPM, horse power will get you to the top of the hill first. Since you stated you don't lack the gear to get your rig moving up the hills at a good mph changing to a lower gear isnt needed as much as hp.

 

gears, but jump to 4:56..

not only will your truck perform better, but you'll be able to be in OD more often. and prolly find yourself saving MPG instead of losing it.

tuner is a great way to make ur truck perform better to, but it wont give you the jump that gear hopping will.

 

I don't really know about that. "Needing" or "wanting"? There is a big difference between the two.

 

After you have driven the V10 with a GOOD tune you will consider it a must have. There are too many hack job tunes/tuners out there that make people think tuners and gas engines yield a so so at best gain in performance.

 

Do you have a 01 V-10? That's what I thought Stick with what you know.
If he's towing 10,000lbs with the 2001 version V-10 then he is in need of more power and torque. A tune from Mike can pay for itself very short amount of time, plus its fun to wave seeya to the 6.0 diesels going up the long grades.

 

Are you saying that because I don't own a v10(rather or not it's the same as the OPs) that I'm wrong? Just because I don't have an engine, doesn't mean that in of itself that I'm wrong. That would be like anybody that says something about a diesel that doesn't have a diesel and/or never has had one in the past is wrong when they make comments about a diesel. Atleast that's what I'm getting from your statement above.


Ok, let's look at this. Plenty of stock 5.4 3 valves out hauling 10k(even some 150s with that engine can do it) and not using tuners and doing it very well and I do believe that an 01 6.8 2 valve would have 310hp at the flywheel. Which I believe that the 3valve 5.4s are at 300 at the flywheel.

Still not seeing where "need" is there. Unless those 5.4 guys really do need a tuner to haul all that stuff. I wonder if Redford has a tuner for his "weakling" of a truck. My very first trust was a 6.9 IDI 250. It could haul some loads and it had nowhere near the power that these newer trucks have and I never put on those hypermax kits or the banks kits on it(of course, when I had that truck those weren't around).

If your blowing by people on long grades while hauling(although you didn't say that you did it while hauling, I don't know either way) let me know where your driving around so I'm nowhere near you. I remember I was on I30 and a little dipwad was using one of those little u-hauls that has max speed of 60 mph on the trailer and he was doing 80. He stopped that promptly when he started to lose control of the trailer. I hope you aren't one of those. Oh by the way, I doubt you'll be blowing by me with just a tune even on a long grade, but that's for another "laural" polishing thread.

 

So far the gears are winning. Of course, its the most expensive!!

 

Of course, you didn't think we at FTE would make it cheap for you did you?