F250 Trans & Dif Cap.
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New User
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 9
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From: Huntington Beach
F250 Trans & Dif Cap.
Good Morning!
I bought a used 96 F250 PSD last Nov. I wanted to then buy a 5th wheel to pull for traveling. After reading the Spec. book from Ford the Max. GCWR was 15,000 lbs and the Max. trailer weight range was 9700 lbs with the 3.55 Dif ratio (which is what I have). The specs for the 4.10 are significantly better Max. GCWR 18,500 lbs and 12,500 Max. Trailer Weight.
9700 lbs for a 5th wheel is not enough towing cap. can I replace the rear end gears to 4.10? Is there anything else I should upgrade....ie. transmission, cooling system...etc.? Or did I buy the wrong truck.
I bought a used 96 F250 PSD last Nov. I wanted to then buy a 5th wheel to pull for traveling. After reading the Spec. book from Ford the Max. GCWR was 15,000 lbs and the Max. trailer weight range was 9700 lbs with the 3.55 Dif ratio (which is what I have). The specs for the 4.10 are significantly better Max. GCWR 18,500 lbs and 12,500 Max. Trailer Weight.
9700 lbs for a 5th wheel is not enough towing cap. can I replace the rear end gears to 4.10? Is there anything else I should upgrade....ie. transmission, cooling system...etc.? Or did I buy the wrong truck.
Posting Guru
Joined: Mar 2003
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F250 Trans & Dif Cap.
You can replace the gears with no problems and I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell you what ratio you should go with. I will soon have 4.88's and do very little towing so I'm not sure. I would aslo add a trans oil cooler in line with the stock oneif you have it and probably new trans and diff covers for extra cooling capacity.
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New User
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
From: Huntington Beach
F250 Trans & Dif Cap.
Thank you CWB.....I just installed a Flex-lite 1.5x11x15, 6 pass trans cooler rated for 26K GVW towing. I just replaced the stock cooler which was a 1.5x4x7, 2 pass. The Flex-lite comes with 5/8 Dia fittings and I had to neck down to the 3/8 hose supply and return lines. Do you know if that will effect the cooling? And do you reccomend a brand for the extra capacity trans&dif covers?
Thank you again.
Thank you again.
Posting Guru
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 1,943
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F250 Trans & Dif Cap.
As I mentioned , I bought my pan straight from mag-hytec. They recommended a brand of fluid that they also carry. It was probably more expensive but I was o.k. with that. They sold me Lubricating Engineers 1107. There are a lot of threads here about atf. I would do a search.For the diffs I used mobil 1 synthetic. I also added about 8 oz. of friction modifier to the rear as I found out here on this site. This helped tremendously with the operation of the factory limited slip.Good luck
Post Fiend
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 5,324
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From: Denton,TX
F250 Trans & Dif Cap.
If you're looking to tow a fifth wheel larger than what you mentioned, I think you might have purchased the wrong truck. You need to keep in mind the GVWR of your truck and how much pin weight the fifth wheel will have. They typically average 20% or the trailer weight, or just above. A 9700 lb trailer will have about 2000 lbs of pin weight, and you're talking larger than that. The 4.10 gear ratio will get you out of trouble with the GCWR, but will not effect the GVWR. Most people pulling the largest fifth wheels tow with a dually.
