Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: Tow Vehicles: Towing with a Powerstroke 7.3L (expectation/realistic)

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Topic: Towing with a Powerstroke 7.3L (expectation/realistic)

Posted By: Mr_MrsSchlepprock250 on 06/01/16 08:48pm

If I'm not mistaken the springs are the same on a single rear wheel F250 and F350. The F350 just has a block added between the spring pack and axle.

Phil&April
'99F-250Superduty4x4/CrewCab/7.3
'04Tahoe4x4/5.3
'14 Salem 29ud3 TT
We used to have Johnny Cash and Bob Hope,now we have no cash and no hope.

Posted By: bucky on 06/02/16 04:33am

The blocks used in those years were 2" or 4". There is an old bulletin about them on the F250s regarding height for towing 5ers. When I had my 7.3 F250 I didn't have the 5er yet, so I can't speak on towing heavy with one.
I can speak for my 5.9 Cummins. When that converter locks get out of the way 'cause I'm coming up that hill.

Puma 30RKSS

Posted By: marcsbigfoot20b27 on 06/03/16 12:22pm

To answer just the question about power....

AIS Ford intake box
16 position chip from Hydra running 80 hp tow tune
4 inch exhaust
bellowed up pipes

Your truck will run awesome.

I run the 140 hp tune around town and it's amazing.

I forgot the important part that's only $180..... Riffraff billet turbo wheel 4/4 blade design, or Wicked wheel 2 etc.

* This post was edited 06/03/16 05:30pm by marcsbigfoot20b27 *

Posted By: cummins2014 on 06/03/16 06:43pm

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:

And you are towing how much [emoticon]

Did the same stuff to my 7.3 ran amazing AROUND TOWN with the 120 hp DP tune.

Little different story with 13K behind it in the mountains here in Utah, Idaho, and Montana, I certainly couldn't run a 120 tune .

Posted By: marcsbigfoot20b27 on 06/07/16 12:09pm

cummins2014 wrote:

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:

And you are towing how much [emoticon]

I'm only towing 7500 loaded with another 1000 in the truck for combined 16000 or so. My trailer is tall and wide, a big parachute. Up a 10 mile 8% in the AZ mountains I can do 75mph + with the 80 hp tow tune at 5000-7000 ft. I know it's less weight than you but what are your expectations ?
With a banks water meth injection you could easily conquer the mountains.

Posted By: Wes Tausend on 06/07/16 01:53pm

...

I agree with others that say gearing will make thee difference.

Until recently, we had a 7.3L to pull our TT, but some lady went out of control and totaled the truck in our driveway. I really liked the fuel economy and ability to hold 4th on the interstate. The truck did up to 19 mpg empty and 14 mpg towing (a smaller 23" TT, ours is about 30'). On average, we were more likely to see 17 mpg/11.5 mpg without/with our own TT, better than our V10.

If the hills bother you, and in view of the cost of either a new truck, or two ring & pinion sets for 4x4 operation, it might be more economical to install an auxiliary transmission. One such unit is Gear Vendors ( https://www.gearvendors.com/f2wd4s.html ), but there are other brands too. With suitable gearing, one can better match engine/transmission torque-to-load, gain engine braking, retain empty fuel economy and still run within factory power specs. Win win.

Frankly, two hundred plus hp is plenty. On commercial railroad, we planned to pull with 1 hp per ton for efficiency, so as campers we could theoretically pull a combined 20K pound RV rig with 10 hp. Sure, it got a little slow sometimes, but we eventually climbed the same average hills that the interstate does.

Most of the posters that frequent truck forums tend to be naturally biased that only the largest trucks are suitable/legal/the-right-stuff etc. You already have an ideal platform for towing just about any RV. If it was me, I'd keep it.

Wes
...

Days spent camping are not subtracted from one's total.
- 2019 Leprechaun 311FS Class C
- Linda, Wes and Quincy the Standard Brown Poodle

Posted By: Stefonius on 06/08/16 07:13am

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:

With a banks water meth injection you could easily conquer the mountains.

You shouldn't inject meth. Meth is bad for you. [emoticon]

Posted By: hotpepperkid on 06/11/16 02:09pm

Stefonius wrote:

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:

With a banks water meth injection you could easily conquer the mountains.

You shouldn't inject meth. Meth is bad for you. [emoticon]

Besides that you could OD on it

2019 Ford F-350 long bed SRW 4X4 6.4 PSD Grand Designs Reflection 295RL 5th wheel

Posted By: shartflhs on 06/16/16 05:39pm

I read this topic and really feel the need to comment on my experience. I have a 99 F250 SRW 7.3 with 3.73 gears. I would really love to purchase a new truck but if I did that I wouldn't have an rv. I decided to upgrade my truck as it needed work anyway. I upgraded the suspension with 4400lb springs in the rear, bilstein shocks, upgraded brakes and tires. Transmission upgraded with converter and valve body. Engine upgraded with stage 2 injectors, HFSB Turbo, hp oil pump, 4"turboback exhaust, custom intake using BAAF filter, fuel line0 upgrades from Riff Raff diesel and Tuning from DP tuner. The truck runs phenomenal. Even with a modified stock tune. My 5th wheel is a 40' 13,330lb empty. I have towed it probably about 8000 miles now with absolutely no issues. I have several tunes that I use for towing mainly 20 and 40 hp tow. I can maintain any speed limit i have run into and routinely am passing big rigs going up the hills all with exhaust temps in spec. On the rare occasion I get caught behind someone and cannot accelerate early I may have to drop the trans out of OD. Last year I looked at new trucks again but after test driving them I was completely disappointed. They (all 3 brands) all seemed to lack the power of my truck. I am satisfied with what I have and to top it off I spent less that 10k for everything instead of 60k+.

Posted By: SoCalDesertRider on 06/16/16 07:54pm

I had a '97 F350 cab/chassis flatbed dually 4wd with the 7.3 Powerstroke and E4OD auto trans, 4.10 gears and 235 tires. I loved the truck and would still be driving it today, had it not burned down in a fire, a year ago today. It served me well for the 4 years that I got to use it.

I towed 20,000 lbs combined weight with that truck a few times in the mountains in southern California and Arizona. It was no picknick.

I often wished for 4.56 or 4.88 gears. The 4.10's were just not enough gearing. The 7.3 likes to run in the 2500-3000 rpm range when towing heavy. 4.10 gears, even with short 235 stock size tires, wasnt enough gearing to make it rev enough in 3rd to pull the hills. So, it was down in 2nd alot at 40 mph.

My engine was all stock, 235 horsepower rating. The old body trucks dont have intercoolers like the Superduty body trucks have. Not sure how much that really makes a difference, since the '99-'02 7.3's didn't have much higher HP rating than the old body trucks had.

I didn't have a power chip or any exhaust or intake mods. The truck was very heavy when not towing anything, weighed 13,000 lbs by itself. Since it was so heavy all the time, I left the engine stock, to keep its reliability.

I did have alot of transmission work done to the truck. E4OD's have no engine braking when going down hills. That's scary. I had the trans fully rebuilt and modified valve body, heavy duty torque converter and electronic programming, also had the turbo waste gate programmed to close when dethrottling, to use as a sort of exhaust brake. All this did help alot with descending hills when towing at 20,000 combined.

I think if you do alot of power modifications to the engine and build the tranny up right and also, most importantly, change the axle ratio to 4.56 or 4.88, you may be get reasonable performance from the truck with that heavy trailer. It will not be great, but should get you by.

I really do like the 7.3 Powerstroke engine era. Very simple engines that are very reliable and reasonably powerful, for their time.

I replaced my burnt down 7.3 F350 with another great International engine, in a much bigger truck. I now have an '01 International 4800 (33,000 GVWR) crew cab 4x4, with a true medium duty commercial diesel engine, the DT466E inline-6, with High Torque output rating (850 lb/ft @ 1400rpm, 250 hp).

I'm very happy with the truck and engine. It goes down the road every day at 20,000 lbs GVW and pulls more on trailer without breaking a sweat. The 5.38 axle gearing and 5 speed Allison MD3050 tranny help too. [emoticon]

The tranny acutally has 6 forward gears inside it, but is programmed to only use 5. The 6th double overdrive gear is electronically unavailable. Some day, I intend to have the Allison dealer reprogram the tranny so I can use 6th gear and comfortably cruise at 65 mph around 1800 rpm, instead of the 55 mph at 1800 rpm that I cruise at now.

* This post was edited 06/16/16 08:00pm by SoCalDesertRider *

01 International 4800 4x4 CrewCab DT466E Allison MD3060
69Bronco 86Samurai 85ATC250R 89CR500
98Ranger 96Tacoma
20' BigTex flatbed
8' truck camper, 14' Aristocrat TT
73 Kona 17' ski boat & Mercury 1150TB
92F350 CrewCab 4x4 351/C6 285 BFG AT 4.56 & LockRite rear

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