I wasnt sure if I should post it here or in the towing section but figured id try here first.

I have a F150 FX4 with a 5th wheel camper thats 28' weights around $6,800 dry. I only pull it twice a year 60 miles keep in mind. I take it to the lake in the summer and late fall bring it back home. Pulls great as far as handling and was very surprised for this weight!! But lacking power the most. I may be selling my truck next year and get a 250/350. Anyway since its getting to be the fall season will be bring it back home....again being 60 miles.

I have a Edge Bill custom tune 1) for 87 setup to save on gas. 2) Is stock Edge Tow tune and 3) is 93 Octane tune which I run everyday.

At the time I Had my tunes done by bill I didnt have the camper so didnt get a custom tow tune so using the default Edge tow tune which is still much better then no tuner at all!

My question is when you normally towing alot of weight you usually kick the overdive off.

So my question is the guys using a tuner when you tow do you still kick the OD off? I thought about doing this on the way home this time but didnt want to mess anything up and wasnt sure if the tuner compensated the OD somehow so dont really need too. Hope that makes since. LOL


Thanks!

 

If it was my truck, I would the OD off to lock out 4th (or 5th) gear.

 

Yes, even with tuner in tow/haul turn OD off. This will just prevent the truck to shifting into OD, but will not affect the tune. Your gas mileage may drop, but you will save your tranny.

 

thanks guys I was thinking the same but wanted to verify it with others using a tuner first. Even tho its just 60 miles.

I guess leaving it on the Edge tow stock tune would be better then 93 octane with OD off?

 

According to PHP, towing on level 3, 93 octane (if performance?) is a no no. I think your best bet is to run canned level 2 and keep OD off.

Also reguardless of what tune/octane you are running, towing a load like that you ALWAYS should keep OD off, it really helps the tranny.

 

gotcha!!

 

Great advice!

 

Unrelated.

I love my O/D button. I use it all the time, helps when I get behind a car going the speed of smell up a hill, keeps the truck out of 4th, stops it from shifting up and down and puts me in the power band.

makes for faster passing too, when I need it.

o/d button is not going to hurt your truck unless you run around revving its guts out.

 

I agree, my overdrive is always off unless i get over about 65mph.

 

piggybacking off the OP, for us '09/'10 owners, are we frying the tranny when towing heavy loads? With the the 6-speed tranny on these new trucks, you can't turn the OD off, you instead turn on "TOW/HAUL" which, according to the manual, still allows all 6 gears to engage; effectively the button seems to only increase the grear-change-rev and hold gears longer. Or maybe I missed the point, maybe holding the gears longer is all that's needed? Some clarification of this would be great, thanks!

 

The reason you turn OD off is to either keep the truck from hunting for gears (switching between 3rd and 4th) or to raise the rpms higher into the powerband by dropping into 3rd gear. If your not having the tranny hunting for a gear or the engine straining from the load there is no real need to turn OD off.

Never tow more than 2,000 #s with the performance tune. It isn't designed for anything like that. If you have 93 in the tank and need to tow, switch to the tow and, if you feel it is necissary, add 1 or 2 to the timing.

For the 09/10 owners, use the tow setting even in conjunction with a programmer set to tow. The ford techs adjusted the gears and such to be suitable for towing. If anything having more gears is better for towing because you dont have such large jumps in RPM/load before and after the shift, this keeps the engine in the powerband and helps keep the load on the engine/transmission down. You also want to stay in gears longer just so you have more power to pull.

Just tow smart and you wont have trouble.

 

Great info, thanks a lot!

 

The main reason to turn off the OD with the old 4 speed is to try to keep the torque converter locked. When it's unlocked, the tranny temps get quite high.

 

Oh yeah, I was going to add that but when I started typing I had a brain fart and forgot. Good catch.