Hello, a friend and I are towing my toyhauler to the Oregon dunes this weekend with his 2001 F250 diesel. The trailer is a superlite that I usually tow with my 2001 F150, but he just bought the truck a few weeks ago and we're towing it with his truck to save on gas, and to see how impressive the diesel is compared to my weak 5.4. The trailer weighs 4,800 empty, with quads, water, fuel, gear, it's around 7k lbs..

Niether of us had ever owned a super duty before, so do you leave the overdrive off just like on a half ton? I know it won't be working it too hard, but we want to be careful not to burn up his transmission.

If it helps, it's a 01, 7.3 diesel, Crew, long bed, with 33" tires and auto transmission.

And lastly out of curiosity, what kind of mileage should we expect? ( I get 7.5 towing out of my 5.4)

Thanks, Dave


And yes, before someone says it, I know I will hate my half ton after I see how his truck tows. That's a given....

 

leave it in drive till you get goin down the highway and once your at cruising speed put her in overdrive and keep the rpms at 2000 or higher you will be fine. You will be amazed how the diesel will handle it.
I would expect 10 to 12 mpg

 

I wouldn't even mess with putting it in drive. I pull a 10k trailer with a loaded GVW of around 8k-9k. All you're doing is spending more fuel until you get in OD by shifting to D first. I also wouldn't worry about being under 2k rpm. In fact when I tow I make sure I stay at 2k or less. Over 2k I take a big hit on my mpgs. Basically you don't have to shift out of D ever on that truck unless the trans starts hunting for gears or he's getting high EGTs. If he doesn't have a trans temp guage add one and keep an eye on it. 190* or less and you're golden.

 

Only lock out overdrive if the tranny is "hunting" in and out of fourth. Usually that is if you are moving in the 40-50 range in traffic, or pulling a hill that slow. The 4R100 is a tough tranny if the temps are kept under 200, which is kinda hard to do with the stock gauge, so for serious towing install an aftermarket gauge. 7Klbs? If you get less then 10 i would be suprised, but if you keep the speeds normal you can get up to 15. Actually, I have found a sweet spot on mine if I keep it at or just under 2000 rpms for great milage.

Sorry, but however powerful your 5.4 is, you wont even feel the trailer with that 7.3L in charge.

Adrianspeeder

 

od on for flat/downhill

uphill od off

that simple

...zap!

 

As Adrianspeeder said, leave it in OD unless it's hunting. Same goes for any truck,. F150 or whatever.

I don't understand people saying you need to turn OD off with these newer trucks (last 5-6 years). They are smart, you paid for that "smart" let it do it's job! I towed 7500# with a 2000 Expedition with a 5.4 and never, never, never turned OD off!! If it needed to be out of OD, it did. Hard grades, it did! It knew what to do!

Worse case, if it locked and was pulled a grade but was slowing more than I wanted it too, I gave it a little throttle and it kicked down! And it would lock in OD and pull a hill pretty well for that weight.

It did have a Transgo Shift kit, Superchips module, Gibson exhaust and Airaid intake and still got 11-12 MPG towing.

 

I wonder if it's new feature for 2006? Just picked up a 2006 F350 KR Dually (Damn, I love it). Where I had a overdrive button on my F150, I now have a 'Tow/Haul' button in it's place. Between me scanning the owners manual, and having to try it myself, the only difference I could tell was that the shift point are about 1000 RPM higher in Tow/Haul, and you do get a bit more engine breaking when you slow down, but at 65MPH, my tach reads the same in or out of Tow/Haul.

Larry

 

You have the mighty 5r110 aka "torqueshift" that has a compleatly different shift pattern during towing to help ya out.

Adrianspeeder

 

Looks like the 'tow boss' package included a bit more that I thought.

Thanx for the info.

Larry

 

Nope, it's just the TorqueShift. It get's all fancy when you have it on. I actually don't use it(towing 7500#) except to slow down sometimes. It also uses all 6 effective forward gears as needed so at about 50-55 MPH towing, using T.H you'll notice a lot of shifting. I find mine just doesn't need it in most cases. I'm running a tuner so that does make some difference (more power).

 

All the 6.0 powerstrokes have em and for 05 the 6.8 and 5.4 got them as well.

Adrianspeeder