towing with f250 7.3 - wrong truck?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
5

5erorT

Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2016
Posts
23
I just returned from a week long trip towing an 18' funfinder (about 3800) up to 8000 feet elevation. My truck is a stock 4x4 2000 f250, 7.3 diesel with a bit over 100K miles on it. I have a six speed manual transmission.
I was following my brother in law who has a 2005 f150 pulling a 28 foot trailer which he said weighs about 9k loaded.

He was easily out doing me up a few of the grades and while sitting around the campfire we were chatting and both figured my GVW would be around 10K. Come to find out mine is only 8800 and his was around 9500.

Any idea why he can out tow me? My plan was to get a 5th wheel at some point but my experience pulling the 18 footer has me worried. Do I have the wrong truck?

Thanks for any feedback.
 
We sold our 2001 F250 with the 7.3L diesel for similar reasons.

The max tow capacity is 10,000 per the owner's manual. HOWEVER, there are several important differences between a 2001 F250 and any of the late-model trucks:

1. Age. Yes, pure old age will take a few steps off the vehicle. What it could haul in 2001 may not be what it will haul in 2016. The same is true with airplanes, there are numbers and then there is reality. Time is not irrelevant.

2. Technology. Yep, the newer trucks have better technology. That 2015 F150 has 15 years of technology advancements over your 2000 F250.

We ended up with a 2013 F350 and the difference is jaw-dropping.

There's a lot of life left in your 250, but not if you're going to kill it hauling a fiver. You can probably sell at a good price and get something with newer technology and be so much happier.
 
Thanks for the responses.
I don't know the rear end ratio but yes, it is turboed and I was hitting 20 lbs of boost at times.

The tec explanation makes a lot of sense. I went from a toyota six cylinder to this and it just felt like such a beast I'd be able to tow anything. Wife and I test drove a newer 250 diesel and the specs were great - so was the price. Then I researched "best diesel pickups" and the 7.3 was shown to be one of Ford's best. Problem was, they stopped making them in early 2000. Should have done more homework on towing capacities.

I believe the four wheel drive hacks off some capacity as well. I don't need it but it was on the truck and the thing had less than 100 K on it. It just screamed I can tow. The six speed manual said I won't get hot like an automatic, the bed is 8 feet long which meant no slider hitch would be needed. If only I had looked at the towing capacity in the door jamb.
 
My '02 F250 with the 7.3L, 3.70 rear end handles my 11,000lb fifth wheeler no problems.
 
tvman44 said:
My '02 F250 with the 7.3L, 3.70 rear end handles my 11,000lb fifth wheeler no problems.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Do you have any mods, chips or beefed up turbo? I guess the vin might show the rear ratio but I probably have the same.
My tach is around 25-2800 at 70
 
I pull about 15000 lbs with a 2002 F250 7.3. It has 4 inch exhaust, a modified air filter and Super chip. I have 133,000 miles on it. It will sit all day at 1975 RPM and 60 MPH.  I back out and gear down on hills because the transmission can overheat. I do get passed on hills because of that, but I am retired and not in that much of a hurry.
 
I went from a low mile 1989 F250 with a 460 gas to a 2014 Ram 2500 Cummins.  The difference in capabilities was staggering.  But a new F150 will outperform my old F250 10 ways from Sunday.  Like most things, vehicles get better with every passing year.
 
I no longer have my F250 owner's  manual, but usually the tow capacity for a fifth wheel is higher than the tow capacity for a bumper hitch. I know the max tow for a bumper pull is stated as 10,000 ... I would guess the fifth wheel capacity is higher; which would account for why tvman44 can pull the 11,000 lbs fifth wheel without any difficulty.

Halfwright, is that 15,000 lbs in a fifth wheel or a trailer? If it's a trailer, then you're overweight hands-down. But if it's a fiver, I don't know the towing capacity, it might be fine.
 
What rpm were you trying to keep up at? You say 2500 at 70 then that is about as low as you want to go at 70 MPH. If he is pulling you on hills you may have been in too high of a gear. A 6 speed is a double overdrive so you could drop a couple gears before even hitting 1:1.
 
while sitting around the campfire we were chatting and both figured my GVW would be around 10K. Come to find out mine is only 8800 and his was around 9500.
Click to expand...
There is no F150 with a 9500 GVWR. He must have miss read his door placard GVWR number.

Your F250 7.3 4x4 with the ZF6 6 speed manual is one of the most sought after combo's for pulling duties of that era.
Looking at  Fleet Fords towing specs for 2000 shows your truck has a 12900 lb tow rating for the crew cab and a 13100 for the super cab with either the 3.73 or 4.10 gears.

Looking at powerstrokehub.com shows the 2000 7.3 at 235 hp and 500 torque. In 2001 these numbers went up to 275 hp and 525 torque.

I would check in one of the many Ford diesel websites and see if any simple uprates can be done with this engine. I know many Ford owners back then did this especially with the ZF6 tranny.



 
Before you decide to sell, you might want to look at a chip and different exhaust. My buddy has the same truck with a short bed and he added a chip and 4" exhaust and it's made a world of difference. He gets over 20 MPG with an additional 50 HP. No adverse effect on the tranny or rear end.
You have the best year 7.3 diesel. Check this article out. Out here in No. Cal you could sell that truck in a split second.
http://www.trucktrend.com/cool-trucks/1201dp-10-best-used-diesel-trucks/

Stan
 
You should be good with that truck.......my 01 F350/4x4/V-10/auto/4:30 gears and an SCT tuner pulls our 36'.....13 K 5ver just fine.
 
I cannot imagine that F150 outpulling even an older F250 diesel, especially one hauling only3800 lbs (though I'll bet that 18 footer is heavier than that!). It should pull 10k lbs easily, even after 16 years!  I would start investigating my truck, starting with fuel delivery & turbo. Fuel and air starvation will really suck the power from a diesel, especially at altitude and under load on grades, where max power demand is the norm.

Also: as has already stated,  No F150 has a GVWR of 9500 lbs. That could be, and likely is, either a tow rating or maybe even a GCWR (different thing - see the forum RV Glossary).

The GVWR of either truck is not really germane to pulling performance.  That 8800 lbs gvw limits how much weight the truck can carry, not what it can pull. GCWR, the combined max for truck & trailer, is what counts there, and the least 2000  F250 diesel is rated for about 13,500 lbs towing and that will be far above that '06 F150.  Even with an extra 10 years of age vs the F150, it should easily outperform it on grades and with the turbo it should also handle altitude better than a gas engine..
 
5erorT said:
I just returned from a week long trip towing an 18' funfinder (about 3800) up to 8000 feet elevation. My truck is a stock 4x4 2000 f250, 7.3 diesel with a bit over 100K miles on it. I have a six speed manual transmission.
I was following my brother in law who has a 2005 f150 pulling a 28 foot trailer which he said weighs about 9k loaded.

He was easily out doing me up a few of the grades and while sitting around the campfire we were chatting and both figured my GVW would be around 10K. Come to find out mine is only 8800 and his was around 9500.

Any idea why he can out tow me? My plan was to get a 5th wheel at some point but my experience pulling the 18 footer has me worried. Do I have the wrong truck?

Thanks for any feedback.
Click to expand...

There may be few reasons you weren't able to keep up:

1. If his F-150 has the V-8 engine, he's making nearly 300 hp. Your 7.3 came from the factory with 235.  You do have him beat in the torque department though, which leads to the second issue.

2. Your clutch. How many miles are on that clutch?  Perhaps it's slipping and not holding like it used to.

3. 20 lbs of boost isn't bad but you should be getting closer to 25. You may have a small leak in a boot somewhere.

For only a couple hundred dollars, you can make your truck a towing hulk. 

Step 1. Get yourself a good set of gauges. You may have these already since you were able to get a boost number.

Step 2. Call Jody at DP Tuner. You certainly don't want a generic chip in your truck. They tend to run hot. DP Tuner is a selectable tuner that allows you to choose from many, many power levels and scenarios.  For my last truck, I went with 40 hp tow, 60 hp tow, 80 hp economy, 120 hp race, and a decel tune.  The decel tune was great in that it causes your EBPV to act as an exhaust brake.
 
Sure this was repeated 10x but no way would a turbo diesel be out towed by a 1/2 ton. Something wrong with truck
 
My 2001 7.3 towed a 12,000 fifth wheel like crazy.  I had to wait for everyone else at the top of just about every grade.  And we have some STEEP hills.  I added 4" exhaust and a  PG Pro conical air filter and a boost, EGT and transmission temp gauge.  Are you keeping your RPM over 1500 RPM?

Not normal!  I'd have it checked out by a competent mechanic.
 
Another thing I noticed with my 02 F-350 was that it didn't like to tow light weights.

I have a flatbed gooseneck trailer that weighs 4,200 empty.  For some reason, the truck seemed to have a harder time pulling it empty than when it was loaded down with 10,000 lbs of skid steer and tools.

Perhaps it's because the lighter weights result in less throttle application thereby causing us to inadvertently short shift?  I'm not sure. But I can tell you that it handled 10,000-13,000 lbs a lot better than 3-4,000 lbs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 618 (members: 10, guests: 608)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,964
Posts
1,388,308
Members
137,716
Latest member
chewys79
Back
Top Bottom