2018 SuperDuty DRW - 3.55 or 4.10 Gears?

4x4ord wrote:

shum02 wrote:

Westcoasting wrote:

BradW wrote:

Travlingman wrote:

4.10 DRW
6th gear: 70 = 2067

Finally got hold of a friend of mine who has a 2017 DRW F350 PSD. I thought he had the 3.55 gears, but it turns out he has 4.10 gears. He confirmed about 2050-2100 rpm at 70. I can live with that. So I will be ordering the truck with 4.10 gears.

Thanks all who submitted info on this thread, I'm sure there will be many people benefit from the info.

BradW

That is a great choice! I'm surprised by all the responses that say otherwise. I work in the oil patch in Alberta and our company has all Ford Trucks, the dually 4:10 is the best for any amount of towing :)

I have to agree. These are V8 diesel's that can and do love to rev. Don't think that down at 1700rpm's the engines are making enough heat to stay healthy but up at around 2k that should be the sweet spot for towing/hauling to keep them clean.

It's my thought having owned a 6.0L for a while that if Ford had put a minimum of 4:10's in all the trucks they'd have cut the problems of this motor in half. It loves to be hot and loves to rev - fuel mileage be damned! Add that along with frequent oil changes and issues diminish. JMHO.

Think about what your saying. An engine needs an amount of fuel to do the work required of it. At higher rpm it is a little less efficient but it is basically going to need the same amount of fuel as if it were pulling that load at a little lower rpm. However, there is a good chance the slower turning engine will be pumping less air than the higher revving engine.....less air for the same amount of fuel means more heat not less.

Running in 5th(OD) my truck struggles to keep the coolant up around 195 and the oil about in the same spot. I run the truck constantly with the T/H on to keep the truck in gears longer and delay the use of OD, if I could lock it out like the new trucks I would. The faster you drive the truck or more you drive it with a load the more easily she stays at her operating temp of 195F. This keeps the EGR and intake clean of carbon build up. Regular oil and coolant changes speak for themselves especially in this engine.

Much reading about this truck over the last 8 years and doing all the work on it myself says this has merit. Truck that are lugged around in order to get the best fuel mileage possible out of an 8000lb beast are the one who seem to have the most issue. Those beating on their trucks in stock form, pulling within their #'s and doing the required maintenance seem to have the least issues and that includes lifting the heads.

I have almost 300k miles on my truck and yes it has had a few issues, what pickup wouldn't but none that have been terminal to the engine.

Diesel's love to be hot, much more so than gassers, they also don't wet stack