Ford F250 V10

[roostershooter]

I am considering a Rockwood fifth wheel with a dry weight of 6592, a dry hitch weight of 1181, and a cargo capacity of 1458. The GVWR of the pickup is 8800. The f250 has 3.73 gears. This truck will probably pull the fifth wheel ok but will it struggle in hills/mountains? Any insight is welcome!

[roostershooter]

It sounds as the prevailing thought is that the truck will do it, just not effortlessly. I do have to laugh as the camper is advertised as a 1/2 ton towable and it seems that my 3/4 ton V10 will just barely be adequate. i will have to make some decisions by the time my wire retires and we do some traveling. Thanks, all, appreciate the input.

[Bedlam]

They still use the V10 30-valve in the chassis cab models, but with 4.88 gearing. I'm seriously looking at this 6.8 gas engine instead of the current 6.7 diesel.

[Vulcaneer]

Here is a thought. Maybe you can compare to this...I towed a 12,000# fifth wheel with a 2006 F350, 30 Valve V10 with 365 HP and 460# (iirc) torque. Rear gear was 4.10. And it did OK.

What your truck is a lot less power and gear. But so less, is the weight of your trailer. When comparing the two, probably pretty much the same result. So I guess your will do "OK" too.

This is why I suggest you give it a try. I actually was not that happy with mine when I stepped up to a 14K trailer. But it did tow that trailer for some 6000 miles. It worked hard at that task. Never complained. But it did struggle. I have a great respect for that engine, as a result. But I felt it was better off with a new owner that had less requirement for it.

[rhagfo]

brirene wrote:
I'm not sure you can describe it as "struggle". You won't be the fastest one up the mountain, and you'll have to let it rev pretty high, but you should do ok. That seems pretty well matched, imo. Expect mileage in the 6's though.

lawrosa wrote:
Wow open question... What year is the 250 v 10?

Your looking 8K trailer and 8.8 k pick up???...

a dry hitch weight of 1181 but whats the payload of the truck????

Sure it will pull it maybe IMO,,, But youll be white knuckles.. We need to know more info....

More info period.............. Cant make any recommendation without it...

1. Truck year
2. TT model and year?

Thats a minimum....

fla-gypsy wrote:
With an 8800 GVWR that would be a pre 2005 model. It will have the 2v version making 310 HP and 420 ft lbs torque and If all the maintenance has been kept up it should do just fine. The 3.73 is not the greatest towing gear but should be adequate and payload will be in the 2500 lb range so no problems there

Well I think I would go with the resident V10 guru, I don't see a V10 having an issue with an 8,000# 5er.

[Vulcaneer]

roostershooter wrote:
My concern was. the rear end ratio as well.

That would be my concern too. Your truck will pull it. But, it won't be happy about it.

But try it. And see for yourself. That will be very valuable information for you. And it will not cost you anything to try it.

[ReneeG]

roostershooter wrote:
Coleman, I thought about swapping gears. I believe I would have to change the rear and the front since it is a 4 wheel drive. Not sure about the cost to do the swap but maybe its worth it. The truck has 100K on it so pretty low mileage for that year of vehicle.

You're correct. Our 99 F250 V10 6.8L originally had the 3.7 but we swapped it out for the 4.3 and yes, front and back for 4WD. I think it was close to $3k but worth it for us. It made a huge difference in towing. We too had ours heavily modified with bigger headers, a Back Cat exhaust, no tuner though. We'd still have it if we had a smaller fifth wheel.

[roostershooter]

Coleman, I thought about swapping gears. I believe I would have to change the rear and the front since it is a 4 wheel drive. Not sure about the cost to do the swap but maybe its worth it. The truck has 100K on it so pretty low mileage for that year of vehicle.

[2012Coleman]

roostershooter wrote:
My concern was. the rear end ratio as well. I did not want to get into a situation where the truck was such a dog that I would be forced into a different tow vehicle. It has been a strong runner and a solid performer so far. Thanks everyone.

Why not swap it out?

[ib516]

You'll be fine. Let it rev and enjoy.

[valhalla360]

We have a similar size 5th wheel and swaped out for a 2001 V10 F250 last year. Haven't put a lot of towing miles on it yet but plenty of power. Getting around 9mpg so far.

We haven't had the oppurtunity to do any significant hills yet. Just expect to wind it up and run in a lower gear. You should have no problem keeping up with the semi's in the right lane (should be able to beat them but if you pull behind to let cars pass, regaining speed will be hard).

Check your payload numbers to be sure but I don't expect it to be a whiteknuckle drive as someone suggested.

[Dave_H_M]

45 mph on a long 6% grade is not bad in my book.

That is about all I could get with the ole 99 psd pulling 11.5K fifth wheel.

Now with the 6.2 gasser I could spin it up to 50 on the same grade but I see no need in seeing how fast I can yank a load up long grades.

I call it towing, not struggling. :h

[cpaulsen]

01 F350 V-10 here....CC/LB/4x4....GVW of truck is 9900 lbs. Pin weight...2100 lbs.
Towing a 29 foot 5th wheel that is loaded at 10,350. Have a 5Star tuner/3:73 gears and get about 7-8 mpg towing and 13-14 mpg empty. Up the hills I do slow down....6% grade I am doing about 40-45 if the grade is 4-5 miles long. Truck empty and ready to hook up and go is 7800 lbs.

[dodge_guy]

I`m towing 9200lb of TT with an 02 V-10 Excursion with 4.30 gears. You will probably be wanting the 4.30`s as the V-10 loves to rev. I had 3.73`s and it was a huge difference when I went to the 4.30`s. the other big change for towing was a tuner from 5star tuning! made towing much better due to the improved shift strategy with their towing tune. the Ford strategy is less than optimal for towing heavy! it works but you have to manually shift it to keep the trans in the power band.

[talonhead]

I have a '99 F250 CC SB 4WD V10-2v w/4.30's. it has over 120k on it. It did not like long or steep grades without a running start, 5er is an older Prowler <9k#. Truck was fitted out with Banks Ram Air, headers, Trans command and big dog exhaust by the previous owner for hauling horses.
If it hit a long grade or a steep one w/no speed on, about all I could get out of it was 45mph with OD off. Mpg's were 9-10 variable elevation driving. I did get 12 on the flats sometimes.
She just turned 15 and I upgraded to a Ram/Cummins 3500 DRW. I am waiting on parts for the trailer and hitch, so I haven't towed yet.