Gear Vendors for Excursion V-10 4.30 rear

[jspringator]

I have a 2001 Excursion with a V-10 and 4.30's. I tow a 33 foot high profile TT that has a gross weight of 9,000 pounds. I found a great tune, 5-star 87 performance, that made a big difference.

I was wondering if anyone has tried a Gear Vendors OD in this application. It would be useful to have a gear between OD and OD out. I suppose that is what they call "gear splitting". $3,000 sounds like a lot, but another truck (or lighter trailer) would cost a lot more. It does have 190,000 miles on it now, but runs great, and is in great condition. I expect another 100,000 miles of use.

I am looking for ease of towing, and I understand that any mileage increase wouldn't pay for the unit.

[jerem0621]

Your V10 should not be that loud while revving. are you running an aftermarket exhaust?

[Bedlam]

I know a couple people that have had that unit fail when torqued by a diesel but have not heard of problems from people with gasoline engines. If your V10 tune is putting out 500 ft-lbs or more, you may run into higher failure rate too.

[jspringator]

I doubt my truck is worth $5,000. The issue is what it is worth to have a more satisfactory tow experience. Last tow I put in noise isolating earbuds so the noise of the motor revving didn't bother me as much. That is obviously the cheapest solution. The most expensive solution is to buy a used diesel truck. This solution is significantly cheaper if it works. Used diesels are expensive to purchase and maintain. I may recoup $300 in fuel savings a year, but the truck probably won't last long enough for a full payback. However, it will last long enough for a partial payback. So if the cost is $3,500, is it worth $1,700 for a better towing experience? I need to think about it. When it revs, it will maintain a reasonable speed. There is just something about it that bothers me. Lets give the earbuds another shot on this summer's trip.

I don't suppose there is a 6 speed transmission that would bolt in, is there? I've got 100,000 on this transmission.

[BurbMan]

APT wrote:
That said, I would not invest $3000 into your vehicle that may be worth $10k. Just run 3rd gear when towing all the time. Clearly the motor can handle it.

That's where I get hung up....I'm at 17k GCW and run in OD most of the time.

[APT]

From Burbman's listed chart, I would prefer if it split the gears on the short side instead of tall side. Few people need a taller unloaded highway gear, but we RVers towing 12k+ pounds worth of GCW want a shorter first gear! That's what today's 6 to 8-spd transmissions have done/ a lot shorter first gear with a little taller OD ratio.



That said, I would not invest $3000 into your vehicle that may be worth $10k. Just run 3rd gear when towing all the time. Clearly the motor can handle it.

[jspringator]

From this chart it looks like I could leave it in OD, lock out the double OD (I assume there is a button for this) and I would have a gear between my Truck OD and when my truck OD kicks out (third); third over. That is really where I need an extra gear.

[BurbMan]

Yes, that's how it works, except that it adds a gear in between every gear, not just between 3rd and OD. Look at the chart below from the GV website:



You effectively go from 4 gears to 8. I also like the electronics that they had added to interface to the factory PCM, so you can program the unit to lock out when in 4WD, lock out double OD when in tow/haul, etc.

What you really end up with is an 8-speed transmission by "splitting" 4 gears into 8. It keeps the truck in the power band since the gear ratios are closer together, so RPM doesn't drop as much between each shift.

So you start in 1st, then in lieu of the next shift, the GV unit engages to give you 1st with OD. When the trans shifts to 2nd, GV disengages and you have factory 2nd. Then GV engages again at a predetermined point to give you 2nd with OD, and so through the gears.

[BenK]

It's on my list for my Sub...but not decided on which OEM nor which OD ratio yet

[jspringator]

Stock tires. As I understand it it will go from GV OD to a gear higher than my 3rd gear without OD, then to 3rd without OD. Is that right? If it went from GV OD to 3rd wo OD it would be the same as I have now.

It isn't my DD, but I do tailgate with it and use it when I have more than one passenger. My other car is a nineteen year old BMW convertible.

[BurbMan]

Interesting....would you DIY the install or have a shop do it?

Doing a little reading on the website and not sure if your X is a daily driver, but with those deep 4.30's it says the fuel savings when running empty add up quickly and pay for the unit. I have 161k on the burb now and in a similar situation as you...the burb is my daily driver and I get about 10 mpg around town with the 4.10 gears, about 12 on the highway. At 10k miles/year, a 3 mpg increase would net me about $500 in fuel savings, so clearly I don't drive as much as I need to....

It would definitely help when towing though, if I had an extra $3k sitting around I would consider one of these units. Let us know if you go ahead with it, I would be very interested to see how you like it.

[More_To_See]

I can't speak to your direct application but on my motorhome with a 4L80E transmission I just love my gear vendor. Couldn't imagine being without it out here in the mountain west.

Having the gear vendor allows me to keep my rpm right at peak torque when pulling grades.

When you have the gear vendor engaged it locks out the overdrive gear on your tranny so that cruising down a road that is pretty much level you are then running at the gear vendor ratio which in my case has me running at very slightly higher rpm when in GV overdrive. (But that's probably just my particular gearing.)

And when driving down the road using the gear vendor as your overdrive ratio it eliminates your tranny hunting all the time with slight grade changes.

[Sport45]

If you run larger than stock tires it might make a difference you could feel. It would also give you a second OD when cruising empty.

I thought long and hard about putting an underdrive on my V-10 w/ 3.73 gears. Figured I could use the UD when towing (effectively a lower axle ratio) and turn it off when empty. As much as I thought about it though, it never made enough sense financially to shell out the money for one.