Which Truck would you tow with ?

[arkansasrunner]

I'm having a problem deciding which truck to use tolling my 5th wheel. I have a '94 Ford F250 4 x 4 7.3 Diesel 5 speed. (180 hp, Torque 338 ) I also have a '96 Chevy Crew Cab 3500 4 x 4 5.7 gas engine 5 speed. ( 255 hp torque 330 ) I know that I may be over weight on the ford a little bit. ( I think ) Our 5th is rated at 11,000 GVWR. Just want to use the saftest truck possible. Any response will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[time2roll]

Chevy seems to ride better, have more power and more load capacity.
That is 3 for 3. Hate to say it but the Chevy is the better of these two.
Worst case put some 4.56 gears in the Chevy.

[ls1mike]

Lots of good advice...

I will say you should tow with whatever you feel comfortable with.
That is what I do. If you are uncomfortable try something else. 🙂

[Jarlaxle]

Michelle.S wrote:
OK, I know GM did some upgrades in '96 and added the 5 speed, but we had a '95 with the 5.7L with 4 speed and 3:73 gears pulling a small 24' TT approx 4500 Lbs. It pulled it, but you knew it was back there and we didn't win any uphill speed contests. So I question how much the improvements were in '96 to make for a comfortable tow of say 10K.

About a 50HP boost!

[Jarlaxle]

Area13 wrote:

arkansasrunner wrote:
I'm having a problem deciding which truck to use tolling my 5th wheel. I have a '94 Ford F250 4 x 4 7.3 Diesel 5 speed. (180 hp, Torque 338 ) I also have a '96 Chevy Crew Cab 3500 4 x 4 5.7 gas engine 5 speed. ( 255 hp torque 330 ) I know that I may be over weight on the ford a little bit. ( I think ) Our 5th is rated at 11,000 GVWR. Just want to use the saftest truck possible. Any response will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

It's pretty crazy in 1994 you could have bought an IDI 7.3 non turbo with 185HP 338TQ or a 94 1/2 Powerstroke with 210HP 425TQ throw a good tow tuner on it and get close to 300HP and 500TQ on the Powerstroke, Big difference. I'm not too sure about the pre-Powerstroke trucks and being tuned, but Despite what others guys say about these "oil burners" 7.3 is a proven powerplant that will go 500,000 with no problems maintained properly. Your non-turbo IDI will be a little slow in the hills, but a reliable beast, IMO.

The PSD was not available with an automatic until 1995. All 1994 PSD's are 5-speeds.

[jerem0621]

I am pretty sure there were three different versions of the 7.3 in 94.

NA IDI
Turbo IDI- with a restricted down pipe (or up pipe?)so not to make more power than the powerstroke.
Powerstroke

But.... Given the choice of a 94 NA 7.3 F-250 or a Vortec 5.7 3500 I would without a doubt choose the 5.7 3500 and it's not even close.

Then again, I would probably sell both trucks and upgrade to an early 2000 ish V10 crew cab or an 8.1/6.0 GM crew cab.

Thanks and good luck!

Jeremiah

[rjstractor]

Area13 wrote:
It's pretty crazy in 1994 you could have bought an IDI 7.3 non turbo with 185HP 338TQ or a 94 1/2 Powerstroke with 210HP 425TQ throw a good tow tuner on it and get close to 300HP and 500TQ on the Powerstroke, Big difference. I'm not too sure about the pre-Powerstroke trucks and being tuned, but Despite what others guys say about these "oil burners" 7.3 is a proven powerplant that will go 500,000 with no problems maintained properly. Your non-turbo IDI will be a little slow in the hills, but a reliable beast, IMO.

Not a whole lot you can do with a NA engine as far as tuning. You can turn up the fuel but it doesn't do you much good with no boost. You are right about those old IDI motors being durable and reliable but they are turds. The gas engines of that same era would spank them empty or loaded.

[Hannibal]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
LOL, have it your way. :S

You just gave me an idea.

I'm going to build a 200KW genset and power it with a 5 HP Briggs and gear it to make 1000 HP to power my whole neighborhood. Better yet, I will stop spending tons of money on big blocks and just gear my race car for more power. :S


These guys say it won't work, but I'm keepin the faith! :B

If you think you can get 1000hp from a 5hp engine, I see why you're so easily confused over simple hp and torque equations. If you really don't understand that you'll get more of that 5hp at 3500rpm than you will at 1000 rpm, there's no way to possibly enlighten you.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

LOL, have it your way. :S

You just gave me an idea.

I'm going to build a 200KW genset and power it with a 5 HP Briggs and gear it to make 1000 HP to power my whole neighborhood. Better yet, I will stop spending tons of money on big blocks and just gear my race car for more power. :S


These guys say it won't work, but I'm keepin the faith! :B

[Hannibal]

" increase HP with higher rpm and torque with gear reduction"

Directly from my post that you quoted. Read it very slowly and word for word. :B

[Hannibal]

One more time and you still don't get it. If you downshift to run the SAME ROAD SPEED you'll run higher rpm. Higher rpm with the same flywheel torque makes more horsepower. What part of EQUAL ROAD SPEED are you missing? Dyno's don't run equal road speed.
A 345 hp 365 ft/lb engine will deliver more torque to the rear wheels than a 250 hp 460ft/lb engine.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Hannibal wrote:

Second Chance wrote:

Hannibal wrote:
Around the southeast and Arkansas, I would use the Chevy. They'll both be a test of patience. Higher HP through gear reduction equates to more torque to the rear wheels.

Horse power cannot be increased through gear ratios. The technical definition of HP is a function of torque AND time. By gearing down the output of an engine, you can increase the torque, but it increases the time required to do the work. HP can only be increased at the power source.

I think you misread my post but just the same, if you have a flat torque curve from 1600rpm to 2900rpm for example, through gear reduction, you will increase engine rpm going from O/D to direct at equal road speed and increase HP with higher rpm and torque with gear reduction. My 345hp/365ftlbs Hemi made more torque through gear reduction to the rear wheels than my '03 250hp/460ftlbs SO Cummins. The engine with more hp can put more torque to the rear wheels through gear reduction.

One more time. You don't make more HP through gears. Only torque; and torque is not power unless a time formula is in there somewhere.

You can chassis dyno a car in any gear you want and it will show the same HP in any gear within a few HP. (Dyno operators like to use 1 to 1 because it's straight through and they get the most power out of a straight through gear with no reduction.)

In fact, a loss of about 15 HP will be shown if going from a high 2's gear to a low 4's rear gear. Yes, that's right, you will lose HP if you go to a lower rear end gear, not gain.

[C_Schomer]

I think it was multipoint fuel injection and roller cam. Have you even seen an old 7.3 tow something up a hill? Nobody will be able to identify you by the black cloud if you use the chevy. Craig

[Michelle_S]

OK, I know GM did some upgrades in '96 and added the 5 speed, but we had a '95 with the 5.7L with 4 speed and 3:73 gears pulling a small 24' TT approx 4500 Lbs. It pulled it, but you knew it was back there and we didn't win any uphill speed contests. So I question how much the improvements were in '96 to make for a comfortable tow of say 10K.

[Area13]

arkansasrunner wrote:
I'm having a problem deciding which truck to use tolling my 5th wheel. I have a '94 Ford F250 4 x 4 7.3 Diesel 5 speed. (180 hp, Torque 338 ) I also have a '96 Chevy Crew Cab 3500 4 x 4 5.7 gas engine 5 speed. ( 255 hp torque 330 ) I know that I may be over weight on the ford a little bit. ( I think ) Our 5th is rated at 11,000 GVWR. Just want to use the saftest truck possible. Any response will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

It's pretty crazy in 1994 you could have bought an IDI 7.3 non turbo with 185HP 338TQ or a 94 1/2 Powerstroke with 210HP 425TQ throw a good tow tuner on it and get close to 300HP and 500TQ on the Powerstroke, Big difference. I'm not too sure about the pre-Powerstroke trucks and being tuned, but Despite what others guys say about these "oil burners" 7.3 is a proven powerplant that will go 500,000 with no problems maintained properly. Your non-turbo IDI will be a little slow in the hills, but a reliable beast, IMO.