Kevin

I also have the Prodigy installed to the factory port.. It makes towing a dream..

Many people are suggesting the pickups.. I needed the space and room in the large extended cabin. All in all the 3/4ton GM suburban (XSV)platform does a nice job with 20' trailers with the 6.0ltr powerplant..

jrgordonsenior

I know this has been discussed ad nauseum..... but I would like to redunantly warn against towing with lighter vehicles, or with vehicles with short wheel bases. It's all too easy to talk about how great your 1/2 ton or light SUV tows under ideal conditions. It's when the bleep hits the fan that you'll find out how inadequate your brakes are, or how those pesky 50 MPH cross winds toss your F150 around like a kite. It happens quickly, and the consequences can be devistating. I'll never understand how someone can risk their lives, or the lives of others by towing with less than adequate equipment.

Last Sunday evening I was towing home from Buttonwillow down I-5 in central Calif and up the grapevine in my 454 CC dually. My racing partner, with the same race car and the same 20 ft.enclosed trailer but behind a 05' F150 with the 5.4/auto, called me to complain about the heavy winds tossing him around. He said it was brutal. I was just minutes behind and never felt the winds at all...

Bill935K3

Just a quick note IE diesels, I have been a Ford diesel man for like twenty years, My tractor dealership currently owns 7 from 250's to 550's
The 6.0 from Ford has been very problematic in my 05, 250 PU and 550 heavy service truck the old 7.4's are tanks I have several with 200K miles plus. Ford gave me $5000 to liquidate my 30,000 mile 05 F-250 it was so bad. I got access to thier ASSIST site where Service Managers can go to look up problems and find fixes. The printout on the 6.0 was 19 pages of 9 point font!! (waiving it in the face of the dealer had a great effect opening Fords purse strings. FYI the warrante claims on the 6.0 are reported to have reached 50 million!!
I now own a 06 3500 Chevy duromax dually. I knew these truck were good from my customers. NOW I know they are outstanding. Some cab space and storage issues ( they keep the cab slim for aero) but has many other great features and power is unreal 360HP 650FtLbs.
I REALLY hate to say this but Chevy-GMC or Dodge is the way to go

Rick

Bill,

What kind of issues did you have with your '05 F-250? I've got one and thus far (a bit over 30k miles) I haven't had the slightest issue. What should I be looking out for?

Thanks much,

Rick

PhilW

I have a few questions regarding the differences in capacity and towing specs for a 2500 Suburban/YukonXL with a 4.10 or a 3.73 rear axle. Both vehichles show the same weight and payload but the 4.10 is rated to tow 2,000 pounds more than the 3.73. Is the only difference the rear axle ratio or does the 4.10 have a beefed up drivetrain, suspension, frame and brakes? Thanks

Larry Herman

As a current owner, familiar with them, I am not aware of any modifications that would come with the lower gear ratio. I can only think that due to the 10% reduction in gearing, and therefore torque loading, it would allow for at least a 10% improvement in "pulling ability".

Veloce Raptor

Exactly right. I just picked mine up yesterday. Same as the 3.73 except for the 4.10 rear axle.

sleder

The difference is ONLY the torque multiplication of the 4.10 to the 3.73 that is how it can pull more. However with the 4.10 you will also burn more fuel when out on the highway, your engine will be taching higher so the enginge is acutally working harder.

Larry Herman

I'm not an engineer here, but it could have more to do with the stress on the transmission and drivetrain than on the engine. Just a thought.

M758

Well gearing and towing are very important.

The reason 4.10 are better than 3.73 is that when towing you need more power to get rolling and keep it rolling. The shorter gears puts you at more RPM for the same road speed and therefore at higher power point in the engine's powerband. Most of the time at hwy speed light trucks are geared to run very low RPM at 60 or 70 mph. Reason is the more RPM typically use more fuel and make more noise. Most of the time a 3.73 will give plenty of power at 60 or 70 at maybe 1500 rpm.

Now start towing and 1500 RPM is not enough to drag the trailer. At 2000 RPM the engine has the hp to tow. The problem is 2000 RPM is like 80 mph with taller gears. So you drop out of over drive and maybe run in 3rd gear. Problem is 3rd gear at 60 mph is like 3000 RPM. Too much and tranny want to shift to OD all the time.
So instead you un 4.10 gears and now 60 mph is 2000 RPM in OD. So now you have power to pull that trailer with less stress on tranny (less shifing) and even the engine (not flat out a 1500 or screaming at 3000).

This is major reason large trucks have 12 or 18 forward gears. Then no matter the load or road speed they can put the engine in the right RPM sweet spot for most efficient operation.

jrgordonsenior

Bill did you get the 4:10 gears with the Duramax? I'v always run 4:10's with my 454's, but wondered if it was necessary to go that low with all the torque of the Duramax or the Ford/Dodge?

MDL

JR has nailed it.

The horse trailer I mentioned in an earler post was pulled with a 1500 Silverado. It pulled fine and I never got into trouble with it. It wasen't until my boss lent me his F250 diesel to pull my 69 Camaro to Daytona that I realized what towing should feel like. I was crusing down the road at 75mph,cruse control on (no traffic around) air on, music on,and it was EFFORTLESS! The 1500 was a nice truck but Silverado always felt like it was struggeling with the trailer. I went right and bought the F 250 I have now. (hope it doesnt blow on the way to DE!

Dan.

Tom W

I have an '06 Duramax 2500 crew cab with the standard gearing and it pulls 8000 lbs of enclosed extra-tall 24' trailer, my car, and a bunch of "stuff" up and over the Sierra's with no problem at all. It could go 80 mph on the uphill parts if I was crazy enough to want to (well, I did a few times to pass but I otherwise cruise at 65-70). The Allison transmission is incredible on the down hill sections. With a leather interior, XM, iPod and Nav System it makes the trips a dream. The best add on is a back-up camera though...

I used to pull an 18' open trailer with an ML430 and I thought it worked pretty good (other than I knew not to try pulling over the Sierras with the combo I had). In retrospect there is no comparison in capabilities or my confidence between the two options.

kgorman

Exactly! and for my truck, 4.10 is overkill unless I have to pull 12.5k. I like having 20mpg thank you!

Sean F

Thanks for all the advice. I picked up an 05 Excursion diesel today. I'm sure it will get mixed reviews here, but it's a good compromise vehicle. Pretty good at towing a trailer and pretty good at towing kids. I'll tell you what, you have to move quick when you find one of these. I lost 3 of these bidding on ebay. Found a limited locally with all the goodies and only 11,000 miles. Now on to the trailer