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Tow Truck Shopping Part Deux

I used to have a 2000 Excursion Limited with the 6.8 v10 and I absolutly LOVED the power that thing had!!! But the average of 8.9mpg killed me!!! Needless to say, I didn't have it that long. Now a buddy of mone had the same vehicle and put a Hooker exhaust and Diablo tuner on his and managed to average 12.4mpg. A lot better, but still not great.
 
karzrus said:
That there is a great selling feature. LOL

I used to want a diesel Excursion to replace my diesel Suburban but it's really hard to find them and Ford had a few to many issues with their diesels in those years.
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atc250r said:
02 and down are 7.3's so the motor are pretty solid. Some 03's had the 7.3 and some had the 6.0 which was a lot more trouble prone. I don't think they came in a manual trans so you're gonna deal with a crap auto either way.
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What he said, except for the trans part. The Ford 4R100 and 5R110 are two of the stoutest transmissions out there. The re-badged Allsion in the GM's is a joke, and the Dodge isn't any better. A 4R100 (7.3) can handle 500rwhp with just a converter upgrade and $50 shift kit, about 400rwhp without. A 5R110 (6.0) can handle even more without changing anything.

.
 
All autos are crap for towing in my book. :devil:

Interesting info though. Didn't realize the trans behind the 7.3 was that stout.

John
 
atc250r said:
All autos are crap for towing in my book. :devil:

Interesting info though. Didn't realize the trans behind the 7.3 was that stout.

John
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Yeah, even in the diesel performance world a number of Dodges are putting 4r's behind their Cummins. In stock form the 5r is actually stronger but it's electronically controlled and relies heavily on tuning.

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I tow my 281 behind my titan with no problems. I'm good for 9700lbs. Towing I get around 12 mpg or a little better doing 65 to 70. Any faster than that and my gas mileage goes out the door. I tow a 24 ft enclosed car trailer around 9000 lbs and still gets around 11 mpg. Good luck with the purchase. New 5.0 f150 is a nice truck.
 
demag67 said:
I tow my 281 behind my titan with no problems. I'm good for 9700lbs. Towing I get around 12 mpg or a little better doing 65 to 70. Any faster than that and my gas mileage goes out the door. I tow a 24 ft enclosed car trailer around 9000 lbs and still gets around 11 mpg. Good luck with the purchase. New 5.0 f150 is a nice truck.
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Interesting......I get 11-12 mpg pulling an old 25' Holiday Rambler with 11,000 dry weight with my 8.1L/4.10 gear. 11-12 pulling the 253 also. Matter of fact, 10-12 no matter what I put behind it. At least it is consistent. Only real difference is you can gain 5-7 mpg back when running empty, I only gain 3-4 when empty. I can get much better if Im not in a hurry and can draft behind a semi and set the cruise (that will be the plan going to Cumberland hehe). Weight doesn't matter to it. Only how much air it is pushing.
 
imelmo said:
What he said, except for the trans part. The Ford 4R100 and 5R110 are two of the stoutest transmissions out there. The re-badged Allsion in the GM's is a joke, and the Dodge isn't any better. A 4R100 (7.3) can handle 500rwhp with just a converter upgrade and $50 shift kit, about 400rwhp without. A 5R110 (6.0) can handle even more without changing anything.

.
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The Allison in my 08 has been great, it's got 60,000 miles on it now, all with a +120hp tune(tuner and dpf/cat removal happened in first year). I've had to replace the cooler lines and I did put a shift kit in it, but that's easy and fairly cheap stuff.

I think one of the biggest mistakes Ford has made, is to keep switching engines in their Diesel trucks(it's like admitting the thing is crap) rather then resolving the issues and moving forward. They have no name recognition. All the Dodge guys love their Cummins, all the GM guys I know, love their Duramax/Allison. What can you hold onto if your a Ford diesel guy, that the transmission was OK?
 
I know it doesn't pertain to the engine but "Super Duty" is pretty good name rec. With all of my research I though I should stay away from 6.0, but 6.4 and 6.7s were pretty good. I liked the Allison a lot in my dually. Never thought I'd say that about an automatic.
 
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The Allison is a great stout trans. The only thing that ruined it are the old geysers that don't want to feel a heavy duty truck shift. There is so much damage and compromise done to a heavy trans when "softening" its manners. The same allison behind duramax's was designed as a medium commercial/municipal bus transmission and had the requirement of going almost a million miles between rebuilds. On the early models the shift pressures were kept so low and the shift times increased so much that it is no wonder they slipped and wore the clutches out. The longer a trans takes to shift means that that is longer the clutches have to slip to allow that soft shift. Keep it semi short and firm and it lasts forever. Keep the converter in lockup to keep fluid temps down. make it act like a standard trans, the diesel doesn't need a torque converter multiplication like gas engines do. Its a dang tow rig, not a caddy for 8 lb 6 oz baby Jesus's sake! Too many compromises and bandaids are achieved through torque management instead of just getting the trans right to hold the power. Rant about production truck engineers over.
 
That truck looks clean from the pics. Hope it works out for you. My buddy had one. Motor never missed a beat and tranny didn't either. He bought it with around 50,000 and sold it right after it hit 100,000. For a gas motor that thing pulled great and gas mileage wasn't to bad towing his boat. It did suck for everyday driving though. He bought a beater car shortly after hebought it. He did change to a duramax now and he said it almost wasn't worth making the change since the new emissions craps was killing his fuel mileage with the diesel and the price of fuel.
 
RNGRDVE said:
You'll know every gas station attendant in town?:confused:
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I chose this one as it was clean clean clean. It has 62k on the clock and looks and feels much newer.

This was the POs local non ethanol station that he said he used exclusively. And here I am putting $90.10 into Babe the Blue Ox on its maiden voyage to Northern Virginia. I got 14.7 mpg driving 70 mph and it was hard not to unleash that beast. It's got power for days. :drool:
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