RE: F250/350 pin weight question
As far as Ford is concerned, they list a payload capacity on the door sticker. That's very simply the most that the truck is rated to carry, so that would be pin weight, hitch weight, and the weight of all passengers and cargo combined. Done, over and out. End of story. The payload is the difference between the GVWR and the unloaded weight of the truck. Those who babble about Rear Axle Weight Ratings ignore the fact that those ratings are for heavily loaded trucks where the load is abnormally biased to one axle or the other, and that the sum of the axle weights as loaded can't exceed the GVWR. Now, if you feel like ignoring what Ford has to say about the payload capacity of the truck, go right ahead. But if you are asking it sounds like you care.
Brian
RE: WHD: 1,000 or 1,200 lbs?
Yes, you are wrong, sorry. The bars are used in pairs and rated in pairs. I personally like to have the bars next size up from 10% of the trailers GVWR. With this trailer at around 10K GVWR, I would use 1200 lb bars. But - with a old Ford F350 dually towing 10K I would not spend actual money for the upgrade. Buying a new hitch - yes, I'd buy 1200 bars for the same cost. Spending a couple hundred bucks - nope. You need some kind of bar that's close to rate the hitch, but 1000 lb bars will be fine.
Brian
RE: MPG Improvement by Adding Superchip 3815
As far as mileage is concerned, that engine is going to convert gasoline energy into horsepower at a given rate, and that really isn't going to change a lot unless you change the fundamental characteristics of the engine. All the tuner can do is vary ignition advance a little, change the fuel curve a little, but the fuel burn per HP/hour will not change a whole lot. Changing your right foot accomplishes about the same thing. As far as added power is concerned unless you are routinely operating at maximum power now - around 5500 rpm and full throttle for the Hemi - then you really don't need or can use a few extra HP. If you are running along at 1/4 throttle, you have all kinds of HP left under the throttle so adding 15 HP at the top end is kind of irrelevant. What the tuner can do is change the way the engine reacts to the throttle - it can give you more power faster when the throttle pedal is pressed, and make it seem a lot more responsive. That just gets you into the fuel curve faster, and will reduce your on-the-road fuel mileage - you can get the same effect just by driving with a heavier right foot. What the tuners can do that is quite useful is change the transmission shift tuning, and that can have a very good effect when towing a load. They can also optimize the tuning for a higher grade of fuel, so if you want to run premium gas you can tune for that, get a little more power and economy at the expense of costlier fuel. They can also move the ignition advance/fuel curve farther towards the edge of the safe operating envelope - get closer to where the engine can be damaged by pre-ignition, over heating the combustion chamber, all of that - which can improve the efficiency of the engine at the risk of damage. Race engines get tuned that way all the time!
Brian
RE: WDH Adjustment
Do a measurement of the rear ride height both hooked with WDH on and un-hooked. You do want some squat so the rear droops a little, indicating increased rear axle weight, with the trailer on and the WDH applied. What you are experiencing with your wheel spin is a combination of several things all happening at once - first, the transition from the hill to the flat will cause the WDH arms to get angled more, and momentarily transfer more weight from the rear axle, but it's a transitory thing. Second, the truck is now trying to accelerate far more weight than it normally does, so far more power is going to the rear tires and so they will tend to use up all their traction. Third, you just had less traction from the tire tread and the wet surface, and that will always lead to potential wheel spin. All normal, all part of learning to drive with the trailer on with your particular tow vehicle.
Brian
RE: just went weight my 2013 F250.......
I do believe the max tongue weight without weight distribution on that F250 is around 600 lbs. So if you do have a WD hitch you could crank on it a little harder and transfer a bit more weight. But the truck won't really care...
Brian
RE: Car stereo with amp and subs?
You have a converter to charge your batteries. You just install the stereo where you want it, put the amp near the batteries, wire it all up, get an antenna and turn it on. Make sure you add a switch to turn it all the way off for any time when you are not on a power pole or it will drain the battery.
Brian
RE: Leaving from Kitchener ON to Disney
I lived in Hamilton for many years, my route was Peace Bridge in Ft Erie/Buffalo to Erie PA, down I79 to Rte 19 to I77, then I26 at Charlotte to I95 into Florida, then to where-ever. For some reason I find it a more restful drive and I've done it so often I have all the stops planned out in advance. Gives you different options for sightseeing on the way, including Savannah, Daytona Beach, things like that. The biggest Harbor Freight in the world, if your tastes run that way...:)
Brian
RE: Libility and collision insurance for Truck Camper
Where I live it's considered cargo and is covered under the truck insurance. It might also be covered under your house insurance as a possession. I don't have mine insured separately.
Brian
RE: Front axle weight
You don't say, but it sounds like you have a short bed truck if the ball is behind the axle. This is why most people who have short bed trucks use a sliding hitch - so you can pull the weight forward of the axle for normal driving, and slide it back for backing up and tight turns.
I think 260 lbs off the front axle is not the end of the world, but it's not right either. You will lose braking and steering control in just those extreme situations where you might really need it, in particular on wet/slippery roads. Your call.
Brian
RE: ford superduty trans 2002 f-350 with 7.3
Do some research on Ford truck forums. Some Ford transmissions should be hot-flushed, but that's all I know about it...
Brian
RE: You did it again.
I took a 600 km drive on Saturday with my trailer, and halfway home I stopped for a lunch break. It had been quite windy, but the trailer was tail-wagging more than normal so I checked it over closer than normal. I found that one wheel bearing had gotten quite loose. That morning, with this thread and my comment about run-up blocks in mind, I had tossed in a block and made sure I had the torque wrench, so I was able to easily pull the wheel and adjust the bearing in about 10 minutes... Not often do I take my own advice, but it worked this time! :)
Brian
RE: You did it again.
FWIW, I carry run-up blocks sometimes. If one tire on a dual axle setup goes, you can pull the other one up on the block and change the tire that way.
Brian
RE: Front Axle Load Restoration (FALR), How really important?
For me, it's important but the level of importance varies with the combination. What's arguably more important is maintaining the front end steering geometry and braking ability, and if that comes from leveling out the tow vehicle in a loaded state and if that results in restoring the front axle load, then that's all good. In other words - it's all part of a system and the individual parts can't be separated out from the whole. If you can do it, you probably should do it.
Brian
RE: NEMA L5-30 VS RV 30A-125v
Electrically there is no difference. Mechanically you would normally favor the twist-lock connector but I would use the RV outlet - it's there for exactly that reason.
Brian
RE: Towing Bars vs Tow Dolly
FWIW, I agree that dollies are a lot more work than a tow bar. I use a dolly for two reasons - one, I don't need to make any modifications to the towed vehicle or add a base plate, and two, I can tow any front wheel drive vehicle without worrying about if it is flat-towable or not. The dolly gives me automatic braking and break-away brakes, just plug it in.
Comment - using a padlock to attach your break-away cables is not DOT compliant and is illegal, of course so are the twist links. You need to use DOT approved hooks. Locks as an adjunct to a hook is an excellent idea. This applies to tow cables here, your location may have other laws. Every once in a while the local police do spot checks and write up non-compliant vehicles for stuff like this, so eventually you tend to figure it out...
Brian
RE: Getting the Hitch Out
Cheap winches like that often either have no effective brake (other than the gear mechanism and motor) or otherwise aren't rated to lift dead weights. All that means, basically, is don't stand around under the weight you are lifting because it may come back down unexpectedly. Otherwise a great solution if you have a 12 foot ceiling barn to put the truck in :). I used a front bucket on my tractor to get the hitch out of the bed of my truck, which works great if you happen to have a bucket on a tractor... Different solutions depending on the tools at hand!
Brian
RE: Adding chip for engine performance?
The FORD 6.0, which is the subject of the thread, EGT's are not an issue so there is no need to monitor them UNLESS you tune it to an extreme extent, and the transmission is basically considered bulletproof, capable of handling everything a 6.0 can dish out without any consideration towards premature failure. Why issues with the 2012 Ram or the 7.3 PSD trucks are relevant I just don't know.
The 6.0 PSD has two fundamental flaws, one shared with all diesel engined trucks of the time period. First - the casting process for the block left excess sand in the casting. That is a fundamental failing of the production process and it caused the whole chain of failures to start. It can be dealt with. The second flaw is the whole EPA pollution control crackdown on NOx and particulate emissions which impacted the industry, not just Ford and International, and made every truck have to deal with EGR, particulate filters, and the whole mess. Kinda ruined things for us, but we deal with it. Dealing with facts instead of stories is step one.
Brian
RE: Adding chip for engine performance?
I love all the useful information given by people with no idea about the 6.0 PSD engine and it's issues. First of all, you can't "chip" a 6.0, but you can tune it with a hand-held programmer. The tune can change the programming of the PCM or it can change the programming of the FICM (Fuel Injection Control Module). Both can improve power, with consequences. Second, the EGR cooler is not a weak point of the 6.0, but it does fail as a consequence of clogged coolant passages in the oil cooler. The weak point in this equation is sediment in the cooling system building up in the oil cooler. The sediment comes from sand left in the casting process, and you can install a coolant filter that will, over time, filter out the sand. After the oil cooler clogs, the EGR cooler is starved of coolant flow, overheats, can damage the coolant and cause it to fail and contribute to more clogging (vicious circle) and will eventually let coolant into the intake passages and hydro-lock the engine. Note that the EGR cooler itself is basically fine UNTIL the oil cooler clogs up. You can monitor oil temperature and coolant temperature with a Scangauge or other OBDII data monitor, and know when this has happened so you can fix it before all the failing takes place.
Third - tuning the engine will do nothing at all about EGR coolers, so that idea is a bust. Tuning the engine will increase combustion pressure, and if you increase the combustion pressure too much, you can cause head bolt failure and consequentially head gasket failure.
My advice (I own and quite like an F250 with a 6.0 PSD) is don't tune it, keep it stock, change the fuel pressure regulator spring, get a Scangauge and carry on. All 8 - 10 year old trucks have issues, and all diesel engines have issues, so pick your poison. If you like Fords and legitimately need more power than the 6.0 has, mortgage the house and buy a 6.7. I would really skip the whole 6.4 era, most of the issues of the 6.0 plus new ones, and not much benefit.
Brian
RE: non-OEM tire size on used 2500HD I'm considering
Not sure why you think that 285/75-16's aren't taller than 245/75-16\s, but they sure are - 2.3" taller based on generic sizes. 285 is the nominal width, while 75 is the height percentage, so if the width goes up the height goes up in proportion. To your point - there is nothing to affect the truck in this change as long as the stock wheels are used. No offset difference to affect wheel bearing or steering loads. So no harm, no foul. What would be affected is over all gear ratio so you will cruise at a lower RPM, improving unloaded mileage, and you will lose some acceleration capability reducing the effective ability to pull a large load. The larger tires will have a fairly significant increase in load capacity, which is a good reason to use them if you carry a heavy load. They will probably ride better, too, and you could run them at lower pressures to obtain the same load capacity.
Brian
