Has anyone added an Over-Drive to a "C"? I wondered if it would make a difference in the mileage....well, I'm pretty sure it would, but I wonder if it would be worth the expense. Answering my own questions.....I'm sure it would depend on just how many miles and what type of miles were being driven.
Anyway, I'll give you guys a chance now... Just wondering if anyone had done it?
DH Bill / DW Claudia / DD Jenn / DS Chris The Paps! Sophie, Abby, Brandy, Kahlie and Annie
2000 Winnebago "Minnie" 31C, Ford V-10
Purchased April Fools Day, 2008 The Pets
Bill my 1992 P30 came with OD and so should your 1999+ chassis so you do not have to add it. The OD can not always be used already without killing our transmissions.
E-series since 1989 have had OD, including the V10.
If you are asking about an auxiliary OD, like GearVendors or US Gear, I don't think you will see a fuel economy advantage. The E450 is geared to move lots of frontal area. A taller final gear ratio will put the V10 out of its powerband, and required much more downshifting.
When I went from 3.73 (taller) to 4.56 gears (lower, and also standard in the E450), my towing fuel economy went up.
That said, I'm considering it because when running solo, the double OD would benefit me, since the smaller frontal area will allow less HP, and hence be OK running at engine speeds below the power band.
Bryan
2000 Ford E350 DRW Wagon (14-pass all captains chairs)
V10 w/ Banks PowerPack, Diablo Predator, 4.56 LS, 230,000+ miles
Had: Weekend Warrior 41' FSW (still looking for its replacement)
I put a Gear Vendors OD in my previous Ford chassis "C" with a 6.9 diesel and C-6 3 sp trans. Much better driveability and noise reduction in the cab but not a lot of difference in fuel mileage. No way was it going to give back the $3000.00+ cost.
Jim
Jim, Sharon and Buddy the Yorkie
1999 Gulfstream Sun Voyager 31' ISB Cummins 210
275 RV injectors
Trippe-Lite 1800w inverter 4-6v GC batteries
3- Kyocera 130w solar panels
1987 Suzuki Samurai tintop Toad w/VW 1.6 turbo diesel power
Modern 11' tall super-wide C with the Ford V-10, most of the time the existing overdrive is on the verge of downshifting out of overdrive to deal with slight increases in grade or sometimes even headwinds. So a second overdrive (e.g. 0.8 on top of factory 0.7) would seldom pull the load, unless you changed final drive.
Where a Gear Vendors might be useful would be to give you a "not quite so over" overdrive gear so you don't have to shift all the way down to direct. The less agressive GV ratio is also useful for splitting between 2nd and direct, because that jump is also about 0.7. So picking your gears carefully, you might be able to more often be in the right gear for the speed you want to run.
Whether that will gain you enough extra MPG to pay for the thing, is another story.
Thanks, I guess I'll save the money, and just put it in to the gas tank! I'm finding that many of these gas saving devices, aren't really saving enough to justify their expense, unless you're going to keep the rig for decades! Even the Banks system, which is advertising 7% increase in fuel economy...which works out to basically about 1/2 mpg, would take years to pay for itself (assuming 5-6000 miles per year, you'd get about $130-150 in savings per year.).
It sounds good, but.......but as they say, "if it sounds too good to be true...."
I agree, it would take forever to re-coup the high price tag of the Gear Vendors.
I want one in my truck, but the motivating factor for me is cruising speed. I have 4.56 gears with a C6 tranny (no overdrive and no lock-up converter), so my cruising speed is about 55 mph. Much faster than that and the gas mileage goes way down and the wear and tear on the engine goes way up with the increased rpms.
I changed from 3.55's to 4.56's to increase power for towing/hauling. The gear change was more than worth it, but I lost my cruising speed in the process. I was fully aware of that factor before I did the swap and hoped to eventually get a Gear Vendors or a later model overdrive transmission for the truck, but never got around to it.
If I had an overdrive gear, I could cruise at 65 and somewhat keep up with traffic on the interstate. When I go on trips, I take the 2-lane highways whenever possible cause 55 is usually a good speed to go on those. Now that the truck is used mostly for work, it would be nice to be able to go a little faster to get to the jobs.
Gear Vendors raised their prices about $500 accross the board in the last couple years.
My friend's 1974 Coachmen C has a Gear Vendors...it has kinda-tall gears (we think 3.91's, maybe 4.11's) for a motorhome, but it also has a healthy 440. It will pull gentle grades easily in OD, and almost anything short of mountains in direct. The GV is nice pulling mountains, because it can be used to split gears--grades it won't quite pull in direct it will pull in second with overdrive.
My pickup also has one--not useful towing with tall tires and 3.54's (even with my Cummins 5.9), but spinning about 1600RPM on the highway is nice. Hello, 20+MPG from a SuperCab 1-ton 4x4.
SoCal: You need to give LenTECH a call...they can build you an AOD transmission for your truck. It was factory-optional, and bolts right in with factory parts. I think the linkage & shifter setup is even identical.
However...
Quote: E-series since 1989 have had OD, including the V10.
Optional, yes, but I've seen E-350's as new as 1994 with a C6.
John
1984 Ford B-700 school bus conversion, Thomas body
A bunch of other vehicles
3 nutty cats (Maya, Vierna, Briza)
One lazy dog (Marmaduke)
One wife (Liz)
"A wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age"
-Jim Steinman
Online
Just wondering if anyone had done it?
Offline
