Notice I said ability- not capacity. I have a 2002 F350 SRW V10 with 4.30 gears, air bags, front leaf springs, E rated tires. I bought this truck to tow our 6,000lb 30' travel trailer and it handles it with ease.
Now we are looking to upgrade to a fiver. The book says my fiver capacity is 13,300. Most of the modern bunk house fivers are in the 9,000-11,000 empty weight. We run about 1,700 lbs in "cargo" on a regular two week trip- this includes 50 gallons of water. My loaded weight will be in the 11,000 to 13,000lb range- close to the max (I guess).
My question, what can I expect from my gasser in this weight range? I'm not going to trade trucks, so my fiver has to fit the truck. I'm looking for real world experience from the V10 crowd. I drive all over the south east US, with a trip planned out west soon. With the 5-6% grades around here, I have no concern with dropping the V10 into 2nd at 4,000 RPM- it seems built to handle it.
One of the advantages of the 6.8 L engine is the pistons are tiny, and the stroke is fairly short, so you are right, it will rev up and go.
The same engine is used in the 22,000 GVWR 36' motorhomes and they are rated to tow another 5,000 pounds or so.
With 26,000 pounds, it might not be so fast on the mountains, but with the weight that you are talking about, it is not to bad.
I tow with a 7.5L 460" 1997 motorhome that has a factory rating of only 225 HP. While I think it might make a little more horsepower, because I added the Banks exhaust, and at higher RPM it will make a little more power than listed in the brochure. I tow about 5,000 pounds, and back east I towed a 7,000 pound trailer. The motorhome is about 16,000 pounds. I can pull 6% grades at about 45 MPH, I guess that you will be able to go that speed if you want to go that fast up the hills.
My comnbined weight is up to 26,000 pounds sometimes. It does just fine. However my V10 is not stock. I currently have shift points set at 5200 RPM. I will probably raise that.
Bryan
2000 Ford E350 DRW Wagon (14-pass all captains chairs)
V10 w/ Banks PowerPack, Diablo Predator, 4.56 LS, 250,000+ miles
Had: Weekend Warrior 41' FSW
Best thing I did to my 99 V10 was headers, cat-back, and intake. Really woke up performance and added a slight mpg. Take a look at the stock "Y" pipe in the exhaust and you'll see what I mean. Banks, Borla, Hedman make kits.
2007 Dodge 6.7 Cummins, 6sp auto, Quad cab, long bed, white, Prodigy
2009 Shockwave T29FBSP, white & blue, tan interior, 4000W Onan, Reese Dual Cam 15K/1,500.
I have the same exact truck with 4:30 gears and have been towing my current 13500 lb fiver for two years now. I have only found one grade in travel twice through the east coast mountains that it could not maintain reasonable speed on in second gear and that was the I64 between Beckley, WV and Charlottesville, V. I had it locked in 2nd gear and about 2/3 the way up the long grade my RPM's dropped to 2200 and my speed dropped to about 28mph. I had not experienced this before and made the mistake of not dropping it into first gear to get my rpm's back into the 4000 rpm powerband. I lugged it up and over the crest in 2nd gear and am now considering my future TV options.
2001 Newmar Kountry Star 34BLDS 2001 Ford F350 CC SRW V10 4.30LS
I tow a 34 ft TT approx 10,200 pounds, with my V10 with the 3:73 {wish it had the 4:10} with very little problems. I do shift into 2nd gear. Get 7 to 9 miles per gallon towing, up to 15 empty on Freeway
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