Sad Sad Day, Sold the Big Red Truck - Pictures and list of all the things I did to it.

[gearedandready]

After all the work, and money The Big Red truck just could not handle our new 5th wheel. 5vr weighed in at 11,000lbs empty, and truck was about 7,000lbs add gear we were at a GCWR of about 20,000lbs. Did several test pulls, power was there, on flat roads could hit 75mph, however it could not handle the heat. 95* day with an index of 105* and it was running consistently at 215* get to a hill or worse if I got to the mountain passes in Colorado and Wyoming she just would not have made it. Did all the cooling service's and it just did not help. A very sad day, I put hours and hours of labor in her. Very sad to see her go.

In the last 3 months
new transfer case
new turbo has 3 inch down pipe
4 inch stainless steel performance exhaust
suspension airbags
installed bed liner
installed tool box
installed new batteries
new brakes
wheel bearings repacked
Front axle seals replaced
complete cooling system flush
new coolant
new thermostat
new fan clutch
new throttle position sensor

Last 12 months
New injection pump
Injectors removed inspected and cleaned
New injector overflow lines and new O-rings
New A/C dryer and compressor
Rebuilt steering column including shifter
Rebuilt 1 window motor
Rebuilt 1 door lock actuator
New LED cab lights

In the last five years the following has been performed.

Rebuilt e4od automatic transmission with stage 3 shift kit
water pump replaced
new paint
pillar gauges, pyrometer, boost gauge, transmission temp
6.0 auxiliary trans cooler

Installed a set of heavy hauler 81 19.5 rims with semi truck trailer tires rated at 4850 lbs per wheel with those rims and tires and the airbags the truck has the same capacity as a dually truck.

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[gearedandready]

Add to the last 3 months list:
New A/C Compressor
New A/C lines

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[shawn deere]

 

[79jasper]

What's the replacement look like?

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[gearedandready]

What's the replacement look like?

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Haven't gotten it yet, doing something I never thought I would, but looking at 5.9 03-07 dually's right now, narrowing it down. For the money, power, and mileage it's hard to beat. I don't have the time or energy to put into a 7.3 PS, 6.0's to much of a risk, 6.4 not worth mentioning, 6.7 good but still out of range right now.

 

[79jasper]

Don't blame you there.

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[shawn deere]

Man i wish mine looked half that nice. Lol

 

[gearedandready]

Man i wish mine looked half that nice. Lol

Lots of work in it to get her to look that way. Exhaust sounded as good as it looked.

 

[Hydro-idi]

I gotta ask, did you replace the radiator?? I didn't see that on your list of mods...

 

[gearedandready]

I gotta ask, did you replace the radiator?? I didn't see that on your list of mods...

No but checked it, it was a Brass / Copper it was flushed and cleaned when we did the coolant a few weeks ago.

 

[Hydro-idi]

Hate to say it, but I bet a 3-4 row Rodney red or Champion radiator would have fixed your overheating problems. My original rad was in good shape and squeaky clean, but decided to replace it anyways. Immediately saw a 15 degree drop in temps...

 

[Thewespaul]

I know you're probably pretty done with spending money on the truck but I bet you changing the rad out would fix your problems. Even the cheap eBay $200 aluminum radiator made a huge difference in performance and temps while hauling, it was nice being able to hear the fan kick on and off occasionally instead of constantly being locked and eating power and economy.

Edit: saw you sold it already, sorry to hear that

 

[gearedandready]

Hate to say it, but I bet a 3-4 row Rodney red or Champion radiator would have fixed your overheating problems. My original rad was in good shape and squeaky clean, but decided to replace it anyways. Immediately saw a 15 degree drop in temps...

I just looked at the RR hind sight I should have tried it.

 

[gearedandready]

I know you're probably pretty done with spending money on the truck but I bet you changing the rad out would fix your problems. Even the cheap eBay $200 aluminum radiator made a huge difference in performance and temps while hauling, it was nice being able to hear the fan kick on and off occasionally instead of constantly being locked and eating power and economy.

Edit: saw you sold it already, sorry to hear that

Really getting to the point of what you said, tired of spending money on it. I have more than 10k in that truck. It seems to have gotten to a point of do I spend the $500.00 or $700.00 to upgrade the cooling system and in another year or 2 and engine rebuild so maybe another 3 to 5k and have 15k in a truck that would be worth 7 or 8k and barely be able to do what I need it to. It was still a hard decision, really liked that truck.

 

[towcat]

once again, someone who got screwed by a RV dealer who sold them way too much trailer for the truck.
if you had talked about this in open forum before making the decision to sell, I would have recommended to do gearing before selling. these motors need to spin to make power and stay cool. 4.56 or 5.13 gears would have taken care of the problem. 4.10s are good to 10k/lbs trailer max or 26k/lbs gross combined.
I routinely towed with 17k-19k gross in my F450 and never had to watch the gauges. unless your new truck is spec'd for heavy towing, you're going to have trouble with the new iron too.
a trailer grossing at 20k/lbs is a heavy tow. F450/F550 territory.