Towing ?

Clb

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Ole towcat (rip) had a stable of a dozen or so, he was a tow truck shop.
He allways said "there is no harm running up against the governor".

My .02 is load it down and get it hot and sweaty any time there is a drivability issue FIRST.
It will defuel on the governor, but will not pull for **** below 2500 anyhow.
My girl loves 3k at the bottom of the hill in the gear that climbs the top.

Spool it watch the h2o/egt's.
 

jericho

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Ole towcat (rip) had a stable of a dozen or so, he was a tow truck shop.
He allways said "there is no harm running up against the governor".

My .02 is load it down and get it hot and sweaty any time there is a drivability issue FIRST.
It will defuel on the governor, but will not pull for **** below 2500 anyhow.
My girl loves 3k at the bottom of the hill in the gear that climbs the top.

Spool it watch the h2o/egt's.
I have a stupid question.( I probably have to make another long tow before installing a pyro): When do egt's rise the most, lugging up a hill as the rpm's drop , or winding it up, lower gears, up a tough grade?
 

Clb

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Settin on the beach in the 5er, keep it tween 2500 3300 and watch 4 coal.

The more air the better, not much help but fresh air filters help some.
 

Cubey

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I have a stupid question.( I probably have to make another long tow before installing a pyro): When do egt's rise the most, lugging up a hill as the rpm's drop , or winding it up, lower gears, up a tough grade?

In my experience:

3rd gear up a grade to stay at 45mph: lower RPMs, lower water temp, higher EGT
2nd gear up the same grade to stay at 45: higher RPMs, higher water temp, lower EGT

So lower RPMs in a higher gear to climb a grade means higher EGTs. I had to drop to 1st gear for the worst of a grade (25-30mph) and it kept EGT and water temp both plenty reasonable. I dunno what the RPM was since Econolines before 92 didn't have tachs at all, due to using 73-79 F-series clusters that never had tachs. There are aftermarket options, but they cost about $800. I can't justify even buying a universal standalone tach ($200+), much less one of those. It's not really needed for an IDI C6 combo anyway.
 

zcburton

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Just got my f250 7.3 5 speed a few weeks ago. Towed my 16 foot dove tail with my John Deere 1023e. It was only a tad slower then normal. After reading some of these post this does not seem like a lot of weight for this truck lol.
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chillman88

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I bought mine specifically for towing, mainly because I was waaaay overloading my old truck.

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It's pulled anything I've hooked up to it, and there's something wrong with it. Might be a leaking valve, might be bad compression. But this truck is still NA, I'm planning on doing some work to it and it definitely needs a turbo. But it ALWAYS gets the job done.

I drove 20+hrs to San Antonio with a trailer on 7 cylinders for crying out loud!
 

faaiish

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I tow a 33 foot toy hauler 10,000lbs. with mine. I ran 8% grades with the E4OD. It is slow going up grades like that and you need to hit the slow lane with the big trucks. I got speeds of 35 until I had to slow down
Once you lose momentum and slow down there is no speeding up. After doing that a couple of times I put a banks turbo on it. All I can say is it really wakes up the motor and wow. Havent hit the mountains yet but I can tell you getting on the freeway now, I dont need 700 yards to get to 60mph.
 
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impreza_GC8

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I have pulled 8000 lbs or so with my 91 IDI non turbo 4.10 rear end gear. A dump trailer or open trailer moves pretty well, 70 mph is possible, but my 24 foot car hauler is harder to pull long distance because of the air resistance. I got it with extra height, rooftop A/C unit and a flat nose. Loaded with my racecar for a total trailer weight of about 7500 lbs or so I cannot exceed 65 mph. Wind direction and speed make a difference as well. With a tailwind I can cruise in 5th (overdrive) and be more or less flat to the floor at about 2500 rpm or so going 65mph, not a single mph more. With a headwind I need to be in 4th and I can only go about 55-60 mph, foot to the floor, again at about 2500-2800 rpm. It runs cool as a cucumber even at that RPM. I am confident in this trucks ability to tow nearly any weight, but you will simply not get there quickly. I reside in Texas and the speed limit can get up to 80-85 on the highway. It is downright unsafe to be pulling 55 mph as people are blowing by you at 80. If I tow heavy I try to avoid the interstate or any road with a speed limit faster than 75mph.
 

William Johnson

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I pulled my to hauler 30ft about 20 miles, It did ok but not real impressed with how the tranny ( E4OD ) shifted or better didn't shift. the open road was fine. overdrive shut off it got down the road fine i as able to do 55 to 60 mph with no issue but the tight winding road it didn't want to shift down coming out of slow corners to 2nd much at all, left it bogging down trying to get up to speed. Maybe its just how they were built back then. truck runs good as far as I can tell, No issues with starting, cranks right up in the cold morns. 6 inch lift 35 inch tires 4.10 gears
 

Dane Rickford

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I pulled my to hauler 30ft about 20 miles, It did ok but not real impressed with how the tranny ( E4OD ) shifted or better didn't shift. the open road was fine. overdrive shut off it got down the road fine i as able to do 55 to 60 mph with no issue but the tight winding road it didn't want to shift down coming out of slow corners to 2nd much at all, left it bogging down trying to get up to speed. Maybe its just how they were built back then. truck runs good as far as I can tell, No issues with starting, cranks right up in the cold morns. 6 inch lift 35 inch tires 4.10 gears
I don’t have any experience with e4od trannys, but I think I remember @Thewespaul saying something about having to adjust the shift points in a e4od for towing when he was building Project Big Blue. Like I said, I am a manual guy so I don’t know anything about the automatics, so I might be wrong, but I think there is a way to adjust the shift points
 

Clb

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*** slushboxs unless it has like 4k in mods...
A c-6 still wont break, but nor will it tow for ****.
Gears procured by hand PERIOD!

Sorry 3rd shot and beer
 

IDIBRONCO

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*** slushboxs unless it has like 4k in mods...
A c-6 still wont break, but nor will it tow for ****.
Gears procured by hand PERIOD!

Sorry 3rd shot and beer
No apologies needed on my end. I feel the same way. I also understand that not everybody agrees with me though.
so I might be wrong, but I think there is a way to adjust the shift points
You can do some adjusting with the FIPL. They seem to be quite sensitive about their adjustments.
 

Kevin 007

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Yes, the voltage settings on the FIPL can be increased for higher shift points and quicker kickdown times, you can also manually shift down into second if its not doing so as quickly as you would like or if you want to be proactive for a known corner or slow down area ahead.
You can also do a manual torque convertor lock up mod to hold that TC in lock up mode in 2nd and 3rd without it possibly fluttering in and out. A 2nd gear hold situation with the TC locked and the rpm's kept above 2500, they will pull some weight up some long grades just fine. This era of electronic transmissions had early/primitive electronic controls that are less then stellar, but with some patience they can be made to work. A modern, stand alone transmission controller is another way to take a step towards some modern driving characteristics with your old E4OD.

Sure, the E4OD's are not perfect and are a far cry from how some other automatics respond to work or better yet a manual, BUT for those who have them; they will still do work you just have to get used to them, operate them accordingly and you will be ok. Although the C6 is far tougher, I would rather tow with the e4OD due to it's lockup TC and 1 extra gear over the C6. Those two points make for a much more efficient transmission of power to the wheels/use of the fuel that you are burning.
 
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