truck, trailer towing, gear ratio continued.........

buickanddeere · Apr 16, 2009

What exactly was the question from a couple of days ago?
Is it " will the truck accelerate from a stop with less lugging and/or clutch slipping"?
Or was the question " will the truck keep up with traffic climbing hills on the highway" with higher rear gears?

Bill(Wis) · Apr 16, 2009

It was to get his loads moving with less lugging and clutch slipping. With his rear axle ratio now (3.55:1) he can get to 35 mph in 1st gear. He is never able to use high gear (5th) when pulling loads. He wants to go to 4.11:1. Ford F-150. On the smallish side to be pulling loads but I've seen/heard of a lot worse. I think he'd be better with 4.11:1 but cost ($700) was also a factor. I don't know a thing more than that but I would bet that if you ordered a truck like that with a tow package (if that was even availabe) the axle ratio would be more like 4.11:1.

Traditional Farmer · Apr 17, 2009

You are either gong to have a good 'riding' truck that gets good mileage and will sail down the Interstate or a 'Pulling' truck that will haul the big loads easily.After years of trying to make 1 truck do I finally bought a F550 with 4:88 gears to pull with and it'll cruise at 70MPH and get 13MPG empty but you don't want to be riding around it all the time.For running around got a couple of small 4 cylinder jobs that'll pull a 5X8 trailer max but they get 25MPG and are easy to park intown.

Anonymous-0 · Apr 17, 2009

Don't know what I have in my ford F-350 but with the 460 engine and 5 speed mazda [I'm told] transmission pulling my Jayco 5th wheel trailer[15K Lbs.] I can not comfortably start out in 2nd gear but have to start out in 1st which is super low. Can not use 5th gear to run with very often.Can't use cruise control very often, turn signal use will cancel the cruise control if both used at same time. Any ideas what is wrong with this set up?I've put up with it for a long time and probably will continue.Just curious.

JDemaris · Apr 17, 2009

If you've got a Mazda trans in a F350, you've got problems. It's not rated for anything much bigger than 5 liters. I'm assuming you've got a ZF S542, S547, or something else more HD. ZF has a 5.7 to 1 ratio in 1st which is a nice pulling gear. 2.9 to 1 in 2nd.

Anonymous-0 · Apr 17, 2009

Thanks: The transmission at a low speed acceleration when not pulling the trailer has like gear rattle is the best way I can explain it,a lot. I've been hoping for 10 years it would blow and then I would have an excuse to get a new transmission that would be much better but it won't die so maybe?The Truck is a keeper so that is the story.

1 Dollar · Apr 19, 2009

It was this one: "will the truck accelerate from a stop with less lugging and/or clutch slipping"

I was looking for something to make it easier to get through 1 & 2 and up to speed. Once this thing gets twisting in 3 & 4 it does fine keeping speed.

truck, trailer towing, gear ratio continued.........

buickanddeere

Well-known Member

Bill(Wis)

Well-known Member

Traditional Farmer

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

JDemaris

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

1 Dollar

Member

Similar threads