School Me: Diesel Trucks and Towing

[jps8460]

How much weight are you towing, what kind of load, and to where?

I've towed my 4runner (66-6800lbs, including the trailer) to Moab 51 times with my '01 7.3 Excursion, and highly recommend them for that purpose. Any similar vintage truck is 25 years old, and so will need work. Some for repair, and some for improvement to make it tow across the Rockies reliably.

Happy to answer any questions about what I've done to mine over the 23 years I've owned it.

Mark

What kind of stuff did you do to make it tow more reliably?

 

[hitchhiker]

I have a 2004.5 duramax and that thing rules. The interiors are super comfy the power band is awesome (especially when option 2 is a 80 series) the towing capacity is around 12,000lbs and the Allison is great. If I was going to buy a diesel all over again I would 100% get another cat eye. I haven't towed anything super heavy only my moms boat which is around 6000lbs and when I did I hardly noticed it was there for most of the drive. If your in Laramie your more then welcome to drive my truck around.

 

[ScaldedDog]

What kind of stuff did you do to make it tow more reliably?

Sorry for the long get-back. It turns out being sick in Moab is exactly no fun.

Here are a few things:

Transmission: The 4R100 is pretty stout, but is prone to coast clutch failure when towing through the mountains with the coast clutch applied (i.e. the OD lockout button pressed, with also engages the coast clutch). Mine failed at 118K in 2010, and I took the opportunity to drop big dollars on a BTS transmission, which is a built 4R100. Sixteen years and 77k later, I couldn't be happier.

Suspension: I did "Excursion things". V-code (F350) springs up front, airbags in the rear, as well as a rear sway bar. You probably wouldn't have to do any of those with a proper 1-ton truck.

Hitch: Again possibly specific to the Excursion, I run a WD hitch. I flat love the thing.

Performance: This is the hole of the rat, for sure. Heavily modified turbo, upgraded HPOP, 4" exhaust, 6637 intake (though there are higher dollar ones), tuning from the best guy in the business... You get the idea. All I ever wanted to do was to tow at the speed limit, with EGTs in check, and as little smoke as possible. For the most part, I can now do that. If I'm not towing, and not slowed by traffic, the thing will never shift out of OD on I70, either direction.

Monitoring: I run Forscan on an Android radio all the time, and so have instantaneous access to critical engine parameters. It looks like this:



Strange as it may seem, my Excursion tow rig is my all time favorite vehicle.

I hope this helps!!

Mark