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Lack of towing power
New diesel owner here. In October of '08, I bought an '05 F250 Super Duty with the intent of using it to pull a camper. We bought the new camper 3 months ago and I've been feeling like while towing it, I'm underpowered....this was confirmed two weekends ago while towing into the mountains of NC in and through Asheville. Others who have ridden with me felt that I should have more towing power than what I do. Running 45 -50 mph. on a flat highway and putting the pedal on the floor is way less than impressive....the truck will eventually speed up...but very slowly. Turbo gauge shows 20 -30 psi and I can hear/feel it kicking in...but acceleration is close to non-existent. Trailer ways only 7500 lbs. fully loaded. While towing up into the mountains on a 3 mile 6% grade....I dropped down to maxing out at 38 mph. with the pedal floored. I got a buddy of mine's '06 F350 dually and towed my camper....pulled it like I was towing an empty 12 ft. utility trailer...could hardly tell it was there. Running 50 mph, then giving it about 3/4 throttle, it dropped down a gear and jumped all over 70mph. Tested his out on som nice sized hilly country roads...could easily accelerate uphill with plenty of throttle left. Mine on the same hills struggled to keep 50mph with the pedal on the floor. I know there's leaf spring, and rear end gear differences...mine has the 3.73 rear-end, his dually has the 4.10. Both are the 6.0 PSD. I know the rear-end gearing will make a bit of a difference in pulling torque...but this difference was extreme. His F350 is completely stock, nothing aftermarket or anything done to it....so is mine (as far as I know). The dash gauges on mine don't show any accessive temperature changes while towing...everything appears normal. One difference I do notice is the auxilary fan on mine runs quite a bit while towing....when towing with his F350 on the same 3-4 mile run that I took the trailer with on mine...auxilary fans never kicked in....and I was running his quite a bit harder. I was amazed at the difference. Without having any other diesel experience I was questioning if this is just what it is and I was expecting too much out of a stock configuration. Now after testing with his pulling the same trailer down the same roads, and knowing to expect a bit of torque differences....I feel like something is DEFINITELY wrong with my truck. Way underpowered...and power is the reason I bought it. Surely I'm not working my F250 with a 7500 lb. camper ????? When I say loss or lack of power, I'm not stating that I have the power then lose it when climbing....there was a severe difference at all levels...taking off, flat roads, highway speeds, and climbing. Where do I start looking? Since I've had the truck, and not having any prior experience with diesel, I just assumed everything was okay...but now I'm even beginning to think I'm underpowered even without the trailer. Help?
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