Some questions about new V-10 trucks

[dieseljockey]

Hello all. My current ride is an 01 Ram 2500 with Cummins and auto. Have genrally been happy with truck. I am consideringbuying a new rig, and with the way diesel is anymore, I think I will go with a gasser. What I am thinking about is an 08 F350 RC 4x4 with a V10 and a six speed. I was wondering if anyone around here has experiencewith this combination and how you liked it. Specifics I am looking for are fuel mileage and towing power. I have an Edge EZ on my Dodge, for comparison. Truck is a farm truck and tows quite often. I have pulled 18k worth of hay and held 55 uphill in direct. Would a V10 do this? Thanks in advance.

[Pappy19]

I would recommend that you get the V-10 with the 4.33 gears and the torque shift transmission. It will pull whatever you can hook to it and the TS tranny is really tuff and in the tow/haul mode, it will shift and dowshift like nothing out there. I talked to my Ford mechanic about that tranny and he said in the 4 years that they have been out, he has only done warranty on 1 transmission out of over a thousand that they have sold. Not a bad record. I sure like mine and tow medium heavy with great results. One thing I would recommend is that you also order the snow plow option. With that you get a larger tranny cooler, larger radiater, larger fan, and hd front springs, all for an additional $85. A very good deal.

[dieseljockey]

If I were to order one, I'd probably get the camper package, so it has the front springs as well as the rear sway bar, 4.30s is a little too low geared for my tastes. Do they not pull worth a crap with 4.10s? I'm sure the torqshift is nice, but I'm going back to a manual. My Dodge is the first truck I've ever owned with and auto, and will be the last.I haven't had any problems with it, just prefer the good old stick shift. Thanks

[buck350]

You'll love it. The problem I have is starting out. I stall it a lot. The motor is too smooth and quiet. Tommorow I remove the muffler, I'll report.
Best, Buck

[DirtFarmer]

Originally Posted by dieseljockey

What I am thinking about is an 08 F350 RC 4x4 with a V10 and a six speed.

That sounds like a great combo. My last gas truck was a 96 F350, RC, 4x4, 460 and five speed stick. It was a super truck.

Truck is a farm truck and tows quite often. I have pulled 18k worth of hay and held 55 uphill in direct. Would a V10 do this? Thanks in advance.

Ouch. Is this 18K of hay plus trailer, or including? Depending on your answer, you'll be grossing from 25K - 31K. That's a lot of weight.

I do not think that you'll be charging up any hills grossing 30K in direct gear. Even with a 4.30 rear end, you'll only be turning 2700 rpm in direct gear. With that load, you'll want to be reving somewhere between the torque peak which is at 3250rpm and the HP peak which is at 4750. Downshifting one gear below would put you somewhere around 4200rpm which would give you lots of HP. Would it hold speed then? Depends on the hill. Depends on wind and elevation.

The conventional wisdom is that if you tow heavy and often, the diesel is the best choice, but the costs of the diesel are rising and the fuel advantage shrinking. With just about everybody in your situation going diesel, the truth is, this board has no (that I remember) real world experience of anybody regularly grossing 25K+ with the V10.

My guess is that the total cost of ownership could go either way, depending on the number of miles driven, etc. More than that, I'd just be curious to see how you like towing those loads with the V10. My 460s did OK, but it seemed I really had to flog them to keep the load moving. High elevation or mountain passes would often have me fuming as I rowed the gearbox and struggled to maintain speed. But most seem to agree that the V10 outperforms the 460 in every way, so under today's changing times, I'd be happy to see somebody share their experience using the V10 towing heavy.

Best of luck.

[dieseljockey]

The load was 9 heavy packed big rounds on a 22 foot flatbed. Truck was running about 2200 rpm (3.55 rearend). With all the weight the truck sat pretty close to level. We pulled one load like that with my dad's 04 Hemi truck. It could hold 55 in 4th gear (5 speed auto) most of the time on the flats. Sometimes in the flats, and every hill, it'd downshift and hit about 4300.And his rig was squating real good. My average mpg between loaded and empty, which was about 20 miles each way, was 12.5 mpg, hand calculated.
Not for sure I'm going to rid of my truck yet, just exploring all the options out there. Thanks for the help guys

[V10 man]

The V10 is a high reving engine. To tow heavy you'll need to let her spin. 4.30 gears are a minimum, 4.56's would be a much better choice if Ford offered it. You'll be downshifting alot on hills to keep speed so I would recomend the auto.

[BIGBEN2004]

Go with the 4.30 gears you will love them with the V-10. I know a man that has a towing truck business that used to have the entire fleet of 7.3 powerstroke's and the men he had working for him drove the crap out of them and they would not hold up much past 100,000 miles. Sounds strange but he has since then changed over to all V-10's and has some past 250,000 miles and no problems to date. He loves them and will never go back to diesels. All those miles are put on those trucks in the city too so that tells you how dependable they are. As far as the heavy weight a V-10 will rev allot to do it but it will do it and do it pretty well. I used to own a 2000 V-10 F-350 and it did great but it had 3.73 gears and I wished it had the 4.30's. I too pulled a gooseneck loaded with 18 3x3x8 square bales each weighing about 750 pounds a piece and it revved allot but it got it done.

[Louisville_Joe]

Any word if Ford is going to keep the V-10 around 2009 and beyond?