clearnetedm

With your VIN and this site it should show you the axle details amount other. Not sure how valid all the details are but I found it showed my axle size.

http://vindecoder.eu

smokeywren

Most specs were right on. Two errors:

1) it said my 2012 was a 1985. ???

2) it said "Less Elect Locking Differential" and it should have said "With Elect Locking Differential"

enveng427

Well I found out my truck is 3.08 rear. Bummer. I guess I'll just have to drive both vehicles out. I think, at this point, I'll probably just sell the truck and buy something bigger. 4WD would be nice in this part of the country too.

rangertamer

So you guys don't think a 4.2 with a 3.08 rear could tow anything? That's a bummer, that's the exact set up I have

enveng427

I mean the question I had was whether I could tow a car on a car trailer (approx 5600 pounds). The truck still can tow quite a lot. 4800 lbs is quite a lot of stuff. With a rear gear swap and a trans cooler you can get away with a thousand pounds more and probably be safer (both for the truck and yourself) doing it. I don't really want to over-extend my truck 20%. I work as an engineer in an automotive manufacturing environment. I know that those that design cars are quite smart people that do an awful lot of testing. Their ratings are there for a reason.

rangertamer

Yeah maybe I should look into a different truck. A extended cab would probably benefit my needs and a v8 is always a big plus

enveng427

However, looking at the horsepower ratings of the 4.2 and the 4.6 for the same year, it's not impossible there is a little bit of market based rating going on here. The difference between the 4.2 and the 4.6 is incredibly small. Assuming the 4R70Ws are the same in both trucks minus a bell housing (maybe someone who knows more about these trucks than I do can shed some light on this), Ford simply may have derated the 4.2 V6 trucks to sell more V8s (they were new at the time). I believe the gear ratios are the same for all 4R70Ws regardless of engine. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. The difference between the V6 and V8 is smaller than if you were to take the V8 from sea level to 3,000 feet. This is a change most of us would barely notice. However, as others said earlier, an oil cooler is likely key. Two things cars don't like is being hot and being unlubricated. Did all the V8 trucks come with an oil cooler or did they have heavier springs? There's more to this than an addition of a couple HP.

Adding to my suspicions is that the 4.2 gets both its peak power and peak torque earlier in the rev range. It's also a cam in block engine. My guess would be that the 4.2 is significantly lighter than the 4.6. Probably 150 pounds or more lighter.

bchauler

My 4.2 came with 3.31 gears and when I installed 31.7" tires (265/75/16) my effective gear ratio was around 3.08. I hauled an 8' slide-in camper and the truck did okay. Not much power though. Made sure I installed an aftermarket trans cooler however. That being said, I swapped out my rear-end this winter for a junkyard unit with 3.55 gears. I can definitely tell the difference. That might be a less expensive option than buying a new truck. Mine only cost me $70 and 4 hours of wrenching.

To confirm though - you do have an automatic right? The v6 5 speed combo is only rated for 2000lbs or so.