Towing upgrade?
 

I currently have a 5.0 with 3.55 gears and stock tire size (LT tires though). I have the opportunity to purchase a 2010 f250 crew long bed with the V10 motor and 5 speed transmission. Anyone towed with one of them and can provide a comparison? I tow mostly in mountains, with 6200 pound trailer and 5 people in the truck with generator and firewood in the bed. It's pretty taxing on my truck and she spends lots of time in 2nd gear dumping heat into the transmission fluid while we scream up long hills.

I'm looking to ease the towing experience. The v10 has 4.10 gears and 35k miles along with airbags and on board compressor. It drives nice but doesn't have the zip of my unloaded f150 but supposedly has 400ft pounds of torque down lower in the rpm band....?

Also looked at a 10 F150 with 3.73 gears and the 5.4,would it be noticeably better since it also has more low rpm torque and lower gears?

I'd think the F250 would be about the same as your F150 except it would ride harder. You may be able to get out cheaper if you re-gear your 5.0. I also think if I'm not mistaken that the 5.0 has more power than the 5.4, just higher up in the rpm range. Don't forget, Your F150 has one more gear than the F250. Unless you want a diesel or an eco, I think you're in the best truck you can be.

I'm running stock tire size and always will, but don't know if I'm ready to jump to raptor gears (4.10?),but everyone says going from 3.55 to 3.73 is not worth the cost and you might as well go to 4.10. However most of those folks are also lifted with larger tires so numerically they are probably closer to 3.73 anyway when you account for the bigger tires. The f250 would give me a huge payload bump and an 8ft bed, but that could also make small camp grounds difficult to Maneuver.

But, the F250 will also get far worse gas mileage and be a generation behind what you currently own. The V10 is also gutless from what I've heard and is pretty much a 5.4 with two more cylinders. I have the 3.73 and realistically, the only thing I would go with for more power towing is a diesel. Don't forget also that the 5.0 was built to go that high in the rev range. By the way, that 8 foot bed makes anything difficult to maneuver around compared to a 5.5 or a 6.5 foot bed.

But the torque converter does not lock in 2nd gear so if you are pulling a hill in 2nd it's generating gobs of heat that the small transmission cooler cannot dissipate effectively. Just something to be aware of if you tow. Yes, the motor revs out just fine to 4k and has plenty of power there but those high revs are not good for the transmission....

I haven't heard much positive about the V10. Guys I know who drive them complain of horrendous fuel economy and lots of repairs needed as the miles rack up.

Is there a way you could swing a 6.2 SuperDuty? Your other option might be upgrading your existing truck (bigger tranny fluid cooler, rear bags, regearing).

Any Super Duty, newer than say 2010 or so, once loaded with gear and passengers rides like a dream. Actually, they aren't bad at all empty either. I have 7 of them at work and love how smooth they ride. They've come a long way from the heavy duty pickups our ancestors had to drive!
The v10 is pretty stout for power, sometimes feels like a pig when it's not working hard but when it's loaded down it doesn't break a sweat.
I say you're on the right track going to an F-250 assuming you make those types of trips often and would get a better return (use) on the investment.

V-10 burns up coil packs like crazy. I know this from experience, not word of mouth.

Just to clarify, the v10 in question is the 3v motor from 05+ and has the 5speed auto...

I test drove the truck, it's probably got a lot of torque hiding in that motor somewhere but when you mash the skinny pedal it doesn't inspire. My truck is running a 5 star tune (87 performance tow), and I believe the v10 also would benefit from the same treatment. My truck was pretty tame before it was tuned as well.

^^^Thats kinda what I meant when I said it feels like a pig empty. You anticipate it to feel even more sluggish when you hook up a 5 ton trailer to it, but then it fools you and makes it feel like there's no load on it at all. It's all relative.

Honestly the trucks will probably tow very comparably. So it would be foolish to step back a generation in trucks, as the other guy said. I'm surprised you're not over your payload capacity though with 5 passengers, firewood, + tongue weight of 6k lb trailer?

What about getting 4.10s or 4.56s for your truck? Did you know you would be towing in the mountains when you chose the 5.0?

I'm right at payload hooked up and ready to camp, maybe even a hundred or so pounds over. I had a tent trailer when I bought my truck, then moved up to a hybrid, then to a full on hard side trailer. So 3500 pounds of trailer went to 4500 and now 6200 all with the same truck. No trouble pulling my previous trailers. Payload is a stinker though, can't bring my ATV camping ever just for payload issues, let alone the added weight when I'm already up pulling heavy in the mountains. 6k pounds should be nothing for a super duty even with an ATV in the bed, even if it has to spin the motor up to climb hills. The cooling capacity is better for sure and I believe low rpm torque of a large displacement motor will help. But the underwhelming feeling of power on the test drive kept me from working a deal right there and then.

It's still a Lariat, has backup camera and sensors, leather, sync, two tone paint, power scope tow mirrors, etc so I'm only giving up a gear in the transmission but I lock out 5 and 6 when I tow anyway and only get 9mpg with the 5.0 which is not my daily driver.

5* has a great reputation for tuning the V10. You may want to discuss with them.