I this week was my first time towing with my 03 f150 5.4 and honestly I was a little disappointed with how it handled around 2000lbs. I was hunting for gears where my old 350 Tahoe never had to. Low end torque just didn't feel like it was there. Curious if a sct tuner from mpt would make a difference with a towing tune. Thanks

 

your rear differential could have some play in it my old truck had 3.91 diff and it hauled a lot better than my current truck which has only a 3.55

 

No, 4.2 V6 has more Low RPM Torque since it's a Pushrod Engine. Are you sure it's not skipping a gear? Try shifting it manually with overdrive off

 

Yeah it has a 3.55 gear ratio. I didnt expect it to be as bad as it was however. I did play around with manual shifting. However when small to average grades appear I find it pathetic when my rpms shoot up well over 3k and it struggles to move along with out me flooring it.

 

Get used to it or find a new to someone else 03 f150 5.4. I have a 97 4.6 with the edge tuner and all it really helped was with the transmission hunting for the right gear. Still a dog.

 

That's funny, I have an 02 with the 5.4 and tow a 4,000 lb boat and an 8,500 lb camper. I have 165,000 miles also 3.55 gears and feel mine does very well.

 

Same as Jolly. No problems with mine.same engine/gear config.

 

Really, any mods or are you stock?

 

Maybe the difference is 5.4 v 4.6. My 4.6 pulling a 12' enclosed trailer total weight of 3500 is a dog. Like I said have a edge programmer with e-fans. 35" tires with 3.55 gears.

 

I have a super duty trans cooler, e-fan, sct livewire running canned tunes and I have an add a leaf to help handle some extra load.