2010 6.8 V10 to 2021 7.3 Tremor - 5th wheel towing impressions

Datasponge

Tremor Buff
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Location
United States
Military
Navy
Current Ride
F250 Tremor 7.3
We just got back from a week long camping trip. We took the family from WI down to TN pulling our roughly 12k-13k lb 5th wheel (guestimated when fully loaded). That's the wife, 2 kids, dog, and me with all of our sh*t.

Short version of the review: It was a significant improvement in ride quality, power, and decent improvement in MPGs over the 2010 V10.

Longer more rambling version:

The path we take through central Illinois down contains long stretches of open areas containing wind farms. Oddly enough, it's typically windy there. Then it turns into increasingly hilly terrain. So most of the way we had strong winds and then strong winds and hills. We've driven this route a few times, but never towed through it before.

When we weren't hitting heavy head and/or cross winds and hilly terrain, the truck could pull in 10th gear and hold it - even on mild inclines. Looking at the tach that was about 1900-ish RPMs.

My 5 star-tuned 2010 f250 with the 6.8 v10 could never pull in RPMs that low at that speed with this trailer.

I use cruise control pretty religiously and set it at 70mph and let the truck do its thing for the first few hours as this was our first tow with the truck and I wanted to see how it did when allowed to make its own decisions with access to all gears all the time. My 2010 would hunt a lot until I got another tune from 5 star that locked out OD.

The reality, though, is that cruise control still sucks at managing heavy, gusty winds and/or hills, especially frequent hills - let alone a combo of the two. The truck tried to hold 10th, would lose speed, down shift a couple of gears (typically 6th, 7th or 8th depending on the incline/wind gust), aggressively accelerate back to speed and then shift back up into 10th, which it usually couldn't hold due to the wind/hills..wash, rinse, repeat... Same as the 6.8L would do with 3rd, 4th, 5th.

I hoped there might be an improvement with this over my 2010. There wasn't. That said, the fact that pulling a large 5th wheel is a lot like towing a heavy parachute and most of the way was either windy or hilly or both, MPG's weren't awesome. Overall MPGs on the way down was just under 7.

Eventually I ended up actively locking out 9 and 10 (sometimes 8) , that fixed the gear hunting, and the MPGs improved as well. I started to get a feel for what gear it could hold in given terrain and would actively lock out and then let back in gears. I understand some people think that tow/haul mode is designed to let the truck get stuck in a pattern of shifting into gears it can't hold, but I disagree. Sure, it can do it, but it's clearly not ideal and definitely not as economical as preventing it from biting off more than it can chew in the first place. It's why the ability to lock out exists.

When the wife wasn't paying attention a couple of times I tested out how it did at 65mph. That 5mph decrease in speed seemed to account for at least a 1mpg improvement - possibly more, but she would never let me keep it at that speed for long, so I couldn't get a good overall comparison. :ROFLMAO::sneaky: Something about making a 10 hour drive even longer didn't appeal to her.

I would estimate that about 75-80% of the trip was in the 2k-2.4K RPM range - certainly on the way back. The trip back contained the same winds and hills, but we were in the low 8mpgs and slowly improving by the time we got home. There were stretches where I was getting up in the 11's and 12's pulling a big ass 5th wheel with a gas engine doing 70mph - no, that wasn't down hill, that was on level stretches and some with mild incline with a little tail wind.

Honestly, I don't actually like towing at 70. I would rather be at 65, but we have to pick our battles. I have no doubt I would have seen better overall MPGs at that speed if I could have kept it there and not pissed off the wife. 5mph really doesn't add THAT much time I tried to reason, but any more time was too much.:ROFLMAO:

Overall, I was really pleased with how the truck pulled. There was never a point where I wished it had more power - even in the really hilly stuff off the main highways in TN. Any time I needed to accelerate to pass or get out of someone's way it did so with ease.

In all fairness, I imagine the V10 with a 10 speed would be able to do quite a bit as well, but that combo doesn't exist. This 7.3 with a 10 speed does, and I'm as pleased as could be with how it did on this trip.

As I've never pulled the 5th wheel along this route with the old truck, I can only make assumptions about how it would have pulled given previous experience. But this summer I should get opportunity to travel our typical routes and will really be able to make apples to apples comparisons.

Ramble over.
 
Nice write up!
 
I pull an 11k 5er with ours (7.3). The truck does great. I lock out gears when I am not in the flats, too. The truck is always hunting for the perfect gear for the current situation. It doesn't know what is going to happen 30 seconds or even one second ahead. Since you do, you need to give it a little help. One thing that I really appreciate when towing is the 10 speed transmission. When you are going down a hill and the truck is using engine braking to maintain speed, the 10 speed allows it to always find the perfect gear to slow you down. It makes me a little less envious of the diesels exhaust brake.
 
1.5 months ago I traded my 2020 Rm 3500 dually for a Tremor with the 7.3L After 8 months of ownership of the Ram I was totally disgusted with the CP4 failures, poor a/c performance, resonating noise from body mounts and poor design of the wipers and their icing over in the 2021 Feb blizzard. Anyway, I had a dealer to work with and bought the Tremor with the tow prep package. The Cummins was amazing at towing. It pulled 12K on a trailer of 23K (D4 and trailer) and you could not tell anything was there. But it was not a Superduty (previous truck was a 2002 f250 W 7.3L diesel) As a career mechanic at UPS I liked the 6.7 Cummins.
So now I toe the 12K with the 7.3L gas. It with the 10 Speed does great and does all I need to do without all the diesel issues in the future. EPA emissions have made the diesel world a headache and I think I made the right decision. I plan to use the Tremor to pull the D4 locally. It may not handle it like the Ram 3500 Cummins, but will do the job. Point is the 7.3L gas motor will get the job done :)
 
I pull an 11k 5er with ours (7.3). The truck does great. I lock out gears when I am not in the flats, too. The truck is always hunting for the perfect gear for the current situation. It doesn't know what is going to happen 30 seconds or even one second ahead. Since you do, you need to give it a little help. One thing that I really appreciate when towing is the 10 speed transmission. When you are going down a hill and the truck is using engine braking to maintain speed, the 10 speed allows it to always find the perfect gear to slow you down. It makes me a little less envious of the diesels exhaust brake.
I was impressed with the engine braking as well. It was very seamless.
 
We just got back from a week long camping trip. We took the family from WI down to TN pulling our roughly 12k-13k lb 5th wheel (guestimated when fully loaded). That's the wife, 2 kids, dog, and me with all of our sh*t.

Short version of the review: It was a significant improvement in ride quality, power, and decent improvement in MPGs over the 2010 V10.

Longer more rambling version:

The path we take through central Illinois down contains long stretches of open areas containing wind farms. Oddly enough, it's typically windy there. Then it turns into increasingly hilly terrain. So most of the way we had strong winds and then strong winds and hills. We've driven this route a few times, but never towed through it before.

When we weren't hitting heavy head and/or cross winds and hilly terrain, the truck could pull in 10th gear and hold it - even on mild inclines. Looking at the tach that was about 1900-ish RPMs.

My 5 star-tuned 2010 f250 with the 6.8 v10 could never pull in RPMs that low at that speed with this trailer.

I use cruise control pretty religiously and set it at 70mph and let the truck do its thing for the first few hours as this was our first tow with the truck and I wanted to see how it did when allowed to make its own decisions with access to all gears all the time. My 2010 would hunt a lot until I got another tune from 5 star that locked out OD.

The reality, though, is that cruise control still sucks at managing heavy, gusty winds and/or hills, especially frequent hills - let alone a combo of the two. The truck tried to hold 10th, would lose speed, down shift a couple of gears (typically 6th, 7th or 8th depending on the incline/wind gust), aggressively accelerate back to speed and then shift back up into 10th, which it usually couldn't hold due to the wind/hills..wash, rinse, repeat... Same as the 6.8L would do with 3rd, 4th, 5th.

I hoped there might be an improvement with this over my 2010. There wasn't. That said, the fact that pulling a large 5th wheel is a lot like towing a heavy parachute and most of the way was either windy or hilly or both, MPG's weren't awesome. Overall MPGs on the way down was just under 7.

Eventually I ended up actively locking out 9 and 10 (sometimes 8) , that fixed the gear hunting, and the MPGs improved as well. I started to get a feel for what gear it could hold in given terrain and would actively lock out and then let back in gears. I understand some people think that tow/haul mode is designed to let the truck get stuck in a pattern of shifting into gears it can't hold, but I disagree. Sure, it can do it, but it's clearly not ideal and definitely not as economical as preventing it from biting off more than it can chew in the first place. It's why the ability to lock out exists.

When the wife wasn't paying attention a couple of times I tested out how it did at 65mph. That 5mph decrease in speed seemed to account for at least a 1mpg improvement - possibly more, but she would never let me keep it at that speed for long, so I couldn't get a good overall comparison. :ROFLMAO::sneaky: Something about making a 10 hour drive even longer didn't appeal to her.

I would estimate that about 75-80% of the trip was in the 2k-2.4K RPM range - certainly on the way back. The trip back contained the same winds and hills, but we were in the low 8mpgs and slowly improving by the time we got home. There were stretches where I was getting up in the 11's and 12's pulling a big ass 5th wheel with a gas engine doing 70mph - no, that wasn't down hill, that was on level stretches and some with mild incline with a little tail wind.

Honestly, I don't actually like towing at 70. I would rather be at 65, but we have to pick our battles. I have no doubt I would have seen better overall MPGs at that speed if I could have kept it there and not pissed off the wife. 5mph really doesn't add THAT much time I tried to reason, but any more time was too much.:ROFLMAO:

Overall, I was really pleased with how the truck pulled. There was never a point where I wished it had more power - even in the really hilly stuff off the main highways in TN. Any time I needed to accelerate to pass or get out of someone's way it did so with ease.

In all fairness, I imagine the V10 with a 10 speed would be able to do quite a bit as well, but that combo doesn't exist. This 7.3 with a 10 speed does, and I'm as pleased as could be with how it did on this trip.

As I've never pulled the 5th wheel along this route with the old truck, I can only make assumptions about how it would have pulled given previous experience. But this summer I should get opportunity to travel our typical routes and will really be able to make apples to apples comparisons.

Ramble over.
Great info. Just ordered my 2022. 7.3/V8 and my wife and I have a 30ft bumper pull travel trailer. I know the 250 will be good but it’s awesome to hear others and their trailer hauling success stories.
 
Great review. Thanks for sharing!
 
Great info. Just ordered my 2022. 7.3/V8 and my wife and I have a 30ft bumper pull travel trailer. I know the 250 will be good but it’s awesome to hear others and their trailer hauling success stories.
Yeah, not sure what it is , but I live reading towing posts too. I'd like to hear how it goes with your TT.
 
1.5 months ago I traded my 2020 Rm 3500 dually for a Tremor with the 7.3L After 8 months of ownership of the Ram I was totally disgusted with the CP4 failures, poor a/c performance, resonating noise from body mounts and poor design of the wipers and their icing over in the 2021 Feb blizzard. Anyway, I had a dealer to work with and bought the Tremor with the tow prep package. The Cummins was amazing at towing. It pulled 12K on a trailer of 23K (D4 and trailer) and you could not tell anything was there. But it was not a Superduty (previous truck was a 2002 f250 W 7.3L diesel) As a career mechanic at UPS I liked the 6.7 Cummins.
So now I toe the 12K with the 7.3L gas. It with the 10 Speed does great and does all I need to do without all the diesel issues in the future. EPA emissions have made the diesel world a headache and I think I made the right decision. I plan to use the Tremor to pull the D4 locally. It may not handle it like the Ram 3500 Cummins, but will do the job. Point is the 7.3L gas motor will get the job done :)
I've never owned a diesel myself, but I've scoured the web for reviews. I feel like my use for the truck falls into the "a diesel won't like your short trips" category. I'm not interested in egr and related issues.
 
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