2001 F350 7.3 Dually Guages and Gears? - Montana Owners Club

royando · 03-21-2009, 01:17 PM

We are new to this and have a 2001 F350 7.3L dually pulling a 2003 3280RL loaded. We have not pulled any hills yet and would like feedback on what gear to be in up and down hills, on the flats, what throttle position on hills (wot?) with the 4 speed automatic. Also do we need a trans temp gauge or any other gauges?

H. John Kohl · 03-21-2009, 02:05 PM

You are asking good questions.
I personally like the trans temp gauge you know when it is getting too hot.
The rule of thumb is to go down hill at the same speed and in the same gear you pull the hill. Since you have automatic it will down shift when it needs too going up.
I think you are going to have to set the throttle position by feel depending on the grade of the hill.
Best of luck and safe towing.

richfaa · 03-21-2009, 02:15 PM

We have a Gage that monitors all the trucks parameters as well as EGT.The truck will find the gear it likes going up hill, You will have to experiment downhill.

ols1932 · 03-21-2009, 02:54 PM

I agree that the transmission heat gauge is the most important for me. As far as the proper gear to run up and down hills goes, go down the hill in the same gear you go up. That's a safe way. Now that doesn't mean that because you're climbing the hill at 40 mph that you have to go down at the same speed. It just gives you a rule of thumb to go by. Your 7.3L Power Stroke will shift when it has to, but don't let it "lug." By that I mean, don't let it pull down so far that it almost stalls before it shifts. Most automatics will shift automatically, but you have to watch it so that you aren't shifting up and down, up and down, (in other words seeking). Manual shift units will tend to lug more than the automatics because we have a tendency to let them pull down to and RPM that is too slow. The 7.3L likes to run right around 2000 RPM. That seems to be its sweet spot. At least that's been my experience.

Orv

Gramps · 03-21-2009, 07:37 PM

The guage Rich refered to looks like a great setup. If you went with the convensional guages, there are three I would recommend, and two of those I would say are must haves. A boost guage is nice to have, a pyro guage is almost manditory if you're towing, in order to watch your exhaust temps (to high and the turbo fries), and last, the trans temp ( again, to high and the trans goes south). As for the gear to use for up and down hill, as was said before, the transmission will find the gear it likes best. When going up hill, if your transmission shifts up and down, drop down to the lower gear until you return to the flats when the tranny doesn't over work itself. For down hill, find a gear that keeps the speed in a range you're comfortable with. You've got a great tow vehicle there.

Glass Guy · 03-22-2009, 04:39 AM

As for the gauges I do not have them in this truck yet, soon to have. as far as what gear to use the transmission will shift when the rpms get high enough to up shift,sence you do not have the newer torq shift trans when the transmission starts serching for a gear it is time to shut off the overdrive, transmission overheating occurs whe n the trans keeps shifting back and forth. Hope this helped. Roman

Charlie · 03-22-2009, 04:51 AM

I have a 2001 F-250 with gauges. I highly recommend that you be able to see what is happening with you TV while pulling. The tranny temp is vital as also the turbo exhaust temp. This link:

http://www.dieselperformance.com/ind...duct/index/89P

will give you some idea of what I have. There are other gauges available in different styles. The down side that I have to mine is that on bright sunny days the LED display can be a little hard to see, especially if you wear polaroid glass as I do.

bsmeaton · 03-22-2009, 05:57 AM

Our 2000 7.3 did not have any gauges, and I never added any. The 2006 6.0 has trans temp and turbo boost, and I rarely even look at them.

I guess if I opted for a guage, it would be the trans temp. The tranny was the weak link on the 7.3.

richfaa · 03-22-2009, 06:18 AM

With the gage we use we can monitor all the trucks parameters. I have no idea what many of them are or mean. it is a single gage and we can keep two parameters up all the time or program in 8 parameters to rotate through on a programmable sequence. The two we have up all the time are pre turbo EGT and trans temp.You need to keep a eye on these guys At 1200 degrees the tips of the turbo blades are white hot.Mine is set to red light at 1150. The OEM. trans gage is useless. At 200 degrees it has not moved. At 200 degrees we are backed off or pulled over. We found that the boost gage on the 08 Ford is very accurate although Ford PC reads back 3 places IE: 25.6.. the cooling system is another one we watch although it will rise a bit on the Monitor it has never been a concern. Ford Even Monitors the fuel temp and the barometric pressure.

c5racer · 03-22-2009, 06:57 AM

The only gage I felt I needed to watch was the fuel gage.

exav8tr · 03-22-2009, 07:02 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by c5racer

The only gage I felt I needed to watch was the fuel gage.

Me Too! The only time I watched my gauges was when I was flying turboprop aircraft, then they meant something. If any of my idiot gauges reach max I back off, BTW, I have not had to do this yet.

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