Towing

[Doug I]

Vehicle : F-350
Trailer : 40' goose

Trailer Empty = 6060 with a hitch weight of 1515
Trailer Loaded = 10680 with a hitch weight of 2823
Trailer forward axle is at 4060
Trailer aft axle is at 4297

Sound about right? ie aft axle being a little heavier.

[FWB]

isn't 10680 lbs over the f350's gvw?

[madmaxx]

Less than 5% difference between axles and less than 2% trailer weight I get the impression you are proud of you trailer loading and wanted recognition. I doubt you can get it any better.

Originally Posted by Doug I

Vehicle : F-350
Trailer : 40' goose

Trailer Empty = 6060 with a hitch weight of 1515
Trailer Loaded = 10680 with a hitch weight of 2823
Trailer forward axle is at 4060
Trailer aft axle is at 4297

Sound about right? ie aft axle being a little heavier.

[Doug I]

Correction: Hitch weight should read 2323lb

madmaxx - not really .... It's a rig setup I'm thinking of, but I'm still up in the air a bit over 36 or 40'.

FWB - Ford list the 350 GCWR at 23500lb with the 4.1 rear and a max. goose weight of 17000.

The 36 is 480lb lighter, and while it'll work, the tie-downs will overlap and the lack of spare room could be a nuisance. I really think it'll be too short, but it'd be doable. The 40 gives me a bit of wriggle room in where the load marks go, and it'll be more "future-proof" than the 36. In only adding 810lb I wasn't sure if I'd want/need more hitch weight given the length.

Also - apart from the physical differences between a 5th & goose - what's the difference when you're on the road?

I just wanted to know if I was about where other people are with similar rigs.

[Double Venom]

Doug 1,
I pulled a 40' goose neck all over the country with a Dodge Diesel - dually (3500) and loved it. Almost always towed with two Cobras. 40' is tight enough, less than that would be a real pain! For what it's worth department....(At the time I got 17 MPG with or with out the trailer.)
DV
PS.. you've got to love the fold down hitch in the truck too!

[Doug I]

Thanks DV !!

The Dodge is to all intents identical to the F-350, so I'd expect similar milage.

The fold down ball for the goose would be 1 advantage over the skid plate.

[mln385]

Originally Posted by Doug I

Thanks DV !!

The Dodge is to all intents identical to the F-350, so I'd expect similar milage.

The fold down ball for the goose would be 1 advantage over the skid plate.

I don't think so ...the dodge is a cummins straight 6 and the ford is a v8. Everyone I have talked say the fords don't get as good of MPG as the dodge's.

Marc

[Doug I]

well the tow capacities are pretty close.

Cummins can't be beat - but a lot of people have mentioned that the rest of the truck falls apart around the cummins.

Least with the Ford it all comes apart about equally

Milage driven won't be that high - so it'd have to be a significant difference in mpg to become a deciding issue.

[Double Venom]

Doug 1,
By all means you are right! The cummins is bone solid to this day, but everything on this truck but the sheetmetal has broke, repaired, replaced some numerous times! In Fact Dodge spent well over the cost of the truck in 3 months for warranty repairs. The only thing I advocate is the cummins, a 40' and the fold down ball in the bed!
DV

[Doug I]

hmmmm wonder if I could drop a cummins in a Ford.

Anyone around here any skills in dropping unusual engines into bays it was never thought they'd be dropped into?

[COBRANIP]

My trailer knowledge is limited, but it seems odd to me that the rear axle is carrying more weight than the front. On tag-a-long trailers the general rule is 10% of the total trailer weight on the ball. That would suggest the front axle have a (heavier) weight bias (since the desired center of gravity of the trailer is forward of the center of the two axles). Is the trailer level, or is it "nose high"? If it's level I wouldn't worry about it. Is it possible the two axels have different spring rates?
Good luck and have fun.
John

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by Doug I

hmmmm wonder if I could drop a cummins in a Ford.

Anyone around here any skills in dropping unusual engines into bays it was never thought they'd be dropped into?

I knew of a machinest that put an air cooled German made diesel engine in an older F-350 flatbed for a shop truck, ran that truck for years and years, never had any problems, too bad he croaked some years ago, he was a wizzard at doing things llike that.....

I've got a smoke wrench (cutting torch), a mig welder, shop, chain hoist, and some good air tools, get the truck and an engine and we'll give it a try, what do we have to lose??????

If Ford could ever put the Cummins engine in their trucks, they would not be able to make them fast enough........
but they can't do it. The Dodge folks were smart enough to sign an agreement with Cummins when they first started using the 5.9 engine in their trucks, it basically says as long as Dodge buys X number of Cummins engines a year, then Cummins can not sell their engines to any other manufacter for over the road use.............

I've spoken to a number of comercial haulers and they only use the Dodge deisel trucks....one guy has 3 trucks and they average 120,000 miles per year,per truck...he trades them in at 300,000 miles and told me he never touches the engines,cept for routine mantinence,but the rest of the truck is worn out and falling apart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in 05 when I bought my Ford F-250 SD, I went back and forth bewteen the Ford and Dodge dealers for 3 weeks trying to decide on which truck to buy. I wanted the Dodge for the Cummins engine and at the time the Dodge dealer was making sweet deals, the Dodge would have cost me about 4 grand less than a similar Ford!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I don't care for the Dodge truck, but love the Ford truck (always have driven a Ford truck)and finally my wife told me to go buy the damn Ford and be thru with it,so I did.......,but I still think the Cummins engine is the best there is out there right now.........

BTW: saw a documentary some years ago about Dodge being the first to go with diesels in their trucks, Roush Industries (ala, Jack Roush,ala NASCAR fame) did all the testing and engineering to get the Cummins engine suitable for over the road use... It was originally designed and used as an industrial pump engine.......

David

[Doug I]

So all we really need to do is :

1. Find a dodge,
2. Use some wrenches until,
3. The engine hoist has it.
4. Onto the back of your truck
5. Into the front of the 350

Well that sounds pretty simple.

[Bailey]

Doug, I have an 02 F250 PSD 4X4 CC, with the 7.3. Mild chip, intake and 4" turbo back exhaust, 20mpg all day long, drops to 17 with a 20 enclosed bumper pull with the car inside ay 75mph.
With current deals, I've thought about a new ride, but the new 6.4 TT only seems to be getting in the 12s empty, which is unacceptable this day and age.
If you could find a clean Ford 6.0, or an older 7.3, that would be the way to go.
Just my .02

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by Doug I

So all we really need to do is :

1. Find a dodge,
2. Use some wrenches until,
3. The engine hoist has it.
4. Onto the back of your truck
5. Into the front of the 350

Well that sounds pretty simple.

dats rite, you got it............

of course I kinda left out the parts about the fuel system and the electrical systems that need to be intergrated from the Cummins engine to the Ford truck, but why worry about little details!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm betting someone,somewhere has done this already, you just gotta find the fella that did it and made it work...........

David

[Bailey]

Hey, there is a guy locally who dropped a Sprinter MB 2.7L diesel into an 05 Wrangler unlimited.
Anything is possible, just takes time and $

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by Bailey

Doug, I have an 02 F250 PSD 4X4 CC, with the 7.3. Mild chip, intake and 4" turbo back exhaust, 20mpg all day long, drops to 17 with a 20 enclosed bumper pull with the car inside ay 75mph.
With current deals, I've thought about a new ride, but the new 6.4 TT only seems to be getting in the 12s empty, which is unacceptable this day and age.
If you could find a clean Ford 6.0, or an older 7.3, that would be the way to go.
Just my .02

Seems the new 6.4TT is having more than it's share of problems lately....I know of 2 guys that sold theirs in less than a year, poor performance and nothing but problems.......

The old 7.3 was bullet proof, that's why they quit using them I guess.......

In 06 we (as in 3 trucks/trailers) caravanned to VIR for the annual SAAC convention. one 99 model F-250 with the 7.3 and 280,000+ miles at the time, my 05 with less than 10,000 miles on it at the time and an 04 model with about 30,000 miles on it. We all had 65 Mustangs on open trailers, probably within 500 pounds total weight in the 3 trucks/trailers and the 99 model 7.3 took from 1.5 to 2 gallons less fuel each stop we made to fill up and it was over 3,000 miles round trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New ain't always better!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

[stuartb]

There is an article in diesel power magazine about a year or year and half ago that had some fords with cummins swaps in them. Wish I still had it. All the new diesels get way worse mileage because of all the emissions crud.

[Double Venom]

So far;
One swap to cummins in a 350 Ford
One swap in a 99 Ford 4x4
One swap in a 96 GMC

I'd like to have a Older Ford 4x4 and gut my Dodge! with 144,000! I swear when it hit 100,000 it ran better than it ever has! And it was good before. Dodge/Chrylser knew the problems about their biggest transmission- couldn't hold the torque, even not towing, of the Cummins; re-built tranny (Dodge) at 35,000, at 98,000 Cumings did it to me again...bent the torque convertor housing at the engine- fixed...ripped the torque convertor bolts right out of the flex plate! Finally had it built by an independent that knows these transmissions very well- added all kinds of new 'stuff' and dared me to break it! If I've got the guts this Dually will pop/spin the rear duals when it shifts to second! Wee-Oooh!
DV

[Double Venom]

Finally found the picture:
Inside; the first 'DV', and one Custom made Cobra for Chinook Winds Casino in Oregon. Pictured at "Donners Pass" March (?). From Columbus,Oh to the coast of Oregon and back- 17MPG each way.



DV