How to build my truck JUST for towing??

[Ram Rod]

A buddy of mine is wanting to build his truck just for towing. It is a early 04, one ton dually, 4 door , stick shift, 5. 9 HO. He will be towing about 18K (fith wheel) up steep grades and mnt. driving. He is stuck on which turbo or turbos to run. Wants about 450 hps and cool egts and very reliable. He is doing a clutch upgrade, and probably the big Smarty. We would like to hear from people that are towing heavy with reliable set ups. Please post some info. Thanks.

 

[CDonaldson]

Greetings Ram Rod.



While I am not familiar with the turbo side of modifications for power, someone else will have to comment on that side of your question.



I tow 18+K on a regular basis. I have the 5. 9 and a stick shift. I live in a very mountaneous region. When I bought my truck I was looking at setting up a tow rig.



I decided to open up my exhaust so I installed a ME from Genos. It did lower my EGT's by about 200*s. I have not done a clutch upgrade, my clutch is doing a good job, but when it comes time for a clutch upgrade, I will be giving South Bend a call. I did an upgrade to the air filter intake, installed an Ice Box intake, and also opened up the intake manifold, installed a GDP intake manifold. I saw a little more lowering of my EGT's after addressing the air intake.



I focused on getting the suspension beefed up, the soft ride suspension just is too soft for towing heavy. I added better shocks and added the Firestone Ride Rite air bags. I am considering adding mini-packs to the springs.



I bought a Smarty S-06 a year ago, but have yet to get it out of the box and use it - my truck has plenty of power and is getting good fuel mileage, going down the road pulling heavy loads with no problems.



I don't think you can beat a Cummins on it's performance, just need to tweak a few things here and there, it has more than enough power to get the job done without major mods.



CD

 

[AH64ID]

Does he have a SO or HO (5spd or 6spd)??

Anyways I would look at a set of small twins, they will help with spooling while towing as well as good cool air at upper boost levels, and low drive pressure.

So I would think (not a turboologist): BD Tow twins?? Or something similar. . but small twins would be best.
ARP Head Studs
50 or 90 hp Injectors
Smarty Sr or Jr. .
4" Exhaust, with a good muffler for towing drone. .
CAI
Intake Horn
Exhaust Brake!! (to stop the load)


If he sticks to 50hp Injectors and no extra rail pressure he should be fine on the OE CP3...

IMHO the Jr with the Mild/milder/mildest TQ Management may be a little better for towing. . It does have several levels of timing to choose from. . and combined with the 50hp Injectors on the 100hp level he should be right around 450 hp.

For constant heavy towing I would personally stay away from any rail pressure. .

 

[cksh8me]

If you are going to add some go don't forget to add some whoa. Pac Brake.

 

[LRutigliano]

Does he have a SO or HO (5spd or 6spd)??



Anyways I would look at a set of small twins, they will help with spooling while towing as well as good cool air at upper boost levels, and low drive pressure.



So I would think (not a turboologist): BD Tow twins?? Or something similar. . but small twins would be best.

ARP Head Studs

50 or 90 hp Injectors

Smarty Sr or Jr. .

4" Exhaust, with a good muffler for towing drone. .

CAI

Intake Horn

Exhaust Brake!! (to stop the load)





If he sticks to 50hp Injectors and no extra rail pressure he should be fine on the OE CP3...



IMHO the Jr with the Mild/milder/mildest TQ Management may be a little better for towing. . It does have several levels of timing to choose from. . and combined with the 50hp Injectors on the 100hp level he should be right around 450 hp.



For constant heavy towing I would personally stay away from any rail pressure. .

I think AH64ID is giving you some good info:



I have 80hp balanced and blue printed injectors, PSM cold air kit, aFe PG-7 stock type air filter, DPP red cool hose, CFM+ intake manifold, MBRP stainless 4" turbo back exhaust and the Smarty S06 set on Level 1, default TM and TQ and stock RP. Truck tows up mountain passes with ease and EGTs never higher than 1200F on very hot ambient days. My highest boost pressure is approx 26psig and my trans temp stays around 140-150F on hot ambients.



I would also recommend a cast alum diff cover to cool the diff fluid due to the cooling fins and extra capacity.



With all of the above mods, my mpg's while towing have increased approx 1. 5mpg (originally less than 10, now 11. 5)



I don't have air bags, I had them on the '01 and they were a hassle for me. I have approx 3000 lbs in the bed and truck sits level.



One more recommendation is a louvered tailgate to allow easy hitching and unhitching.



I have considered an engine brake, but have not needed one even on the steepest descents.



450hp is alot! I estimate that with all of my mods, I am close to 400hp and 750ft-lbs torque. Remember, you don't want alot (peak) hp for towing, you want a bunch of torque in the 1600-2000 rpm range.



Hope this helps,

Louis

 

[AH64ID]

I have considered an engine brake, but have not needed one even on the steepest descents.

Have you ever towed with one?? I am guessing not because I know lots of people that think they don't need one, then they use one once and don't ever want to tow without again.

Last month I was doing some yard work using a buddies dump trailer. The trailer weights in at 4500. One load was 4 yards of rock, being conservative at 2500 a yard (they claim 2500-3000), thats about 14,000 lbs in tow... Now I was only going 8 miles home, but I was playing with the EB. . I would take my foot off the throttle (EB still off) on flat ground and barely slow down, I slow down faster empty... Then I hit the EB and kept rpms from 1900-2500. . it was AMAZINZG... But what really was amazing was when loaded how little engine braking a diesel has. Any incline at all and I would have been relying 100% on service brakes.

 

[RVTRKN]

Have you ever towed with one?? I am guessing not because I know lots of people that think they don't need one, then they use one once and don't ever want to tow without again.



Last month I was doing some yard work using a buddies dump trailer. The trailer weights in at 4500. One load was 4 yards of rock, being conservative at 2500 a yard (they claim 2500-3000), thats about 14,000 lbs in tow... Now I was only going 8 miles home, but I was playing with the EB. . I would take my foot off the throttle on flat ground and barely slow down, I slow down faster empty... Then I hit the EB and kept rpms from 1900-2500. . it was AMAZINZG... But what really was amazing was when loaded how little engine braking a diesel has. Any incline at all and I would have been relying 100% on service brakes.

I don't quite get what your saying, on one hand its a good thing and the other it's seems to be worthless. My C&C has the EB like all other 6. 7's and when going down a grade with a heavy load I never touched my brakes because I was out of control, just the taught method of using one gear lower going down hill than when climbing uphill and using brakes to slow to 5 Mph lower than truck speed limit and then releasing brakes and allow the EB to maintain with an occaisional tap to slow back to the 5 MPH lower targeted speed. The steepest down grade I've been on so far is the Baker Grade going north bound with a GCVWR of 24K. and it is 6% grade with heavy construction and traffic with a 55 MPH speed limit. Maybe its my G56 that helps better than your buddies truck did, but you are right in the statement that once you have one you will never go without. I need to install one on my 04. 5 but don't drive it much anymore to justify the cost.

 

[AH64ID]

I don't quite get what your saying, on one hand its a good thing and the other it's seems to be worthless. My C&C has the EB like all other 6. 7's and when going down a grade with a heavy load I never touched my brakes because I was out of control, just the taught method of using one gear lower going down hill than when climbing uphill and using brakes to slow to 5 Mph lower than truck speed limit and then releasing brakes and allow the EB to maintain with an occaisional tap to slow back to the 5 MPH lower targeted speed. The steepest down grade I've been on so far is the Baker Grade going north bound with a GCVWR of 24K. and it is 6% grade with heavy construction and traffic with a 55 MPH speed limit. Maybe its my G56 that helps better than your buddies truck did, but you are right in the statement that once you have one you will never go without. I need to install one on my 04. 5 but don't drive it much anymore to justify the cost.

I was only saying it a good thing... . I couldn't imagine towing without one.



I see where you may have misread it. . I added a ().

 

[jelag]

We have an 04, 04. 5 and 05 all with 6 speeds NV5600 transmissions... .

We pull with the 04 a trailer that is 20K lbs... our other 2 trucks pull trailers just not as heavy... the 04 now has 300K miles...

All the trucks are stock except for a spacer under the overloads to get them to come on faster and air bags in the rear... and of course exhaust brakes... .

We've had 1 transmission failure in the 04 and a transfer case failure as well... . the transmission failure was from excessive lugging the transmission with a trailer in 6th gear... even though it pulls well, the OD gear was not designed for this much weight... so we now downshift to 5th more often to take the lugging off of 6th gear...

The transfer case failure was our fault, it developed a leak we missed and damaged the bearings... .

When we had the transmission out we installed one of our HD clutches. .

All the 3500 duallys run the same 19. 5" tire as the F550 or the 5500... . we run bandag recaps on the rear and new steer tires on the front... . usually seeing almost 100K miles on a set of tires... .

Since I expect our trucks to run to 500K before we let them go we don't alter the HP. . our F550 had something like 525K miles at the time of sale and I have an old F350 without a turbo that has 550K miles...

My newest truck a 08 5500 now has 40K miles or so... .

We use our trucks hard but try and take care of them... . to get the life out of them. .

 

[AH64ID]

All the trucks are stock except for a spacer under the overloads to get them to come on faster and air bags in the rear...

Can you PM me some info on that spacer?? I am interested in the same thing. . with my airbags the overloads don't get used, and I would like them to.

 

[cksh8me]

There are many on here who can tell you how to build HP so I won't touch that.



Besides a Pac Brake what I'd do is. Intake, exhast, gauges, rear sway bar, change brake fluid, change to steel braided brake lines, big diff cover, check on different rotors and pads. Check all steering parts and upgrade to bigest, and newest parts. Add a steering box bearing support. New shocks, and a aux fuel tank. US Gear, gear splitter.



Now it will stop and corner, and have enough gears to keep you in the meat pulling the hills. It might have the power but you'll have the gear.



Good luck.

 

[Popiol]

I would like info on spacer also, a friend wants to install them on his 05

 

[jelag]

AH64ID

We took out the rubber snubber at the end of the overload where the spring bumps. . as I remember this snubber is about 1" tall... we than cut a piece of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 square tube about 2 1/2" long... or the width of the spring... . we drilled it and installed it between the snubber and the bracket that holds the snubber... so what we've done is filled that space with a piece of square tube... . the tube we used was 1/4" wall... just moved the snubber closer to the spring... so to speak. .

So not there is about a 3/8" space between the overload and the snubber... . Now that I'm thinking about this I'm not sure we put the snubber back in... and one of my trucks is sitting in the drive way this morning but the whole wheel well is full of packed snow and ice from yesterday so I can't just go out and look... We did this like 2 or 3 years ago...

But here's the glitch... if you hit a bump or any load and the rear end is sitting on the helper springs right away... its great for loads, but empty its a pain the rump..... but I won't take them off because their so handy..... as we're loaded more often than not...

Hope this helps.

 

[AH64ID]

AH64ID



We took out the rubber snubber at the end of the overload where the spring bumps. . as I remember this snubber is about 1" tall... we than cut a piece of 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 square tube about 2 1/2" long... or the width of the spring... . we drilled it and installed it between the snubber and the bracket that holds the snubber... so what we've done is filled that space with a piece of square tube... . the tube we used was 1/4" wall... just moved the snubber closer to the spring... so to speak. .



So not there is about a 3/8" space between the overload and the snubber... . Now that I'm thinking about this I'm not sure we put the snubber back in... and one of my trucks is sitting in the drive way this morning but the whole wheel well is full of packed snow and ice from yesterday so I can't just go out and look... We did this like 2 or 3 years ago...



But here's the glitch... if you hit a bump or any load and the rear end is sitting on the helper springs right away... its great for loads, but empty its a pain the rump..... but I won't take them off because their so handy..... as we're loaded more often than not...



Hope this helps.

Thanks, that is what I have been looking at doing, but I want to spacer them so there is about 1" between the bump stops and the springs, this way I compress to level then have airbags and overloads to help me. . 1" gap should also make most empty driving tolerable. .