First time diesel owner

[FireFighterE33]

I'm about to be a first time diesel owner. Purchasing 05 f250 6.0 PSD CC 4X4 Long bed. Any tips for a first time dielsel'er so I don't make stupid errors that maybe some other's have made?

I'll be pulling a 30' 7000#+ travel trailer and a Harley Heritage in the bed.

Nice to meet all of y'all.

[Gear Jammer]

the only thing i can say is once you go diesel you will never go back to gas. As long as you do reg. mantinace that thing will run forever.

[jwiger]

drive it home gentlly then read the manualls, knowledge is power.
you need to break in the truck before you pull that trailer. 1,000 miles of easy driving before you hitch up will give you years of life down the road.

Enjoy your oil burner and welcome to the site!

[Rodslinger]

Welcome FireFighter! My '05 is an AMAZING ride. It's my first diesel too and like Gear Jammer said, heck I'll NEVER go back to a gasser. I can't think of any real critical advice off the top of my head. You'll get used to it pretty quick and hanging around here will give you loads of insight into things. If you have any questions just ask and I'm sure someone here would love to help.

[99Smokin73Stroker]

Welcome bud! I too am on my first diesel truck, purchased in mid '04. It's a 99 with the 7.3. I too will not go back to a gas truck unless it's something like a lightning ya know? But for a real truck, diesel is the option i'll check next time I go buy another truck. It's amazing the torque you get with them, and even more shocking what you get out of some of the chips that are out there. Just surf around, see what's out there for your ride! A chip, exhaust and intake are the easiest add-ons that will give you an amazing amount of extra pulling power for that trailer. You'll think it fell off the ball before you even pull away!

[FireFighterE33]

Thanks 99Smokin for your suggestions for upgrades. That was going to be my next response. Could you and other's elaborate on Brand names etc of some of the "chip" and "exhaust" upgrades I could use and approx. costs?

I don't know that I'm interested in a quarter miler, I've seen them make diesel's "walk the dog" on some of the truckin shows, but I would love to have a good puller that can be sent back to the "economy" range when not in tow mode.

Thanks for the welcome's and I'm sure I'll have more questions!!

[Gear Jammer]

I would go with BANKS Go with the six gun i have it on my truck and it is great. It has 6 setting, stock 20%40%60%80%100%. It is around 550 i think i forget what i paid but it is well worth it. You can get a screen for it now that tells you all the EGT boost and all that good stuff. There are alot of other chips out there its just am a BANKS guy.

[99Smokin73Stroker]

Hey Fire well if you're just looking for some extra towing power and the ability to return to stock just about every chip offers that. However not all of them off the same power levels, and/or ease of changing between those levels. Gear says he's got the six gun, but i'm not too familiar with it and what it'll do to your truck. I had a superchip in mine, but I got tired of having to take 10 minutes to stop, plug it in, tune or detune, then put it away and get going again. If you don't mind that, it'll be great and it adds a whole lot of power that you can definitely use for towing. Right now i'm running a TS performance chip. www.tsperformance.com It's got 6 levels, all adjustable on the fly at the turn of a knob. There are 8 options you can select from when you have it programmed. It's a hoss of a chip on it's max setting which is strictly if you're up to a quarter miler. But it's lower settings are a lot more tame and work great in mine when i've got some extra weight in the bed or behind the tailgate. And it's a great deal for great power, just $425. As for exhaust I've heard tons of bad about bully dog's terrible fit to factory locations, etc so i'd avoid them. I've heard good about banks and silverline makes some decent kits as well. But I bought a magnaflow kit at the diesel show here in indy back in july. Magnaflow has been around for quite a while and I remember hearing their name before a lot of these other makers got came about and got into the diesel exhaust rage. I bought the 4" turbo back kit for $410 which is a really great deal for high flowing stainless system, and it sounds really awesome too. It fit perfectly and took around 40 minutes or so to install. Even the often feared downpipe removal/install was cake. I was glad I did my homework and didn't just hop on the first kit I saw. I think a lot of them are overpriced (banks, bully dog) for what you get. Even at retail the magnaflow kit was a good deal. But just go to a show somewhere in your state and buy one there. You can talk them down and get stuff for really good show and below show prices. Hope this helps....anything else just post!

[Gear Jammer]

the 6 gun is adjustable on the fly also but like what smokinstroker said #6 is just for the 1/4 mile alot of power. for exht. i really dont know i made my stacks so i dont know about that i do know banks does offer it. Just look around how much are you welling to spend???

[FireFighterE33]

Should I do a chip upgrade before airflow, exhaust upgrades? Or at the same time....

Seems like a lot of out of pocket dough to do at the same time. Is there a prefered "order" to go in that would be a bit easier on the wallet?