Well, I finally got to see what my truck could do, and I guess I was a litte disapointed, being that I used to be a chevyman. I guess I expected too much. I thought a 7.3 would walk the dog with my 28 foot camper. Meaning that it would go up any hill at 70 mph. I would usually hit them about 70 and at the top be about 55-60. Also, my truck has quite a few mods on it: Banks transcommand, Banks exhaust, Banks big head wastegate, Edge ez, leveling kit, 315 bfg's,zoodad, DIY intake, and ccv mod. I didn't really push it hard, since I have yet to install gauges, but maybe you can fill me in if this is normal. Could the bogging down up hills be the 35 BFG's, this is what I believe. I will very soon be putting 285's on it. They will make the truck drive better and get rid of that big tire feel. Also when my truck would go from about 2500 rpms down to 1900 rpm it would make a shuttering noise. But, believe it or not, it seemed to go away after about an hour of highway driving. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
i tow a 26' toy hauler runnin 38's and 11" lift. it is the 6.0 motor but i also had the 7.3 and towed the same camper. you shouldnt have any problems losing speed up hill unless it was a steep grade hill. how heavy is your trailer and is it shifting into drive when you hit the hill? you DEFINATELY NEED GUAGES tho. i've melted my turbo on my old 7.3 towing. i did have guages but my wife was driving and i was sleeping but what ya gonna do. you want to try to keep the egt's onder 1000 degrees when towing. if it gets to high, shift into drive.
Seems like you should have more power. What about fuel filters? Fuel pressure? Air flow (filter)? Shuddering - I'm not sure - Tranny/torque converter/u-joints? CPS going bad?
have no clue about the shuddering noise... but what size of gear do you have?? well also I would also check out to see if all clamps are tight around the turbo to make sure you don't no boost leak.... I would think that if there was a leak that you probally would hear a sound like that if the gap or whole would be big enough...
i drag around a 8000lb car trailer (loaded)with my 7.3 and i usually can accelerate goin up hills makes people look when their cars are comming out of o/d due to the grade of the hill and i pull out and pass them with a trailer..and a big smile
the shuttering sound you hear is prolly turbo surge......
my recommendation is to get some custom tunes after installing a set of guages, get rid of the edge module and any other power adder you have, and then you will have to get a wicked wheel or ATS housing to fix the surge. Tire size will affect pulling performance, but with custom tunes the 35's won't be a problem pulling the camper.
your camper isnt that heavy. you shouldnt have any problem. mine is 7500 pds dry and 10,000 when fully loaded. i am runnin stock 3.73 gears but gonna upgrade to 5.13's just to take some stress off the motor and trans.
You may be onto something with the tires. Rubber that larger, with possible 3.73 gears would really make a difference. If you change and like the smaller ones.. hang on to those big BFGs... I probably know some pullers who would like to have them.
BTW... bugshield is already on the truck (even if it's not going anywhere soon) and looks great.. thanks guys.
Seems odd, I don't have alot of big power mods and I tow 8-12k on a flatbed trailer and I can keep 70 w/o a prob. My egt's get to 11-1200, and boost around 20. I am only at 3/4 throttle. I would check i/c boots and stuff to make sure you're not loosing boost. Also like previously stated fuel filters can hurt, I can tell when they need changing by loss of power. Also I am running 265's w/3.73. I don't remember if you have a high flow filter, that really helped me, I notice some surge usually w/8k+ but it wasnt' shuddering. Can't help ya with that. good luck
The 315's are going on my 99 Silverado Z71 and the 285's from it are going on the superduty. Now I have to get the Chevy lifted.
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