Towing a 5th Wheel Trailer,

[felixzakat]

I pull a 5th wheel trailer with my 2006 F-250 4X4 Powerstroke Diesel. It whieghs about 10,000 pounds total weight. Everything is stock from the factory. Are there any modifications I absolutly need to make on my truck for better towing capability. I'm from Florida where everything is relatively flat but I do want to go up north to the mountains every now and then.

[owtcast]

Definately not absolute neccessities but, airbags would probably make for a better loaded ride and keep things level. Also some guages would be nice to monitor things but, again, not neccessary at all. Upgraded brakes for the mountains wouldn't be a bad idea either. But your truck is capable without these these niceties. Welcome to the forum bytheway.

[Marty]

what he said....

Mostly about the brakes...

[Clay Henry]

You won't have a problem with braking a 10k lb load as long as you follow mountain driving tips and you have a good trailer break control that is set properly. What is the pin wieght of your trailer? If its under 2000 lbs. in my opinion airbags would not be needed for that load - but they also wouldn't hurt anything. Make sure you have good quality tires on the on the rear end, factory tires are usually some of the lowest quality/cheapest tire ford can buy and they perform as such also.
If it were me, I would get gauges just because i like to know whats going on inside that engine

[JayCarotenuti]

You shouldn't have any problems with that setup.

[Brian]

the trucks are built to safely carry that load, theres alot you could do performance wise if you really wanted though.
could throw a jake brake on it, chip/tuner, exhaust to name a few.
but all in all it will tow easily.

[shu873]

If you're not in it for the tire peeling power, I'd say the stock set up is just fine for towing what you have. If you have a short box instead of a long, you might consider air bags in the rear to level things out. My brother has them on his 2000 Crew short box and its a big difference. He pulls about the same load as you do with a 5th wheel. An exhaust temp and tranny temp gauge would be very nice to have if you plan on a lot of towing, especially if you head in to the mountains. Both the bags and the gauges I'm going to ball park at around $800 or less if you do your own install. Obviously more $$$ if you pay someone to hook it up. And welcome to the forum by the way!

[felixzakat]

Thank you for your respones. Just got back from North Carolina. I had some difficulty going up the tallest mountains. My truck would slow down to 45 MPH going up steep inclines with the tachometer at about 2500 rpm around there. I wouldn't floor it however. I don't know if this is normal.

[owtcast]

If you didn't overheat anything then I'm guessing it was doing what it should. The factory builds in a lot of "safeguard" into the trucks so they can pull like that. I'm betting those were some fairly steep inclines with little run up to them??
A performance exhaust would of helped somewhat by keeping the EGT's down and flowing a little better, but I wouldn't put a "hot" tuner to it with that kind of weight.