Ford F-350 Shudders and Strains

[TXBobcat]

I have a 2006 F250 6.0 Diesel. I have pulled my 3400 up the 8% grade west of Butte Montana twice and have had no problems. I don't have the HP & Torque as the newer trucks. We drove just the truck up hwy 20 out of Twisp WA and it has a 7% grade for 7 miles. I think my truck would have pulled the grade with my trailer but I chose not to put it through such a hard long pull and when we left we decided to go a southern route. I was raised in Wyoming and have driven mountain roads a lot years ago and found the main thing is to maintain a good engine RPM to keep your truck from lugging down. I also never keep the excelerator pressed all the way to the floor. You go to a lower gear. My truck on the 8% grade was in 3rd gear, about 2500 RPM and we were moving at 39mph. A semi was also going up and he was bearly moving while another Semi went by me like I was standing still. The Cluch fan was screaming. My temps never got over the limits because I feathered the excelerator to keep them down which I was able to read with the new Edge gage set I had installed. My OEM gages never moved from mid range. I can also view my EGT which helps. Anytime I am towing my 5er I have the transmission in Tow/Haul. I am going to get the EGR Block on my truck this next spring from Powerstroke Magic in Houston TX. Will probably get a larger exaust. I am running 133,000 + miles on my PSD. Plan on keeping it as long as I can.




BC

 

[mmomega]

I've yet to use Cruise Control while towing with the '07 or the '11 so I can't comment personally on it. Tho I have read on some power stroke forums of weird things happening with the 2011's only with cruise activated and under certain conditions but most have said the ref lashes fixed them.
Mine also has a shudder on take off but my 07 does also. I contribute it to putting a 14k 5'er on the back, after I added airbags to the '07 its shudder pretty much disappeared so I'm looking at it for the new truck but as usual I go looking for 1 thing and something else catches my eye.

So right now I'm researching the AirBag-It 4 Link Rear Suspension. http://www.airbagit.com/v/vspfiles/pages/TowKits_Ford_PAGE.html

So who knows...

 

[caissiel]

I have a standard with extra spring plies and never feel any vibration while towing up hills on cruise.
But when programed at 114HP I did loose the cruise in the hill fast and it took a while to figure the problem.
Last week I did notice the clutch was slipping when I did a hill climb without cruise and after I observed the cruise condition for the rest of the trip, I finally noticed the cruise kicking off due to clutch slip on cruise but it was hardly noticeble. Hypertech did advise me in the past that it was not a programer problem but wear on my clutch.

What I am trying to say is the cruise kicks out on RPM/Speed differential and does it even with my standard, so with automatic it will surely be more accurate.

I have been towing on cruise for the past 13 years and never had any other affect but kick off when to much speed lost and have found the truck works much better that way, be GM or this Ford.
The GM had much more power on cruise, that was a 98 6.5L with L80 Automatic Transmission and a 12K trailer at the time. I could be looking at the sky and it would climb the hills with ease and cruise only kicked out rarely after 5 MPH speed lost.
The Ford on overdive was loosing speed in every hill and kicking off the cruise control, much worst then the GM, so I have been using the 87HP program and for the past 4 year it has done the hills on cruise without any lost of speed, heat or clutch slip. In addition I can gain speed on a 6% grade on high gear at 55MPH with the 3500RL in tow.

 

[porthole]

So right now I'm researching the AirBag-It 4 Link Rear Suspension. http://www.airbagit.com/v/vspfiles/pages/TowKits_Ford_PAGE.html

That is a nice kit, but pricey. I have also been waiting to see the results of the Firestone Tech R4 on the new trucks. Kind of a hybrid, uses air bags for ride and height control and single leaf spring to keep everything in position.

On the Ford Truck Enthusiast forum there is a good write/p]install/pictures of the Airbagit system. Search the titles for Firestone Tech R4. The user is an Aussie and spent big bucks to get the kit to the island.

Here is a video of the install.
http://vimeo.com/25416382

Part 2

http://www.truckutv.com/index.php?o...air-bag-it-part-2&catid=39:season-6&Itemid=75

 

[mmomega]

That is a nice kit, but pricey. I have also been waiting to see the results of the Firestone Tech R4 on the new trucks. Kind of a hybrid, uses air bags for ride and height control and single leaf spring to keep everything in position.

The only thing holding me back from the R4Tech is that I have yet to find any real world installs and the ability to ask any questions I may have to people who use it. The only things I've found are a couple magazine articles which makes the system sound amazing but I'm not just going to take the word of someone getting paid to report.
I really think I'd like the R4 better especially after reading some peoples reports on AirBagit.

 

[porthole]

My thoughts too. The airbagit is a true 4 link, same thing used in race cars and trucks.
But the R4 seems to have some of the best features of both.

 

[AlmostRetired]

Thought I should provide an update. Dealer found no issues but said the cruise may have confused the computer when tasking the engine/drivetrain for maximum performance. Just finished a 3300 mile trip from MN to NC and back and had some elevations. Granted nothing was as steep as the grades in the Black Hills but it was still a worthy test. Everything worked fine and I had no issues this trip. For now...I am chalking up my previous experience as a fluke and a comedy of errors.

 

[trvlrerik]

I am going to muddy the water up a little here. Is it possible that the vehicle rev limiter cut in and caused your shudder? I have an 08 SRW that will shudder sometimes when I am under high load at high rpm. If you have ever seen how much the rear axel winds up under lots of weight and lots of power it is surprising the truck does not sudder more in my opinion.

 

[caissiel]

I would not worry to much about pressing the accelarator to the floor while towing. With my scangaugeII I have observed that on stock the 100% torque hits with bearly 80% pressed on the accelerator. That's why I had to use the programer that gives me all the power in proportion to 100%. So at 80% now it does all the hills without loosing speed.

 

[AlmostRetired]

Possibly. All I know is everything seems to be working fine now. The issue I had was when it dropped down two gears to keep up speed. Probably did over rev.