Hello Everyone. My name is Guy and I 'm 44 and live with my family in upstate NY. I have an 05 quad cab 3.7 V6. I have a few ?'s for ya. I am looking at performance modules and chips. I have a travel trailor that I tow and would like to know what would be the best module or chip for it? I would like to get more performance all around. Also I would like to get a 2 inch leveling kit,do I need helper springs on the back? What about cold air intakes,are they good? Also, I would like to know what would be the biggest/widest tire I can put on my stock rims? Thanks for any info and I look forward to being a part of this forum.

 

first off welcome to the site. with regards to a chip i cant help you as i have the v8. you dont need to put helper springs in the back its your call. i have a airraid intakeand love it. The widest tire i am pretty sure is 265 with out rubbing i ran 265 65 18 and had rubbing.

 

i would perfer the jegs chip great performance and help with gas mileage also and cold air intake helped my v-10 alot it even helped my gas mileage a little more

 

Welcome to tthe site!

I would consider a set of Airbags over helper springs, more adjustability depending on the load your hauling, and there just plain cool.
Might be a little more $$ but I’m getting my Fire-Stone Air bags next month. there's a couple of guys on here that have them and have nothing but good things to say.
I tow up to 2800lbs with my 3.7 and the back end drops a fare bit the bags are gonna bring me back to level.

Also if your ambitious enough, you could swap to a electric radiator fan, this is supposed to free up 15HP from the engine, and thats a good number, Do a search on E-fans for more info on this.

Just a thought.

 

Im in "upstate" new york as well. even though I dont consider it to be TOO upstate. But thats what everyone calls it since its not NYC.

Ive run 265/75 R16 without a 2" leveling kit, rub free. However, I don't recommend it. I no longer have that size tire, I am running the factory tire, 245/70.

I also had a leveling kit a while back. Not a whole lot to say about them. I would recommend the Trail Master leveling kit. It is the only kit that is installed as a spring pre-loading device, which extends the shock with the extra pre-load provided by the kit. This kit will ensure that the strut cannot extend farther then the front end was designed to handle, because once the shock runs out of length, it simply stops, as it normally would without a kit.

The other kits are ok too, autospring, daystar, etc, but they install between the struts frame mount and the strut itself, simply mounting the strut lower on its perch then it normally would be. this provides the lift. The problem with these are, the strut is now lower, putting all the other suspension parts in a position as if it was lifted 2 inches. But now the strut can still fully extend, so it causes an over extension of 2" when the strut is at full length.

For this reason, especially if you have a 4x4, I say go with the trailmaster leveling kit.

Ive put two leveling kits on dakotas and one on an f-150, and for the long run, you cant go wrong with the trailmaster.

If you want to lift the rear too, there is larger spring packs now available for the rear of these trucks, I posted them up here long ago. they are expensive though, since they are fully assembled large spring packs. About 2" of lift come out of them. A cheaper route for the rear is lift blocks. i went that route a while back. it was very reliable, and the best thing is that they dont change ride quality. If its a good block, they are very reliable.

My advice if you MUST lift the truck, go Trailmaster for the front, and an inch in the rear through a block. If you want larger tires, only go up about .5" on the side walls, nothing larger. That shouldnt hog performance and it should keep your truck reliable.

 

You mean JET right and not Superchips?

As far as Superchips goes, last I knew they still didnt support the 3.7. I am not really knowledgeable with the other tuners.

 

Ahhh lol i took that part of my post out, cause i didnt want to start issues, but you caught it too fast! lol.

Yes JET is what i meant though. JET thats the one lol.

 

Welcome to the site I hope you find what you are looking for! +1 for air intake. And I know we don't want to make a big deal out of it but as far as JET chips mine caused my engine to cut off when I put it in neutral, kind of scary when coasting down a hill with no steering... I think it was a bad fit on my PCM or something but either way, it was not worth it for performance. Wait til you find an actual tuner for your engine, or use other mods like E-fan as mentioned above, power wire, and maybe free up your exhaust a little.

 

guy, welcome to the forum, the answer to your ? is no chip will help. sorry. the only thing that is gonna help is a complete gear swap, depending on the truck, you may have the 3.55 gears which are highway gears. switching out to the 4.10 is the only way to go, not only will this increase the towing by getting out of the whole easier, but it will help out in the stop an go traffic as well. you wont lose much on the highway, but you will gain alot.

 

Upstate NY here too..Fingerlakes area.

Forget about a chip. To be honest, I'd forget about any "performance mod" besides good fluids and rigorous maintenance.

CAI, catback exhaust and electric fan might net you 15HP all together. And you get to enjoy hacking things up under the hood.

Free-breathing engines perform better and get better mileage...engineers figured that out a long time ago. IMO, stock intake and exhaust flow just fine.

Have a look at a dyno chart from K&N or Magnaflow. Almost all the gains to modern motors are in the upper 25% of the RPM range. Do you really need an extra 9HP at 5100 RPM? No.

You need more mechanical advantage from idle-3000 RPM to tow and haul. That calls for deeper axle gearing.

The only thing I would sink money into would be a 4.10 axle swap from a reputable shop.