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Eric, I have the "bad" 6.0L 2004 which has 320 HP and 560 ft lbs, so that changes the math you did.
And yes, I have driven the 8.1 GM and you could literally watch the gas gauge go down when my buddy pulled his camper or work trailer with it. It did pull hard though, but with the small gas tank and poor mpg it was a pain.
The weak spot in my opinion for the 2001 Ford and Chevy is going to be the transmssion. The newer Allison and Torqueshift (or whatever the exact name is for the HD Ford one) are both good transmissions.
But basically you are correct, since I live in Fort Collins, and do almost all of my towing at 7,500 or higher, I wanted a factory turbocharged towing vehicle. My wife like the versitility of our previous Tahoe, that left me with the Excursion.
After doing a lot of research, and having worked on the 7.3L and knowing its weaknesses as well, I decided to find a well maintained 6.0L so I could get the newest model year. I looked at 2004 and 2005's, with the 2005's commanding a pretty steep premium at the time. I had someone at Ford run me the OASIS report on the one I found so I knew what kind of problems and reapirs has been done to it. I have not modified it any way except wider tires and adding a 1 ton rear sway bar and use the fuel additive.
After 3 years with it, and 70,000 (100K total) miles I am VERY happy with it.
Bill
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