Excellent point Lars! I'm glad you brought it up.

What we need, as you say, is some information that is more relative to our daily driving habits. I think fuel economy is one such metric and passing performance is another. I can see towing capacity, for those that tow. What else is there? Longevity?

- Jack

The longevity part of the equation should be taken care of by an approval sticker found either on the crank pulley or a lose one to be applied by user in the engine bay.
The sticker indicates that the pulley has passed testing and is rated to be used on the motor it is to be installed on.
Can't really crawl under the truck right now to see what it says. But if I remember right it should be SFI Approved?

Lars

I was thinking more along the lines of what the mod could do for the longevity of other components in the truck (possibly by reducing wear and tear). For instance, I have seen claims that u-drive pulleys might extend the life of water pump bearings since the pump is spinning somewhat more slowly. I suspect this benefit is pretty small, but maybe it's worth noting (and I don't really know how you back up such a claim).

But, I like the label that the device has met certain minimum requirements and so should be safe to use. Kind of like the UL sticker on electrical equipment.

- Jack

When I put the UDP from Troyer on my truck I did notice that I got slighty better mpg, and better passing power. Been on my truck 2 yrs now with no issues. But at the time it was installed I also had the AF1 CAI kit installed at the same time so I can't say which gave the better gain but I'm happy with it.

97xl,
tell me about your wheels - what are they, what size, etc. i like the look of them.

jg

FWIW I had a set of MARCH underdrive pulleys on my F-150 (5.0) and hated them. Alternator wouldn't hardly charge at idle, parking lots were a pain because of the reduced power steering assist, so I ended up giving them away. Just sayin........

That's a good point also.
Some of the udp kits out there are a little bit to much underdriven.

I was skimming through because I've added the troyer pulleys to my list for future modifications. There were some valid points mentioned like real horsepower and the product's effect on the life of other parts in this thread. I also wouldn't mind having a little more tension in the steering wheel when going at low speeds. Has anyone else experienced this on their truck with any other kits like the troyer? I'm just trying to weigh the pros and cons of the $225+S/H kit. The gryphon is still paying for itself (it'll be quicker now that gas prices have gone up!:sigh:) so I'll probably wait for that before I buy another expensive upgrade. I'm not really worried about lowering the output of the air conditioner because I usually just have the windows down anyway. I'm not worried about the electrical that much either because my sound system pulls next to nothing when I run just the aux. speakers(like if I'm just sitting in there listening to music waiting for something). Would it be possible to leave that alternator pulley alone or would that mess up the belt size too much? Also, how difficult were they to install? I've got a list of mods longer than I care to list and they were all put in by me (except for the rims because I sold my stock rims for $100 when they expected them for free. :woot:) so I figure why start now if it's relatively easy.