This is one of those times you ask a question with the fear of a particular answer. I have an 03 Ford Excursion 6.8L V10 4WD. It currently has 111,000k miles on it. I bought it from a dealer in CA. It has one previous owner and based on the mileage, I assume it was used for towing mostly-that and I see holes under the dash where the brake controller was mounted. 95% of my miles added are highway miles. It runs almost perfectly-even down to the live fuel trim data.
I don't usually do this but if I floor it, the change from 3rd to 4th is rather hard. I drive 40 miles one way through the MT wilderness and occasionally come across someone driving 45 to 50 on a 2 lane country road on a dry sunny day with a 70 mph speed limit. Normal driving, I really don't notice it much but I do feel the change. This is my 4th Excursion of which the 3 previous ones did not have as demonstratively a hard shift. In fact, my first V10 which I bought with 16k miles on it in 2001 and drove to 150K miles enjoyed shifts which were almost imperceptible.
Here is the age old question-is there any way to improve that without a major expense which would be silly anyway?
That sounds normal to me, if you don't want "throw you back" shifts then lay off the gas. That should be a 4v V10 so expect some harshness.
They're programmed to shift faster to prevent overheating. On old turbo hydramatics you could dial this in with a hex key located in the vacuum module but your truck would require forscan & a knowledge of exactly how to program it to make a change.
In other words don't waste your time/money. Just baby it & it won't toss you around.
If it's normal, I'm a happy camper.