New England B.S. Thread

Tow/Haul mode holds the shifts for longer and loses top gear, though. But still...ouch. That's surprising that you take that kind of hit; not like the 5.0 is short on torque. I wouldn't think it would have to work that much harder.

You're still running more-or-less street tires too, right?

 

Honestly, I absolutely hate tow/haul mode on this truck. If I were towing regularly, I would not be happy with the 5.0. It has all the power in the world, but it makes all the power on the top end. It's constantly revving over 3k RPMs. Through towns, it's just fine, the transmission does pretty well, on highway runs, especially through mountains, I put the truck in manual mode and do the shifts myself. I force it to stay in a higher gear so it's not revving the shit out of the engine the whole trip. It has the torque to hold the higher gear, I'm not sure why it doesn't if I just put it in cruise and let it do it's thing. I love the sound of the engine, but it gets old 3-4 hours into a road trip. With me using manual mode or letting the auto tranny do it's thing, I get about 9-10 MPG holding 65-70 MPH (usually closer to 65). I've read that the ecoboost doesn't do much better in the MPG department, but it does it with a lot less drama since the torque kicks in at such a low RPM.

I'm running Michelin AT2 tires so not quite highway tires but I would say a responsible year round New England tire.

Another reason I'm really liking the sound of the baby duramax Canyon. A truck show ran the 5.0 against the baby duramax towing a 5,600# trailer for the same 100 mile loop. The driver obviously favored the F150 and the F150 was a lot stronger, would get moving faster but at the end, the F150 got 8.5 MPG and the Canyon got 12.5 MPG. That's a hell of a spread.

 

Holy shit, this info is invaluable. I'm not far from paying off my Tacoma and I am getting ready to move to a full size for towing the snowmobile trailers. The Ford 5.0 was leading the pack but I may have to keep doing some research.

 

I tend to run more of the aggressive all-terrains, so I'd be seeing worse MPG's.
I've noticed that trend lately with truck engines where they make their peak torque at stupid RPM's. You need torque the most at the bottom end of the range with a truck, but more and more motors are making their peak power north of 3000 RPM so if you're towing you're SOL on mileage.
I don't know. I'm looking at trading the '10 in for something new(er) probably in 2017 and I'm looking at the prices on the new Tacoma and saying "Jesus, for that kind of $$ maybe I should just get a full-size instead"

 

Exactly. In my case I have to tow my 27', 5 place trailer every so often, but it's hard to justify even if you aren't towing.

 

I haven't even so much as test-driven anything yet, I'm still at the 'looking at prices on dealership websites' and 'reading online reviews' point right now. But I was looking at a local Ford dealer's site last night and all of their in-stock Ecoboosts were the 2.7 rather than the 3.5 and I was like "WTF?" because a 2.7 just seems like such a tiny, tiny motor for a big full-size truck. Seems like dragging the F150 around would keep that tiny plant working so hard that you'd lose any of your MPG gains just driving, let alone towing.

 

I think it's just because the new camper is basically a sail. It was not nearly as dramatic with the pop up. I would just set the cruise control and go with the pop up. I was getting low teens MPG and the engine / tranny would stay in a reasonable RPM range and a higher gear, it made short work of the pop up. The pop up probably weighed 2,500 lbs and my bed was always loaded also. The new trailer only weighs about 3,500 lbs but has a much, much larger front area which I think is the difference.

What kills me, is the 5.0 makes a lot of torque and power and a reasonable RPM, the ECU is just telling the engine to make more power and it's eager to jump to a higher RPM and go. That engine absolutely loves to rev. You can put it in cruise control and go, I just got tired of hearing it scream. It kept trying to go to third gear but it will pull just fine in 4th up most hills I've encountered.

 

Unloaded, the real world MPG of the 5.0 vs. the 3.5 ecoboost are very similar unless you only do extended, flat highway runs (then the ecoboost wins but still not by much). Towing, every review I've read is the MPGs are similar but the ecoboost just embarrasses the 5.0 (no personal experience as I've never driven the ecoboost, just what I'm reading). For heavy towing, I guess that twin turbo is the right powerplant for the job. The 5.0 tows fine, but it's slower off the line and will be pulling high RPMs if you leave it to it's own devices. In manual mode, I've found it to be a much more pleasant experience.

 

LOL yeah--I figure I can squeeze some of the insurance $ for a plate bumper. Anybody here install a plate bumper before adding a winch? Just wondering how much of a PITA it is to install a winch on a sitting bumper.

 

I'm finding similar reviews online. But there's less out there comparing the 2.7EB and the 3.5EB than there is comparing the 3.5EB and the 5.0

 

A coworker of mine bought the 2.7 EB and likes it. It seemed peppy in town but he doesn't, and probably never will, actually use it as a truck. It also has this weird shut off thing so when you're sitting at a stop light, the engine shuts off. When you hit the gas, it's not a hybrid so it has to actually start the truck's engine again before going. It seemed fairly seamless but I can't imagine that's going to be good for the battery, starter or engine over time. Seems like an absolutely stupid 'feature'.

 

I'll admit that I definitely don't understand that one. Engine shutoff like that isn't a great long-term plan for saving energy because like you say it's extra work for the starter and battery. I wonder if you can deactivate it, lol.

 

You can deactivate it. He was showing me, there's a button on the dash to turn that feature on and off. He thought it was great, I didn't have the heart to tell him otherwise. Figure it's new and under warranty so let him and Ford deal with that one.

 

Hell, I'd have it deactivated before I left the dealer's lot, haha! That sort of thing bugs me. It's all well and good when everything is brandy new and works perfectly, but what happens when it's 6 years and 100k old and it takes 3-4 seconds to fire back up?

 

If that function still operates seamlessly in 3 years, I'll be thoroughly impressed. Especially since he's driving in Boston traffic every day so it gets used a lot. I'm guessing the starter goes inside of the 3 yr 36k mile warranty. The truck I guess won't let that feature operate if the battery gets too low because it keeps the heat, A/C, radio and lights going every time the engine stops. On paper, it seems like a great idea but in reality... it's just recycle golf cart technology.

 

Much like my old neighbor who thought a heated driveway was the best idea ever. I wondered aloud what would happen when it broke.

 

Does it shut off right away or after so many seconds? That would be a bitch in traffic yikes.

 

Even if it doesn't go inside the warranty period, it turns the starter into a maintenance item. I just replaced the starter on my '84 a couple of weekends ago and it had a 'Chrysler' stamp on it. I know that's a fluke (the damn thing is 32 years old if it's original), but if that start-stop feature is used at all regularly you're probably looking at a new starter every few years.

 

I did,it wasn't bad at all, I had the Allpro apex, plus you don't have the added weight of the winch when installing the bumper

 

Those systems are the balls if they're installed correctly! I would love to have one of those systems.

As soon as you come to a stop, the engine cuts out. Then, when you step on the gas, it fires up and goes again. Same exact function as a golf cart. I was riding with him in Boston traffic when I noticed I was hearing the starter go every time we took off and that's when he explained it to me. It was seamless, from the driver's seat, he didn't have to do anything, the truck just sorted it out.