Gas mileage ?

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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby dancam » Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:27 pm

Well that was interesting. Just keep in mind that north america is the only place in the world where people think that an engine should be able to handle all its work load at an idle and you shouldnt tow with anything other than a 1 ton dually or bigger.
Anyhow, vehicles are designed to meet the expectations of buyers. The buyers of f-150's are commuters that will never haul any load, soccer moms, government/union employee company vehicles and commuters who use it to tow a boat twice a year.
Thats what their designed for. What they can do is different, but their made to keep 1 person comefortable with an empty or lightly loaded box. Thats who their buyers are. But just because thats what their made for doesnt mean they cant or shouldnt be used as a truck. Thats what the rest of the world would do with it.

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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby Camp4Life » Fri Jul 21, 2017 9:17 am

pchast wrote:If I might suggest: A cap when towing and
perhaps an air wing at the end of it.

Its the frontage 'Air Dam' that kills things.

Also at what speed are you towing?


Speed limits are 60mph where I travel and that's what I do. My 2nd trip netted better mileage and I did around 13 MPG. I must have been hitting some good headwinds on my first trip.

Tigris99 wrote:Wow that trailer probably weighs as much as the truck if not more.

I forgot ford put such a sad little motor in some F150s.

Btw weight vs wind resistance is a fair bit off.

If your where its basically flat terrain then its mostly wind resistance which still isnt a big deal till speed above cruising around town.

Highway it plays a good sized part but weight becomes an even bigger issue when you have hills and mountains to deal with. Towing up hill with a vehicle that doesnt have a sizeable amount of torque will loose around 50% of its fuel mileage. No different than a noticeable fuel mileage loss between just the driver versus full of adults in a vehicle.

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Truck weighs just over 5000 lbs, but it can still tow up to 8500 lbs. Like I mentioned above, I got better mileage on my 2nd trip so for sure I was going into some winds before. Funny enough, my truck tows my 7500 lb boat (weight includes trailer) easily and gets better mileage, but it's a lot more aerodynamic so...

And the 2.7 is twin turbocharged which gets my 325 hp and 385 torque. More than enough for my needs.


gudmund wrote:not to say that I am a Ford fan-which I am not, BUT "....sad little motor in some F150s" ? that 'little' motor is why that BIG full sized truck gets such good MPG with no load and the question should asked, how can such a "small" motor even be able to tow such a heavy trailer along with powering such a big truck?? 2.7 liters equals about 165 cubic inches - YES that is a SMALL motor!!! But believe it of not, it produces about 325 HP and a lot of torque to go with it - if I remember right it has duel turbo's on it and yes, when you need or use all of it's power when towing the gas mileage drops a whole lot but no matter what size of motor or brand of vehicle you have when towing something that heavy/air resistance your mileage is going down!!! a lot!!!. I am still total awe of the power being produced by the Ford's nowaday engines along with them, for the most part being so dependable. They seen to be holding up just fine so far. Next time you see a Ford Explorer police vehicle - and there are a lot of them!!, think about what is under it's hood - a 3.5 liter V-6 producing 365 HP and 420 lbs of torque - that's only about a 213 cubic inch motor!!! and some of the newer versions of this motor are over 400 HP now!!! ... Sad little motor ???? :thinking: (Sure glad my brother-in-law does not read this forum-I would NEVER hear the end of this if he found out I am defending FORD ;) ) :beer:


Bingo!

working on it wrote:
Camp4Life wrote:Wishing that I had been able to build my TTT this year, but for health reasons I decided to pick one up that I found for a really good price.

My 2015 F-150 with 2.7L Ecoboost engine gets me 26.29 MPG on the highway.

With my camper, I get around 9.5 MPG :(
The camper is not very aerodynamic, and weighs in around 4500 lbs.
  • That little 2.7 liter engine probably is fighting it's little heart out everytime you start from a stop, just to get the trailer rolling. Your truck is probably running on 17-18" tires, using 3.73 gears (at best), and gulping gas while the turbo screams away...meanwhile, my 2500HD Chevy, with a 6.0 liter engine, on 16" tires with 4.10 gears, slowly gets rolling, but doesn't gulp the gas until higher speeds. Unloaded, it might get 14 mph at 70 mph, but when loaded only gets 11-12 mph, regardless if the load is 2000 lbs (my TTT), or 4500 lbs (my wife's 20 ft Puma...much taller and wider, too). I've also towed to drag races, with 2000 lbs in my truck bed, and 7000 lbs on the open carhauler, and never dropped below 10 mpg, even at 75 mph. The key is that the smaller tires combined with the steeper gears keep my 6.0 liter engine in its' optimal power range, and the heavier rotating mass of the larger displacement 6.0 l engine keeps the "train a rolling", but also never gets great mpg, for the same reasons. So, while your modern-tech engine can pull a heavy load, it is best suited for lighter-duty, else the turbo has to force consumption of more gas to achieve what better gearing and larger engines do well, in moving heavy loads.
  • "There is no replacement for displacement", and "steeper gearing is better", both variants of "go big or go home"... were a couple of maxims I swore by in dragracing, that applied to going down the track, or towing my cars to it. New technology makes more power than the old tech did, using computers and the like, but, sometimes you just can't get power and gas efficiency at the same time...that's when the old, proven, tech wins, at least in my experience. No surprises. I'll never get good gas mileage in my old truck, but always get about the same, regardless of what I'm towing. It hardly notices any difference, no matter what's following behind. Just my opinion, yours may vary.


My tires are 20" for the record, and yes I have 3.73 gearing and the tow package. And the turbos create torque at low RPM. Most vehicles in Europe are turbocharged, and they've been doing it for decades with no issues (diesel and gas). No screaming when pulling from a start unless I put the pedal to the floor, but I would never drive like that when towing anyways, nor do I need to. If not towing, I'll just burn rubber if my traction control is off, so the tires are the only thing screaming lol

I rarely tow, which is why I picked this engine. But I do need the bed for gear, for both hobby and work and home stuff. And since I rarely do tow, I enjoy getting 26-29 MPG's for most of the calendar year save for the few days when I tow. So I'd rather take than any day. I have a 36 gallon fuel tank, and I've been on a trip a few provinces over and made it the 750 miles there on one tank. And that's the goal : Long trips, less stops to refuel, good mileage. So I'll take slightly lower towing mileage over mediocre everyday mileage any time.

I have 72k on the odometer so far and I've had zero problems with this truck. I've only ever taken it in for regular services. I tow my 7500 lb boat, and this trailer with no issues. The max I can tow is 8500 lbs but that's complete overkill for me especially since I'm getting rid of the boat. No other gas half-ton or larger can give me the everyday-mileage I get so I've got zero regrets with my choice. :beer:
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby Tigris99 » Fri Jul 21, 2017 10:32 am

For your needs that is the perfect Pickup. Sounds like a perfect light/mid duty truck while being comfortable and affordable to drive every day.

They are nice looking trucks, but sadly they have a ford emblem.

Jking, actually have me curious, maybe Ford did pull their heads outta their butts with these newer trucks.

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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby Camp4Life » Fri Jul 21, 2017 11:06 am

Haha, yes this is my 2nd Ford. My first one was an early 80's Bronco that was used and in rough shape. Needed wheels, did the job for a year. I considered a pickup for a while but was never interested in F150's until 2015 when they changed the look and came out with the 2.7L. THAT's what caught my attention and made up my mind. That and doing 0-60 in 6.3 seconds on a test drive :?

So far so good, Ford has been good to me, and I might not go back to Nissan again...
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby Tigris99 » Fri Jul 21, 2017 1:41 pm

Id never go to nissan personally lol. Too many problems with their transmissions (my in laws have been going through nissans about once every 3 years because of their problems)

If we get a truck again Ill probably go American, but anything else its honda or toyota.

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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby OzarkWonder » Thu Jul 27, 2017 10:24 am

My first teardrop weighed 880 lbs, was 10' x 54", fit in the wind shadow of my chevy Astro van and cost me nothing to pull (15 mpg towing or not).

My new teardrop is 5' x 10' and weighs 1380 pounds. I pull it with a 2011 Subaru Outback 2.5i. Without the trailer I get 25 mpg. With the trailer I get 20 mpg. I figure it costs me 1 gallon of gas to pull the teardrop 100 miles.


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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby friz » Thu Jul 27, 2017 2:20 pm

I normally get about 36 without the trailer. This was my last trip around Colorado towing the camper.Image

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