I just purchased a 2012 F-250 and I am towing a trailer (8000lbs). I am wondering what is the recomended speed and RPM max going up hill? I live in Utah so obviously we have huge hills and long grades. I found myself sticking to no more than 3000RPM for any long distances.

Thanks for the help.

Brian

 

Welcome to FTE!!!! We have 1 rule here, no pictures it didnt happen...we love pictures.

To answer your question, put it in tow/haul mode and let the truck do its thing. Depending on engine, 6.2 vs 6.7, some of the gas guys like to lock it in 4th or 5th gear dependong on the grade, and let it rev. The diesel guys on the otherhand let the truck do the work with all that torque on tap, you proby wont know that trailer is back there.

I have a 06 so I will tell you what I do when I tow, keep in mind my 5er is around 13k give or take. I have the truck in tow/haul, and I let the truck do the work. Only time I interfere is if Im towing a long grade I will shut off the cruise and keep the speed myself using the skinny pedal.

Again welcome and enjoy the new rig, oh pics please

Sarge

 

I think the question is what rpm are you comfortable with. The truck is governed by the computer to not allow the driver to do any damage to the engine by over reving it. So if its a gas motor let her rev thats how its designed, as far as a diesel I would follow Sarges recomendations.

 

I say pin it to win it!

 

Hmm Nobody has addressed the real issue here. The truck will run whatever you want it too.


The trailer will too..it just follows but what about the trailer tires? If they are ST tires your max speed is 65 mph. You can get away with running faster for awhile but eventually you will have a failure and it won't be pretty.

If you are running LT tires then you can do the posted speed limit or what ever Utah limits it to for trailers.

 

Does your 2012 F250 have a transmission temp guage? Keep an eye on that as you haul up those long grades, and you will develop your own comfort zone for when to keep your foot in it, and when to ease off.

We have small rolling hills here, so I like to keep it in high gear, even of that means dropping a bit of speed on the uphill climb. If I head to the mountains, that is no longer an option, and the transmission works a bit more.

 

Honestly its more of a fuel economy question than anything else. You're not going to hurt the truck however you drive up the hill, but higher RPMs are less efficient. You will burn significantly more fuel if you pin the throttle to hold speed at all costs compared to if you slow down and keep the RPMs down.

If fuel usage isn't a concern for you I say floor it, that engine sounds great above 5,000 RPMs!

 

Put the cruise on and let the truck do it's job, use tow/haul and the computer will downshift nicely and compression brake when you tap the brake pedal. Read your manual and find out all the cool things Ford has given newer gen Super Duty owners.

 

Be very careful of setting the cruise control while towing.

 

Thanks everyone. Lots of food for thought.

 

The truck does great over 3000 rpm's. It does sound good too. You will see the power above that rpm and will be a little sluggish until you get there too. Not unusual to be in 3rd gear and running 65 mph either.

 

keep whatever speed you want, let the engine do the work. my opinion and how i do it is floor it and go!

 

Y'all are making me itch to really wind mine up! Gas locally just dropped below $3/gal so I guess it is now or never!

 

Mine sees 4,000+ RPMs every time I drive it, but typically only once for reasons that you mention. If gas were back below $2/gal it would happen much more often.

 

Good advice, and for the most part it is true.

There are some ST tires out there that are rated to higher speeds, now however. i recently saw a set of ST235/85r16's with a rating of "125L" which, translated means 3638lbs @ 75mph. i wish i could remember the brand or got a pic, but i can't and i didn't.

they may be hard to find, but they are out there, so an ST tire equating to a 65MPH limit is not a blanket truth anymore. Still good advice though. a trailer at 75mph can be a handfull regardless of the shoes it wears.

as to the RPM. i like to keep 3000 or less if possible for steady cruising. if you're pulling a hill, you do what you gotta do. our SD will pull about 3200 at 50mph in 2nd gear, which is fine for me when needed. otherwise, it is less than 3000 at 65, which is comfortable.

if you run too high of rpm for too long, the oil temp will come up too high and the computer will kill your fun to save the motor, so there is really no worry about over doing it. i'd keep an eye on the trans temp as a matter of practice, though.