o yeah the new addition (henry) to the family needs a place to crash also...but he like domestics and hes a real light weight...one other thing he might need a g/f for the night because he's been humping my leg lately, so do you have someone for him??

 

sorry Henry but my labs Rex & Ubu are straight, plenty of room though got 1 acre in back reserved for toys.

 

o well guess my leg will have to do for now

 

poor Henry!

 

lol...well he really seems to like it!!! the trainer said its a dogs way of showing dominence so it'll be stopping really SOON!!!!

 

lol, I know this is big time grave digging, but I was looking at my old posts and figured I would update this thread for anyone searching.

My truck did exceptionally well on that trip and several others since then. Our combined weight was exactly 16K (Ford's max for my truck). The truck pulled all those passes and hills at 60 or so at least, but rev'd pretty high to do it. 4K rpm was not uncommon. Since it is what the engine is designed to do, it did not bother me. We averaged about 8mpg in the mountains and almost 10 on the plains. I never had trouble of any kind with the truck. I was pleased.

I still have the truck. It pulls my 5th wheel great. However, if I ever go to a heavier trailer, I will be trading the truck off on a V10 or diesel.

 

Thanks for updating this thread. I just bought a 5.4 CC F250 4x4. I will eventually by a small 5th wheel (something like a 26' half ton series), but will only pull it maybe 1-5% of my total driving, and those will be fairly short trips. I'm happy enough with the truck as a daily driver, but was still a little worried that I might should have gone V10. Your response here makes me feel better about the purchase. I just figured I'd be happier with the 5.4 for every day driving and that it should have enough to safely handle my very infrequent towing, but not having bought the trailer yet, I still had some fears.

 

Grave diggin' isn't always bad.

My thanks for the update as well. I've been pulling smaller loads with my 5.4 but recently started looking for a boat that will be at the upper limits of my towing capactiy.

It's relatively flat along the coastal region so I don't expect many problems. Did you pull in drive or 3 with the tow/haul? and did you learn any tough lessons along the way?

 

Yes, the little 5.4L is amazing...but it does have it's limits. 16,000 GVWR is amazing for a small engine like that, when you think about it.

As for the TOW/HAUL mode question, leave the transmission in drive, activate T/H mode and just let the truck decide what gear it wants to be in. If it wants to rev don't be alarmed, just let it go.

 

double post

 

I agree completly.

You might be right about the overheating thing, but I have yet to make my 5.4L/torqshift with 3.73s even come close to overheating and I live in the mountains of BC and pull a trailer that is awfully close in weight to the op's. As for braking, unless the op was to put an exhaust break on, he will have the same brakes with a diesal as he does now.

 

Thanks for checking back in. 4k rpm ain't nothing to worry about. Glad to hear the trucks working out for you. The next time you need another truck if you get a gasser again I highly recommend the steeper 4.30s gears for towing.

 

[quote=hotroddsl;4603293]I would go diesel & stick with a 05 to 07 6 liter (rock solid reliable) & pretty darned efficent

WTF!!! my cousins 07 6.BLOW had the cab off the chassis before he his 50K, and he blew the head gasket on a bone stock truck, no lift and stock tires, he was not even towing anything when it went, rock solid, i think not! to the OP, remember the fight between ford and navistar, is it because of the rock solid reliability of the 6.BLOW?

 

Just a couple of comments for what it's worth:
We had an '05 F250 w/5.4 & 3.73. We also had a 5er that weighed about 10K loaded. Pulled it just fine on most terrain. Yes, it did wind up pretty good on the 10% grades, but it did it. Then we traded the camper for a 36' weighing 14K. We picked it up with the '05, and had several 9 & 10% grades on the way home, one 10% grade was 3 miles long. The 5.4 did it, 3500 RPM and about 35 MPH, but it did it.

We also have some other F250's in the family, pulling about 8-10K trailers. Various engines. All the gassers average about 9 towing.

With all that said, some points to remember:
"05 & up had the 3 valve 5.4, with the torqueshift tranny. Big improvment over previous models.

Mileage will vary greatly with terrain.

Mileage will vary, as will performance, depending on altitude.

Performance will vary from poor to great, depending on the person's expectations. What's good to one may be less so to another.

Mileage and performance will depend a lot on driving style.

Mileage will vary more with frontal surface than weight.

Having the tow package will make a difference, but, none of the superduties in the family have ever had an overheating problem no matter what the tow.

Regardless of the engine, on a given series, the brakes and driveline are identical.

Our experience has been that the 5.4 is adequate up to about 8-9K, depending on front surface. The V10 is good to about 14K. Undoubtedly the diesel performs better under all conditions, but is overkill in a lot of of situations.

And last but not least, in similar conditions, our F250 w/ 5.4 pulling 10k got just about the same mileage as the F350 V10 pulling 14K.

Just some personal observations over the years.

“The laws that forbid the carrying of arms .....disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” Cesare Beccaria

 

The gassers with the 4R100 often had an undersize trans cooler in them so the 4R100 would heat up quick when its worked hard. A larger or auxilury cooler helped a lot to reduce temps. An accumulator and tq lockup valve upgrade helped also.

I'm not up on the diesels system but I believe they have a hydro assit braking system where as the gassers have a vaccum assist system. Diesels don't produce vaccum so they had to go a different route. So I guess diesel brakes are a little better.