Where's OUR Horsepower?

[LxMan1]

Friday I towed a 2300lb trailer with a 97 extended cab full size Dodge 1500 about 200 miles up I-65 with my 5.4L. It pulled 70mph pretty good. Mostly in OD except on long uphill grades I would drop back to 3rd. It's no Lightning, but it towed all of that weight (Approx 7000) just fine. I gotta swap out the engine in the Dodge.

[zman764]

The Toyota was made nice in some ways and cheap in some ways. But I cannot deny they got wayyyy more power out of 350 cubic inches than any other manufacturer so far.

[fonefiddy]

Where's OUR Horsepower?

It's eaten up by the extra 800-1000lbs of pork, the F150 carries over it's competitors.

If Ford were smart they'd design a 1/2 ton truck that was a 1/2 TON TRUCK.

They allready build the Super Duty, so why does a F150 need to haul 2K LBs?

With fuel price's looming @ $3.00/gal

If they built a truck with reasonable HP that got 25 MPG, they'd sell like hotcakes. I'd say that prolly 75% of the F150 owners are truck posers anyways. And rarely, if ever, see any load even close to the trucks capabilities.

I can see the commercial now, "The New F150. Fully capable to tow 10K lbs. And gets an EPA rated 25 MPG."

Peeps would be lined up at the dealers, trading their 16 MPG Chev's, Dodge's, Ford's for an extra 8-10 MPG.

[rollerstud98]

good luck making that though fonefiddy, even if the truck was to drop 1000lbs it wouldn't be that much better in the fuel consumption

[fonefiddy]

Oh yes it would, Grasshopper.

[gui88ford]

Originally Posted by fonefiddy

Oh yes it would, Grasshopper.

well, to counter your point....over the weekend i towed 3,000 lbs of wood in my 1,600 lb trailer......thats 4,600 lbs up to my place in north centeral PA.....

on the way up i got 14 mpg loaded......

on the way home i got 15 mpg....

thats only 1mpg difference for 4.600 lbs.....not to much of a difference at almost 5,000 lbs....

and the calcs were done manually...


so, if the truck would drop 1,000 lbs it prolly would get better but it would be very minimal...

[MBBFord]

gui88ford, that's towing somthing not just vehical weight.
My dad gets 18-20 mpg on the hwy constantly.
He pulls a trailer that weights 2K he gets 15.5 mpg, 3K gets 15 mpg, but not pulling anything it does pretty good.
I'd say a diet would help these trucks.

[jnye6625]

My 07 F-150 got 18.7 and 18.6 mpg on the last two tanks. I'm happy.

[fonefiddy]

Yeah but with todays technology, and the way the the Nation is dependent on foreign oil. You should'nt be happy with those numbers. You should demand MORE. It's a matter of our long term economic stability.

[Ford-150]

Originally Posted by fonefiddy

and the way the the Nation is dependent on foreign oil.

thats wy we should kill them all, yeah im ignorant

[rollerstud98]

foreign as in canadian? i'm sure reapin the benefits of you guys needin our oil down there right now

[IB Adrian]

Now, no politics please...

[97Centurion]

Originally Posted by rollerstud98

good luck making that though fonefiddy, even if the truck was to drop 1000lbs it wouldn't be that much better in the fuel consumption

I notice about a 2mpg difference when my truck is loaded with tools compared to when it is empty.

[dwrestle]

The trucks are to big, they need to keep the heavy duty frame but loose all weight that doesn't matter. They should keep the 5.4 maybe make it a DOHC, I wouldn't want a DOHC 4.6 in a truck, but a DOHC 5.4 would be sweet.

[fonefiddy]

The frame is overbuilt, for a F150. It's supposed to be a half ton.

A gasser F250 costs about the same as a F150. So if you need the heavy frame, why not buy the SD. You get heavier brakes, rear end,tranny, ect.