Well I just completed my first towing trip with the V10, while it had good power, and towed fine, I only got 6 - 7 mpg and now I'm thinking that the diesel is sounding better and better. Only bad thing is that I haven't heard too many good things about the Ford Diesel, which makes me think of goind to Dodge and their cummings.

I've had 4 V10's (3 F250's and 1 Excursion) and this particular truck gets horrible gas mileage, barely 12 mpg unloaded on the highway.

I can get a Ford diesel cheaper than a Dodge, but the Dodge with a 6 spd manual and the 5.9 diesel is pretty tempting.

What do ya'll think?

Tony

 

If it were me, I'd buy the Chevy Duramax/Allison combo if I were to go diesel and didn't want the Ford. I would not buy a Dodge. Lots of guys report only getting 10MPG towing with the diesel. How heavy a load are you towing? Hills? At what speed? Speed is a MPG killer when towing.

 

How often do you tow?? Are you happy w/ it otherwise? Are you just looking for an excuse to go buy a new truck?? Do you like visiting the dealership for recalls?? All questions that need to be answered......

 

i had a 2000 chevy 3500 crew cab dually. with the 6.6 duramax. and i got about 11mpg towing my 30ft fifth wheel camper.

 

Spend a bunch of search time in the Diesel forum here - I had an 04 then an 05 PSD all picked out then pulled the Oasis reports - ugly - and these appeared to be a "good" ones after reading the many, many posts. I just bought an F350CC V10 after spending the weekend driving it - while I haven't pulled my 7000# camper with it yet, the gas mileage can't be any worse then the '01 F150 5.4 @10mpg. Empty it is equal to or better then the F150. And for sure a lot better then my ancient and long gone '79/460.

 

Just my 2 centavos worth....

Before I bought my 6.0 I went and talked to my independent maintenance shop about what they see for diesel maintenance.

They pointed me to a sign showing prices for replacing injectors. Dodge was the costliest, followed by Chevy and finally Ford. They said they had not seen a Ford for repair work. The only Ford they had seen was to install aftermarket toys.

They told me the worst were the Chevys followed by the Dodges. I took their advice and bought the 6.0 and have put 11K carefree miles on it since Feb!

 

Why did you get a V-10 in the first place, if you are that worried about fuel economy?

If you tow on a regular basis, then yes, get a PSD and love it.

If you tow 2-3 times a year, keep what you have and plan on frequent fuel stops.

 

I would suspect that the Fords all went back to the dealer under the 100K warranty. My dealer in private allowed as how there were way too many repairs on the 6.0 and hoped the 6.4 PSD would prove to be better. My 'new' truck had been back for 2 warranty repairs in a year - 2 taillight bulbs with all scheduled maintenance done at the dealership.

 

I have a 2000 Excursion 4wd 7.3 and tow a 23' boat weight 6000#+ and normally get 14 mpg at 65 mph. I don't try to get in a hurry towing but 14 at 65 is much better than my F150 with V8 at 7 mpg at 55. Jim

 

i dont think you are remembering that correctly. dodge injectors are the cheapest and there are only 6 followed by the duramax and the ford HEUI injectors are buy far the most expensive

 

Funny how $3 a gallon will do that to ya, like I said my other (3) V10's all got much better gas mileage, towing and empty. This particular one is bad on gas. AND since I've gotten this thing, diesel has had a .80 cent price swing, diesel was .40 cents more than gas, now it's .40 cents less than gas. So at .80 cents difference and supposedly better mpg, it may make sense to do the diesel.

The other thing is I have the short bed, so I was looking for a gas station every 120 - 140 miles, that's a not alot of miles from a tank.

This is my first Travel Trailer, so I'm not sure how often I'll be towing, but most likely not more than 5 times per year. But this trip was around 2000 miles in 2 days, just retired from the service and hired on with the railroad.

Tony

P.S. I ain't said nothing bad about the V10 other than this particular one I got sucks the gas, at one point I was at 5.65 mpg on flat terrain doing 65 mph, now that sucks.

 

Tony1790,
Assume this is a new V10. They take a while to break in, about 7500 miles. If you tow a lot, it might be worth a swap to a diesel, but you will get hurt on the trade. The
V10 is not too popular with dealers, especially since gas is so high right now. I traded my '04 V10 for an '03 7.3 diesel and I love it. Great mileage and plenty of power.
I won't be going back to gas.

 

I have an 06 F250 CC/LB 4x4 with the V-10, torqueshift and 4.10's. Just came back from a car show
this weekend towing my 24' enclosed V-nose and my race car inside. I'm guessing the trailer, junk and car are around 7500 pounds.

680 miles, 80 gallons of gas, 8.5 mpg. Considering my 99 F250 with the V-10 and 3.73's
did the same trip and averaged 6.5 - 7 mpg, I think this one's doing pretty damn good
with 15K miles on the clock. One of the best moves I ever made and the 06 tows like a dream...

 

I'm in the opposite mod right now. I have a 02 Dirtymax and am looking at getting a V10. Towing milage can vary greatly. Here in MT if I'm on the flats with no wind(a rarity) I can get around 11mpg with our 30 ft 5er. In the mountains or bucking a wind, 8 is very possible. I admit that I ussually run about 65-70 mph and use the power to climb the hills. Driving at a more relaxed pace would help mpg but drive me nuts. That fact has me questioning the gasser. The new diesels, while having the power, seem to be getting less milage than previous versions. Pretty sure the fuel savings wouldn't make the diesel cheaper, but it would make the hills smaller.

 

i just finished a 3300 mile trip towing 8500# RV averaged a little over 10 MPG--i have a '08 250 V10 4.1---loved the way it towed no problems--I did only drive about 60-65 MPH ----my 61 year old bladder lasted about as long as a tank of gas