Just got home yesterday from a great summer trip. We left ATL on July 8 and went to Seattle down the Oregon coast. over to Tahoe and back across I 80 and down to I 40 and got home on 9/2. The truck (see sig) was almost flawless. My 5er weighs between 16,500 and 17,000 + or - and depending on how full the tanks are. Anyway, we crossed the mountains in about every way there is and towed a few long days. Had the oil changed twice and the fuel filters once. In Colee Dam WA I noticed a diesel leak under the rail filter. It was leaking out the filter drain and I could not get it stopped. Figured out that it did not leak when running so we headed for Seattle. Took it to the ford dealer and they put a new rail filter housing on per warranty. One battery shot craps up at Crater Lake on a friday. By the time I got anywhere near a Ford place they were closed for the weekend so I bought a new one at Auto Zone. I saved the old one and I'll see if Ford will replace it under warranty. Other than those two things the truck was flawless. Oh yeah, caught a rock in the windshield and it cracked all the way. Safelite came to the RV park and had me up and away in an hour and a half. This truck was awesome towing through the mountains and we had some long 6 and 7 % pulls and some steep decents. love the tow haul. Now for the mileage. All interstate driving is done at 60 MPH unless traffic calls for something else. Still, it's pretty sad.

Total miles 9512.... total Gals 1024....over all MPG 9.3

Towing miles 6468......Gals fuel 766 .....towing MPG 8.6

There were no highway miles. We were either towing or driving around various toursit traps. No unloaded highway miles. Also I survived two nasty interstate blow outs on my 5er. The stability of the DRWs was a big help in that neither blowout even scared me, I hardly felt them. Sure tore the chit out of the side of my RV though.

 

Great report! Your mpgs were better than mine. I suppose gearing helps.

Did you submitt your oa yet to blackstone?

 

Welcome home. Glad you had a safe trip.

 

Great report. I'm planning a round trip from VA to CA next year.

 

What a report! With the total weight, I think that your mileage was not really that bad. You did a lot of climbing and that, as with any engine, sucks fuel. I am so glad that you had a good trip for the number of miles and days you traveled. Let us know on you OA report. Curious!

 

Great report, my bro-in-law just replaced the tires on his 5er with Goodyears. They do not give those away...

 

Good report, Glad you had a safe trip!

 

Sounds like you had a great trip. You were up in my area for awhile, I am about 50 miles south of Crater Lake. My wife and I just bought a 2010 F250 and are shopping for a 5th wheel.

 

I am sure what you will need to do it put in on the cat scale at your local truck stop, then you will know your payload capacity when shopping.

Sorry Stanley, kinda hijacked your thread.

 

No sweat on the hijack. I'm gonna send my Oil sample today, well I guess it will be tuesday before it goes anywhere. I have two samples in plastic containers to pour in to the Black stone jars. I don't expect it to show any problems but I want to know the results.

 

I would be curious about the AL and Iron results. Mine showed elevated levels from my trip. Not excessively high.

 

Yeah, and they really don't sell them cheap to someone who needs them very very much, and who has no one else to buy them from.

 

Interesting how comparable we are on summer activity. I just got back to New Mexico after a summer through Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado. 11,500 miles of which about 4,000 was towing my 17k fiver. My total confirmed weight with full tanks is 27,340

I averaged 12 mpg both towing and empty sightseeing with a lot of highway miles with no load. I reset the LOM at Cody, Wyoming last Friday and we left there on Sat. a.m. while it was 27 degrees COLD. Drove 1100 miles mostly down I-25 and arrived Sunday evening. So two days mostly freeway with some significant headwinds and I averaged 9.0.

I'm quite happy with this incredible towing machine. Handles mucho 6-8 percent grades up and down with no problem at all. No white knuckle stuff as I experienced with my 2006 6.0 PSD. Terrific machine for heavy towing.

 

OK, well Senix don't miss much, my OA came back just like he said it would. See it below. Put my stock battery back in and went to ford and got a brand new Motor Craft, sweet. Hard to compare mileage with each other on these trips, I suspect we all do a lot of the same stuff but also a lot of different stuff. It's funny, after we got over most of the mountains coming back east we stopped in Colorado Springs for a couple days. As we started east from there I said this will be a really good fuel run today. Turns out by the time we hit Kansas the wind was out of the south east at about 30 gusting 40 or so. I think that leg was well under 7MPG. Anyway I'm not too unhappy. It just bugs me that absent the feds interference the trucks could be so much better. While I was at the dealership waiting for my new battery I touched on the DPF delete and tuner issue. That idea flew like a lead airplane. No one said it but i got the feeling it was a sore subject for the service writer and the service manager. I think I'm just gonna drive it like it is and see what happens. I also got all new tires on the 5er and have ordered the parts to repair the damnage. I do 10 ft quality body and fender work. heck, the 5er's 5 years old, that will do. Anyway, here's the OA. This is the first one. If blackstone ever sends me another kit I have the second one to send in. That one was from some serious hill climbing, we'll see how it comes out.

 

Still not bad Stanley..didn't think that your fuel would be that high though.