Still happy with mine too at 10 months and 18k miles. Tows our 8500~lb 5th wheel like a champ around the southeast.

 

I have towed my dads CAT skid loader with trailer which is ~9,000lbs. It was a slow trek and had to break really early but the truck did it. I was impressed. The only problem was when unloading the loader it lifts the whole rear end of the truck off the ground HA

 

I've driven work trucks from chevy to ford with just about every engine they offer. The 5.4 will get the job done. I like the v10 better in the fords as far as gas engines go. Being as I have driven them and had to work out of them service boxes trailers etc I prefer the older 99-06 chevy 6.0 trucks and the v10 fords for a work truck. the chevys self destruct after about 130-160k the fords seem to hold up better. Mpgs are close between the v10, chevy 6.0 and the 5.4. The thing I like about the chevy motor is they don't sound like they have a high stall convertor like the 5.4 does. As I stated above they work and can pull a lot of weight. I personally wouldn't buy one for me to drive. Might buy it for some employees though.

 

my dodge was an 08 with hemi and 3.92 gears.I know it was a 1/2 ton so yeah about a thousand pounds lighter but that motor was fantastic for pulling that thing **** and get.Don't get me wrong i love my ford and gonna get get another one probabbley a v10 but that dodge has wicked power compared to my 250.I haven't drove a 150 with the 5.4 to see what the power difference is between the two but that thing would run.Now i feel like i am driving my grandma's 77 chevy station wagon with 6 kids in it.lol.Yeah it will tow my trailer no problem and so will a 283 chevy motor but to me it is what you feel comfotrable with towing and i just don't like keeping a motor reved at 4,000 to 5,000 rpms for an hour or 2 to keep it at 70 m.p.h just me.

 

I'm in the PSD crowd and I"ll tell ya the 5.4 is a dang good engine. My wife is a large animal vet. She has her own clinc. She works out of an 04 6150 fx4 scab w/ 5.4l. She has come to like the 2011 SDs. She's looking at buying a 6.2. She doesn't want a diesel. The only reason she hasn't bought the 2011 yet is cause they only offered her $4000 for her truck. I've decided I'll buy the truck from her for $4000. Her f150 did everthing she asked of it. If it wasn't for the new SD body style she wouldn't even concider a new truck. She's had a great 6 yrs since buying that truck she needs to spend alittle money.
I would agree w/ the statement that getting a loaded started is easier than stopping it. That being said I think w/ the SD frame and trailer brakes I could stop more weight than I would care to get started w/ the 5.4. I'm not saying it won't do it, I'm saying I don't see any value in trying to pull 15k-20k lbs w/ a 5.4 in a SD. Yea maybe if you just had to do it once. I've towed around 15'k w/ my 5.4 and it didn't seem to have enough engine breaking from speed or low end in crazy terrain. Now mind you 14k lbs sitting on a trailer in lose earth is a pain in the butt to get moving. I would always just drop it in 3rd and let it eat. Closer to 10k and you are shining. Damn good motor. Looking forward to driving 1 again.

 

But power is only a small part of towing. Sure, you need enough power to pull the load, but stability, brakes and handling are probably 80% of the battle.

 

I have a 1999 Ford F-250 4x4 it tows my travel trailer that weights 8600 and my Ford F-250 pulls it just fine and I also have 5.4 triton and I would not trade it for a new truck it does just fine I'm sticking with my 5.4

 

I have a 2001 with the 5.4 in it with 141,000 on it and it pulls like a champ. I pull 8,000-10,000 pounds with it a few times a month and no troubles except watching the fuel guage.
It has been my work horse for the last 6 years and has had no major problems.

 

Hey man, can you tell me where you got you're headers n Y pipe from? I have a 99 also, n thought the motor was junk but found out that the cat is plugged. This truck has spent its whole life tugging around race cars and my 35' fifth wheel. I have a shop local that will put a custom magnaflow on, but I was leaning to flowmaster, I had it on my old 86 250 and it worked great. Any ideas? Thanks

 

I recently traded from a 2010 F250 Lariat CC SB 4x4 5.4 (4.10 rear) to a 2011 F250 Lariat CC SB 4x4 6.7 (3.55 locking rear). I have pulled a Keystone Outback 5th wheel (approximately 11k loaded) about 9000 miles over the summer, 6000 with the 2010 and the last 3000 with the 2011. The reason for my trade is that the Outback just never felt comfortable behind the 2010. It felt as if the trailer was driving me rather than me pulling the trailer. Had to constantly watch for merging traffic, hills, and any other obstacle that I needed to speed up or slow down for because I had to manage speeding back up - cruise control was pretty much useless. The transmission was constantly shifting even on a flat surface with little headwind and kept jumping between 2200 and 3800+ rpm. Gas mileage at best towing 65mph average was 7.5, worst (with a headwind or in hill country) 5. With that kind of mileage it felt like I was having to stop every hour or so for fuel. Don't know if I hit a special "unhappy spot" with my truck/camper combination but it definitely was not fun to travel. Specs on the 2010 indicated I should be able to pull 11.3k which I was under, but I guess right at the top of the tolerance.

Luckily I was able to get out of the 2010 without taking a big hit and move to the 2011 diesel, especially given that we will probably average around 20k towing travel in a normal year. This is my first diesel and I hesitated immensely (I guess you can say the 2010 was my hesitation) because I had never owned one before and was worried about complexity, maintenance, etc. So this is not one of those posts from a diesel only guy, just a guy that has very recently owned and exercised both.

So while you will see folks in the 5.4 thread say "it will do it", and generally it will, the difference between the 5.4 and diesel is nearly indescribable. All I can say is that when we travel now I do not really have to think about the camper back there at all; in fact it seems like there is nothing behind me. Mileage towing is nothing short of phenomenal as well - 11.5mpg at 70-75 mph, 13.5mpg at 55-60 mph. Locks right down into 6th gear and stays there, even up/down hills and through maneuvers. Not knowing what the earlier Ford diesels were like I can't say how much better/worse this one is than the previous versions, but the 2011 diesel towing experience is so much above and beyond the 2010 gas that I do not feel bad at all about the (very expensive) option price. But maybe that only makes sense if you are consistently towing week after week. It makes sense to me though.

So all I can say now is that I wish I had listened to what some folks were saying on this forum before the 2010 lightened my pocket by a couple thousand dollars to trade it in. If I had a chance to test drive both before purchasing, I would not have hesitated about the extra diesel costs and concerns.

My two cents, thanks.

 

I got my headers on ebay, they are OBX ones and not the cheaper ones. I put a Magnaflow muffler on cause thats what the exhaust shop guy said is more of the tone I was looking for. I got the Edge Evolution CS programmer and I can switch to 3 different settings, economy, towing and performance and it also monitors anything I want and has any gauge I need. I have not put the Y pipe on yet but did a search for SPD y pipe after reading on here and it says 33 hp and 1.5 to 2 mpg gain. Take that for what it is but I think it will help greatly.

 

At work I have 2 85 Chevy K30 4X4’s with 6.2 Diesel. These are the Army trucks; we use them for snow plows. All 155HP of them and both will grab a second weather you want them too or not. I could not imagine trying to tow the loads with these trucks that I pull with my Pathfinder. That was the good ole days, in the 80’s. One of my jobs in high school was working at wrecker service; we had two trucks, one Ford, one Chevy. 88 Ford was a 460 4speed, 3.73. 85 Chevy was a 350, 4speed, 4.10. These trucks were the early Century all hydraulic units, they were heavy. Most of us preferred the Chevy, It just seem to pull better. For some reason Ford did not have a granny gear in its transmission. Loaded on hill was a challenge in that truck. I’m on my 3rd F250SD, 01 V10 5 speed, 04 5.4 auto, and now a 5.4 6 speed. I don’t pull much; I have a boat that weighs about 5000#. The V10 was awesome, 5.4 auto was ok, not going to win any race, haven’t tried it with the new truck yet, but I love having a clutch. Amazingly, my 04 Niss Pathfinder was rated at 6500# towing. It pulled the boat as well as the 5.4 auto did. You just had to hit the breaks a little sooner. Driving style and how often you tow are your biggest factors. I think SD is the best looking trucks on the road. I tow about 5 times a year, and just can’t justify the extra 6 to 7 grand for PS. If I pulled 6500# all day every day, it would be a different story. My truck mainly takes me to work, and home. It pulls my 200# *** pretty well.

 

Good post. What you're describing is what I and others on this board believe to be true. The 5.4L will pull extremely well for what it is. It'll pull more than it's rated for. However, it is not a suitable engine to pull 75%+ of it's rated capacity on a regular basis and for Long distances. It would be one thing to pull your 11k camper 20 miles to the lake a few times in the summer. It's another thing to set out and pull it 6000 miles across the country a time or three.

And this is coming from a 5.4L boy, myself.


There's some things certain people just can't comprehend. For some reason, a number of people think spinning a gas engine to 3500rpm is harmful to the engine. It is not. Some people think numerically higher (4.10) gears automatically equate into worse fuel mileage. They do not. These things are what gas engines need to tow and to tow well. On the other hand, every engine has its limit as to how much weight it'll lug around while still maintaining reasonable highway speeds. 11,000lbs is just too dang much for the 5.4L.

Glad you made the switch without getting totally hosed on trade-in.


My 2 cents

 

I love that. My previous vehicle was a 1992 SHO Taurus. Redline was 6000 or 6500....and I used to like getting up in that range. Now I have my F2505.4 and am pulling around a tractor a lot this summer. Weight is around 7500-8000 lbs between trialer and tractor. It is like driving a corvette off the line? Heck no. But where my land is, is at the bottom of a steep valley. The first thing I do when I pull out, is jam it up a 25-30% grade. And try not to block traffic. Does it rocket up to speed instantly? Heck no. But by the time I hit top of that hill, I am at speed limit. And it is pulling 4500+ rpms as I rev it., That's wort case for me. Next year I won't be towing it as much. =Less of a problem. It can do a lot. too may people are impatient and expect rocket ship performance from a a truck, IMHO...

Relax, you'll get there. If those 15 seconds of acceleration make the difference, you have other issues...

 

Ok I'm new here this is my first post and I am looking for a truck to haul a livestock or horse trailer ranging from 7,000 to maybe 9,000lbs.? One of the trucks I am looking at is a 2004 f250 ext. Cab 5.4 not sure of transmission or gear ratio. I am wondering if anyone has towed this much with one I am in mostly Flatlands and would probably haul atleast once or twice a month distance of anywhere 30 mins. To 6 hours give or take. Any help would be greatly appreciated.