Sounds exactly like me, before you tote the toyhauler, read up on the 4k up a hill thread, no more 5th gear @ 2.5 k over steep hiway grades. I'm thinking of trying a tuner in hopes of a little better towing performance, scared to throw too much $ trying to make a cummins out of it, but i like the truck otherwise

 

i'm on my 3rd Excursion 2v V10 4X4 W/3:73's...with a very aggressive 5star SCT3 tune, no muffler and open intake it has all the power i need. of course i would love more but who wouldn't? i'm still very happy with it as is and you cant beat the reliability!. i dont tow but i drive it like i stole it every day all day and yes it gets 8-10mpg around town and i drive about 300-400 miles a week. but i have seen 14.1mpg highway on a recent long trip(and i hand calculate plus i keep filling it till it spills over on every fill up so i know its full) that included runs up to 120mph and some of the largest mountain pass's in the state(IE floored at 4,500RPM going up) but i passed everyone on that hill and had no problem holding 75mph.

the best part of owning it(and there are way more pro's then con's for me) is being in front of a Prius and the look on there face when they see my 8 MPG personal license plates

 

Love that plate !

 

I should add she pulls like a dream on the flats, did 70 on roads that 60 was as fast as i dared take the trailer with the Dodge pulling. ( it was my maiden voyage with the camper, wanted to see what i had) 13something hand calc'd empty with a few miles of town driving thrown in, was really worried until i realized the small tank was why the gas gauge needle moved so much

 

I don't know why the V10 has a bad rep either. We have a 2002 F250 4x4 crew cab V10 only mods are an airaid intake and banks exhaust and we get fair gas mileage. If you want a real truck you got to sacrifice something. I haven't had one problem and I don't know one person in this town who has had a problem with the V10.
Trav

 

Everything I've heard about the v-10 was always positive except its a thirsty engine. I'm not buying it or driving it for fuel economy though, and the fuel economy isn't that bad. The mileage I'm seeing out of it is.. 8.75 towing a 8x16 enclosed landscape trailer. 9.25 city and around 13 on the highway cruise set to 65 mph. Granted the truck does have 4:10's.
My 94 F250 with a 5.8, C-6 and 3:55's would get about 10 mpg unless it was towing then it would get about 9mpg. My 2010 F350 6.4 3:55's was getting about 12mpg towing, 15 in the city and around 17.5 on the highway. Only problem with that truck, was it left me dead on the side of the road 4 times in less then 1.5 years and 24,000 miles.
I do wish the fuel economy was a tad better but overall I'm quite happy with the truck!

 

Has anyone had issues with or heard of a problem with the throttle bodies acting up on the 3v V-10's?
My 07 with 43,000 miles threw a code and had to have the throttle body cleaned out. I was told by ford there is some electronic sensor on it and because of the placement on the engine, sometimes the heat warps it or something to that... The parts guy at ford also claimed that Ford has re designed the throttle body 2-3 times to correct this issue.

 

Well , you could just put a Cummins in it ! If I had the spare cash lying around I'd be doing a Cummins swap into my Excursion.