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Hi all My wife and I did a trip this past week, 2000 miles from San Jose to Bryce and Zion National Parks and state parks in Utah. My F250 is a CC 4x4 with the 6.2 and 3.73 Gears, Offroad Pkg, camper pkg. We had a light load, tents 2-3 Gallons of water, coolers, and associated stuff for living. The truck had lots of room so we took a lot. Not a lot of weight for sure.
We managed an Average 15.56 MPG. This includes highway and city, with some 4x4ing included. In Utah we actually rode legally at 80. Thats the posted limit going from St George to the Zion exit. This is pretty impressive. Heading to the LA area we were averaging 18-19. Can't really complain on Highway most of the time we were going 70-75, driving in the parks was 25 MPH, and off road , 10-15.
Finally been using my 2011 F-350 past few weeks and got 14.2 mpg combined empty (16.6 on lie meter). Two camping trips with Lance 815 onboard and in Tow/Haul mode got 10.1 (11.3 on lie meter) Plenty smooth shifting and passing the enemy Prius or two on the highway. The 3.73 e-axle seems to have the engine in the groove at about 70 mph. I am verrryy happy so far!
A update on our 6.2 pulling our trailer east over the last month, because I use a aux tank I have to hand calculate it over a long run because it's hard to get the same amount of fuel in it every fill, it makes a difference depending on how level the truck is when filling so it can vary 2 to 3 gallons. This part of our trip covered 2241 miles using 278 gallons for 8 miles to the gallon, the trip computer said 272 gallons for 8.2 mpg.
This is lower than we normally get but most of our trip has been in hills and the Appalachian mountains pulling a 16K trailer but when I got to some flat ground I reset the instant mpg and it jumped to 9.5 until I took a wrong turn and got caught up in some heavy traffic. I'm sure when we leave the Eastern Shore of Virginia and head to Florida it will average around 9 by the computer.
I just pulled from North Carolina to Maine by way of Pennsylvania. Roughly 1200 miles, lots of hills and some traffic and I'm looking at 8.6 mpg. The truck is not tuned and it pulls great, I have successfully learned to shift using the pedals. On a side note, I drained the black tank in Rhode Island and went from 8.1 to 8.6. My trailer is roughy 8000 lbs.
Had the opportunity to take a 2014, 6.2L Crew, 8ft, 3.73's with ~3000 miles on the clock for a trip. The owner is selling their previous 02' F250 7.3 with 60k miles. As you can see by the miles the old truck wasn't the daily driver! We had an aluminum 2 horse slant on the back, 6 of us in the truck with supplies and a 2100 mile trip. The task, pick up a horse in Kansas. We drove from Western PA down 79, directly across 70 to Kansas City then to Holton, KS. We left Friday morning, and returned Monday afternoon. Bit of construction on 70 off and on. We were delayed about 30-45 minutes in total along the trip over. We would cruise 5-10 over the posted limits so this trip was more about getting the job done than getting fuel economy. I own a 03' f-250 7.3 super cab w/ 3.73 with 129k, so it was a complete different mentality regarding driving and towing with this gas truck. On the way over I left the truck in non-tow-haul mode and averaged 10mpg. On the way back we took a more northern route which was 72 across to 70 to 80 and then back down 79. This route proved to be a bit more hilly which netted in a 9.1mpg. Average round trip was 9.3. I think we will be selling our 03 and moving back to the gas side. We built our entire farm (house / garage / barn) with the 03, and if we get what we want out of the truck we will be moving into a newer truck with a crew cab due to our family size increasing.
The truck did very well regarding the trailer and speeds. 4-5th gear was average on most hills and kicking it down to 3rd when passing felt very solid. The new transmission is very nice, I wish we had that in the 7.3. Tow-haul was nice for holding gears, and not hunting gears. I would like to drive one with 4.30 gears as we have a 4 horse gooseneck so having the extra gearing would be a welcome addition. The motor had good power as long as you learn to make it shift before hills and not lugging it like a diesel. The mileage was a bit of a bummer coming from a diesel but expected. We netted 12-13 with the same trailer and the diesel when we picked up a horse in Kentucky last year but a hard comparison as terrain is different. Enough blah, blah, and the reason you're here pics.
Truck and Trailer
PA to KS stats
Horse for the return trip
Error while driving...
KS to PA (TRIP B), and complete round trip (TRIP A)
Route taken
One tire pressure sensor decided to check out on the way home on I-72 for about 30 miles then came back online. It also seems as though the mph on the dash is off ~1-3mph (garmin GPS). I did one hand calculation on the way to KS regarding mileage and it was within .1mpg of the computer so I didn't take the time to calculate every gas stop. This is what I expected with the gas motor. I did drive this truck for about 9 hours a few weeks ago with 5 of us in the truck to Kentucky to look at a horse then back and averaged 14.0 mpg round trip with no trailer. Overall truck is very nice, and like I said earlier if we get what we want out of our current 7.3 we will be picking one up.
When I need to replace my truck next year, I was thinking about a 4x4 6.2 F350 w/plow package and 20" wheels CCSB. Does anyone have 353's? In all the posts I see here, most have 373 or 430's.
Would the 353's make it sluggish?
Right now I have an EB F150 with 373 & get about 16-18 highway. My work driving is typically across PA (Allentown to Pittsburgh) using I78 and the PA Turnpike.
I do not like the 2015 F150 & comparably equipped, its more money.
btw....I had a 2002 F250 CCSB V10 430's that got a constant 11 mpg.
When I need to replace my truck next year, I was thinking about a 4x4 6.2 F350 w/plow package and 20" wheels CCSB. Does anyone have 353's? In all the posts I see here, most have 373 or 430's.
Would the 353's make it sluggish?
Right now I have an EB F150 with 373 & get about 16-18 highway. My work driving is typically across PA (Allentown to Pittsburgh) using I78 and the PA Turnpike.
I do not like the 2015 F150 & comparably equipped, its more money.
btw....I had a 2002 F250 CCSB V10 430's that got a constant 11 mpg.
The only gear options are 3.73 and 4.30, if you aren't going to pull anything or very seldom I would go with 3.73 to get a little better hwy mileage
I am happy I went with the 3.73 and 6.2, as I don't tow anymore than about once a month. Getting a steady 12.4 mpg around town without babying it, and running the 5 star 87 oct performance tune. If I had to do it all over again, I don't think I'd go with the 4.30s. Now if I towed every day, that'd be a different story.
I just pulled from North Carolina to Maine by way of Pennsylvania. Roughly 1200 miles, lots of hills and some traffic and I'm looking at 8.6 mpg. The truck is not tuned and it pulls great, I have successfully learned to shift using the pedals. On a side note, I drained the black tank in Rhode Island and went from 8.1 to 8.6. My trailer is roughy 8000 lbs.
Ok, here’s the results; the truck did great, I can see how some people could be intimidated by this engine because when it’s working, it’s loud, it’s music to my ears with the flomasters on it and it never got old, I love that muscle car sound. All that said, I did 2993.1 miles @ 8.9 MPG, and a total of 73:05 hours driving.
Lessons learned? This truck DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO SHIFT! I ended up using manual shifting mode because it was hunting so much in T/H mode. What I found out is that this truck will hold 55+ mph on most hills in higher gear than the truck thinks it can. Keep in mind that I am not one of those “Gotta get there, race to the top of the hill” kind of guys, so my average speed was anywhere from 55-65. Where it was actually flat, the truck held 55+ MPH in 6th gear without issue, but I would say that a good majority of the time I was in 5th @ 2000 RPM. The most important thing I learned is to use the hills to my advantage, getting a run at a hill when I could helped a lot to stay in a higher gear while losing minimal speed. All in all a good trip and I am happy with the truck, and after looking at the price of similar trucks with diesel engines, I’ll stay with my “Paid for” gasser
09-19-2014, 02:27 PM
