Love my truck, did my first real TT towing camping trip this last weekend, and the truck did great.
One thing I noticed: I got between 10-11 mpg towing (expected), but my miles to empty display is completely out of whack now because of that. I already drove more than a hundred miles without the trailer, and then got gas yesterday. Now, with a full tank, my miles to empty shows as 360 miles, whereas I really get like 550-600+ miles easily out of a tank before the light even comes on.
I do know that the display is messed up because of the low mileage I got towing, but come on Ford engineers! How difficult is this? The truck already knows that there is no trailer connected, and it knows how many miles I towed the trailer (it is stored and can be shown on the display). So how difficult would it be to calculate an average mpg with the trailer connected, and a separate number not towing. And then, the miles to empty calculation could switch instantaneously to the right value when you connect or disconnect the trailer.
No need to tell me over a hundred miles after disconnecting the TT and getting 18mph average that I have only 360 miles to empty, or what am I missing here?

 

Nothing wrong with the engineers. This is a user malfunction.

Go to the 'Settings' screen in your gauge pod. You can switch between a towing calculation and a non-towing calculation. Never done it myself yet, but I presume one has to be smart enough to set it to correct mode before you drive miles with a trailer and screw up the histograms. Maybe now that the histograms are hosed you can just reset to start it all over.

It would be an improvement if the mode for mileage calculation were able to be set in the mileage screen. Not very intuitive the way they did it.

 

Hmmm. Interesting. Maybe I screwed up. But why would the truck not do that automatically, since it already knows when a trailer is connected, and when not?
I have to look if I can find that setting - heading to the truck right now ....

 

Now that's a good question. I don't know. Seems like a nice update for future models. Maybe they leave it up to driver since not all trailers weigh the same amount and some people own more than one type of trailer.

 

Okay, found it. That was quick. "DTE calculation". Mine was set to not towing. Now I am even more confused. It does change when I switch between towing & not towing. Miles to empty show as follows:
365 miles when set to "normal history" mode.
372 miles when set to "towing history" mode.

Can somebody explain that? I would expect
(1) that the difference would be much bigger as I am going from like 17-18mpg average to 10-11mpg when towing.
(2) I'd expect the distance to empty to be LESS using "towing history".

????

 

I think even that would be covered - as you can set (and name) different trailers, and the computer should / could calculate a mpg value for each trailer - automatically.

 

I'll bet it needs to develop some history data and then the estimates will diverge.

 

I've read in the past that the truck stores the average mpg for the last 500 miles in a separate area of it's computer...that is where it pulls it's info from for the distance to empty calculation. Not sure if it's true or not, just something I read on a forum.

 

Considering the numbers I am seeing, I think that would make sense. It does not explain the "DTE" setting though (normal vs. towing history).
It just seems soooo easy for them to have two mileage numbers calculated automatically - one normal one towing - and then to also automatically display the correct DTE depending on if a trailer is connected or not.
Looking at my numbers - whatever they calculate makes not much sense. I have no doubt that after another 400 miles or so the display will get back to normal - until I tow again.

 

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the trip ....

 

I agree you would think that it would correct automatically, I wonder why they chose to have it completely manual? I have experienced that strangely low DTE with my Sequoia at times...even if I reset the milage. It happened one time when I ran super low on fuel and then fueled up.

How heavy is your trailer? It doesn't seem to be all that big. Cool pics thanks for sharing. I really look forward to getting my truck and to start towing with it!

 

Thanks Prince Valium!
The trailer loaded is about 5K lbs (with water). I am about 300 lbs under GVWR with this setup and the 4 of us in the truck because when towing I also have 4 bikes above the bed, and gear plus firewood in the box. Even with that small of a trailer, and our gear, we would be over the payload rating with only max tow, not even thinking about regular F-150.

 

The DTE calculation is taken from that 500 mile average, for example if you suddenly got 3 or 4 mpg more going down a hill you would want that DTE calculation to change....I believe that's why they used that 500 mile benchmark.

 

Yeah, but no matter what, I would expect the "towing history" to result in a shorter DTE than the "normal history", as towing should use more gas. When I keep on switching forth and back right now, I get a 7 mile longer DTE with the "towing history" used. Out of the last 500 miles, about 200 have been towing, and 300 not towing.

 

Dude... you don't have any separate towing history data because you just found the feature yesterday!

And now you're non-towing history is contaminated with towing data. It's going to take some miles while being on the right settings to sort it out.