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I've now got 2 HD towing trips under my belt so far w my new 6.7L DRW 3.55 truck. 1 was 2K miles, the next was 1.2K. My "BIG" trip however is coming up July 3rd (Xcross Country) and that one will be just under 6K miles R/Trip.
Quick background; My coach is factory built as 44'-6", the dealer says it's 45'. Okay, but when I make reservations at a campground, I use 44... cuz it doesn't sound so scary! . It has massive tanks all the way around, with the fresh being 158gal. I've towed with the tanks full and toys in the back, and also without so much load/gear. I took delivery of the coach back on 5/2/17 and it came through surprisingly as a 2018 model. Not complaining, but on the ride home from the dealer, I knew my rear end was very saggy and the coach was dipping forward... quite noticeably. I then followed "EpicCowlicks" video and suggestion and purchased/installed the Air-Lift 5000 along w the 72000 wire-less controller/compressor. Satisfied the situation perfectly! (Thanks Epic!)
So here's my truck observations [5 star scale rated] on hauling 21K around....
***** Power; is soooo smooth and effortless!... simply unexplainable to gas people.
**** Braking; is very good but I'd like a tad more from the engine brake however.
***** Transmission; is as smooth as butter. Love the downshift ability on the lever.
***** Truck chucking; (from trailer)? Damn near null, zip, nadda!
***** Sway; is no longer in our vocabulary.
***** Noise level; is crazy mad low. Wife says it's much quieter than her BMW car!
**** Seat comfort; (for us) is very good. We have no complaints.
***** Massaging seats; after a few hours gets the blood flowing to those pressure spots. We use this sparingly on purpose.
**** Adaptive cruise; especially on the Interstates is pretty dang nice@!
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Some below par towing (truck) tow ratings from me (gotta keep it real!)
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** Mirrors; Being that I'm a CDL guy, I'm use to much better mirrors.
* Seat Air Conditioning; Works for awhile, but on long runs we either overwhelm it or it degrades itself. Weird.
** Rear window> 5th wheel hitch-up visibility; Headrests interfere.
** Camera system. It's okay I guess, but you should be able to have them on and not just in reverse.
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Towing mileage, mostly Interstates (~70-75mph) (non-towing, I ave 17.0 combined)
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Trip 1 (first1K mi leg), slight headwind <15mph, nothing to note; 8.2mpg
Trip 1 (2nd 1K mi leg), no wind; 8.5mpg
Trip 2 (first 600mi leg), slight cross wind <10mph; 8.4 mpg
Trip 2 (2nd 600mi leg), no wind but kept the speed down to 65!; 9.8mpg
Several small tows in between not worth noting. But I can say, my 65mph Interstate test did accomplish what I thought. Kinda strange having everyone buzz by me and it seemed like I was getting nowhere fast. But it was interesting and the test may prove that I will heed some speed in favor of mileage on my upcoming 6K mile venture.
Overall the Truck gets 5 stars, no doubt the best pickup I've ever owned and towed with, period. I've had several peeps drooling over my setup and even seasoned RVers will have a string of questions for me, all are good especially if it's over a beer or two. I feel truly blessed to be able to have a 2017 truck and 2018 coach, both equally as beautiful as each other. When I do retire however, I probably see more of a DPer, like a 600hp/1950-TQ Entegra Cornerstone. Man, I don't even wanna think about all the sales crap again and hope that's not for many many years down the road. Cheers everyone!
Any suggestions (non $pending ones anyways! ...cuz my **** is broke now! lol) or helpful comments feel free to post 'em up.
Beautiful rig...great info on the trucks capabilities on the road towing also! I'm getting about 10.4 max @63 mph on our flat hwys down here. Only pulling 14K pounds lightly loaded though. Have fun on your next upcoming trip!
Top Speed, great write up and it looks like you're all set for the big trip. I just completed a West to East and back 5,100 mile trip and can add a little to your mpg expectations. For my setup, wind is the determining factor on mileage, not weight. Speed is closely related to the wind factor of course and it's easy to just happily cruise along at 75 mph with the truck getting 7 mpg if you want. The freeways out West and Mid-West all run at 75 mph or better so you just decide what's more important and go with it. On my trip, I basically just didn't worry about mileage and was more interested in covering miles as quickly as possible. For the entire trip I netted 8.5 mpg. That included some very strong headwinds (40 mph, yikes!) from Colorado all the way through Wyoming. Say hello to 5.5 mpg and 140 mile range between fill-ups. I also found the 6.7's power limit in those winds when climbing two steep grades in Wyoming. Truck dropped to 3rd gear and couldn't hold 2,800 rpms over the top of the hills. It gasped over the top with the pedal to the floor twice. Keep in mind I have 37/12.50 tires on the truck which made everything just that much worse. Factory tires may have charged right up over those hills.
This leads me to my single biggest gripe about this truck. FORD's DTE algorithm sucks! I haven't had the 34 gallon tank TSB done yet and I was regularly informed that the tank was empty but was only able to put in 22 or 24 gallons in. I'm not exaggerating. It was really stupid. The DTE estimation was so far off I started keeping a log of odometer readings at fill-ups and manually figuring how far I could go at 9 mpg. I actually felt embarrassed for Ford on that point.
Otherwise the truck was flawless and a joy to drive. Massage seats are amazing and we didn't use them sparingly. Nothing broke on the truck or trailer and I didn't have too much trouble on those ridiculously small streets from Ohio to New York to Pennsylvania to Washington DC. The small town streets were narrow but I fought more with low hanging trees than anything else. Haven't you folks back East heard of a chainsaw before?
Top Speed, great write up and it looks like you're all set for the big trip. I just completed a West to East and back 5,100 mile trip and can add a little to your mpg expectations. For my setup, wind is the determining factor on mileage, not weight. Speed is closely related to the wind factor of course and it's easy to just happily cruise along at 75 mph with the truck getting 7 mpg if you want. The freeways out West and Mid-West all run at 75 mph or better so you just decide what's more important and go with it. On my trip, I basically just didn't worry about mileage and was more interested in covering miles as quickly as possible. For the entire trip I netted 8.5 mpg. That included some very strong headwinds (40 mph, yikes!) from Colorado all the way through Wyoming. Say hello to 5.5 mpg and 140 mile range between fill-ups. I also found the 6.7's power limit in those winds when climbing two steep grades in Wyoming. Truck dropped to 3rd gear and couldn't hold 2,800 rpms over the top of the hills. It gasped over the top with the pedal to the floor twice. Keep in mind I have 37/12.50 tires on the truck which made everything just that much worse. Factory tires may have charged right up over those hills.
This leads me to my single biggest gripe about this truck. FORD's DTE algorithm sucks! I haven't had the 34 gallon tank TSB done yet and I was regularly informed that the tank was empty but was only able to put in 22 or 24 gallons in. I'm not exaggerating. It was really stupid. The DTE estimation was so far off I started keeping a log of odometer readings at fill-ups and manually figuring how far I could go at 9 mpg. I actually felt embarrassed for Ford on that point.
Otherwise the truck was flawless and a joy to drive. Massage seats are amazing and we didn't use them sparingly. Nothing broke on the truck or trailer and I didn't have too much trouble on those ridiculously small streets from Ohio to New York to Pennsylvania to Washington DC. The small town streets were narrow but I fought more with low hanging trees than anything else. Haven't you folks back East heard of a chainsaw before?
Great input, Epic. And thanks for the headwind tip, I'll have my wallet ready and hopefully I'll have a little more range with the long-bed. Better yet, I catch all tailwinds!
If the low branches are the only thing we right coasters got ya for... consider yourself lucky! We must have THE MOST low bridges anywhere!. So much so, I went out and bought a specific app for it. Interstates of course are all good here, but boy do we like low overhead train bridges on our secondary roads.
I will be camping at the SLC FairPark July 12th-16th. We are coming with about 10K BMW Motorcyclists, most camping via tents. You have my open invitation to stop by, beers on me and I will be bringing real one's from the East coast (been forewarned about the low-ABV beers in SLC!). We are visiting Diesel Bros. shop in N. SLC one of the days, other than that we will be around, look us up!
Nice writups!
While I'm not sure it will help that much, the rear headrests will fold forward to the horizontal position when the seats arent occupied. Yeah, the mirrors could start out by being 4-6" taller, but then folding in might become an issue.
I don't think the 48 gallon tank has the same issues as the 35. While i found it intriguing that I was able pump in 8 gallons right after the gauge moved off of full, when I ran it down to 10 mte I was able to squeeze in 46.5 gallons.
my recent three weekend trips with the new truck and 5er have been great, the towing experience is improved on all fronts compared to my 2013. The one thing I noticed this weekend is about every third person that walked by our campsite either commented or stopped to talk to my father and I about our new trucks (he got a 17 KR F350 SRW) and how we liked them - never have I owned something that has had so many people interested in talking to me!
Great input, Epic. And thanks for the headwind tip, I'll have my wallet ready and hopefully I'll have a little more range with the long-bed. Better yet, I catch all tailwinds!
If the low branches are the only thing we right coasters got ya for... consider yourself lucky! We must have THE MOST low bridges anywhere!. So much so, I went out and bought a specific app for it. Interstates of course are all good here, but boy do we like low overhead train bridges on our secondary roads.
I will be camping at the SLC FairPark July 12th-16th. We are coming with about 10K BMW Motorcyclists, most camping via tents. You have my open invitation to stop by, beers on me and I will be bringing real one's from the East coast (been forewarned about the low-ABV beers in SLC!). We are visiting Diesel Bros. shop in N. SLC one of the days, other than that we will be around, look us up!
I forgot about the low bridges as I did have to turn around 3 times. One of those times I caused quite a stir amongst the locals. Didn't get any forgiveness with my Utah license plates that day, lol.
Thanks for the invite. Meeting up at Diesel Bros would be a hoot. I'll pm you.
my recent three weekend trips with the new truck and 5er have been great, the towing experience is improved on all fronts compared to my 2013. The one thing I noticed this weekend is about every third person that walked by our campsite either commented or stopped to talk to my father and I about our new trucks (he got a 17 KR F350 SRW) and how we liked them - never have I owned something that has had so many people interested in talking to me!
I know what you're talking about, as soon as I back into my site I can't even unhitch, I have my new neighbors all with inquiring minds!
Originally Posted by Johnpsz
Good info and details. We are starting out on our 7300 mile (not counting any sightseeing) cross country RV (5th wheel) trip next week.
Sounds freeq'n epic! Wish you the best of luck on this trip and post up a RR (ride report) here for us all to share your trip w you!
Originally Posted by EpicCowlick
I forgot about the low bridges as I did have to turn around 3 times. One of those times I caused quite a stir amongst the locals. Didn't get any forgiveness with my Utah license plates that day, lol.
Thanks for the invite. Meeting up at Diesel Bros would be a hoot. I'll pm you.
I'll reserve a spot for you, but we have to keep our group down, as we don't wanna swarm the bearded boys!
Hey Top Speed 1, I love that toy hauler you have. How much does it weigh and could a F350 CCSRW 6.7 liter tow that safely? I am getting ready to get a truck soon and would love to get a camper like that a few years down the road.
Hey Top Speed 1, I love that toy hauler you have. How much does it weigh and could a F350 CCSRW 6.7 liter tow that safely? I am getting ready to get a truck soon and would love to get a camper like that a few years down the road.
I ungraded from a 2500HD Duramax SRW that surely would of towed it, the question is/was how safely and how comfortable would the tow be going across the Country.
For that reason, I chose to go with the dually and REALLY glad I did. This combo pulls like a dream. I also upgraded the hitch to a Reese 25K Elite series. I'm not sure what exactly in the combo is making the pull so nice (I'm thinking it is a combo of all), but I get no chucking, bucking or most importantly sway of any kind.
My mentality when ordering these components was... no weak links!
The coach is 44'-6" long, 102" wide and 21K GVW. With all the options (incl the factory Solar) Sticker was just over $134K. I know, ouch!... but there's room to deal {somewhat} on these!
I have added (4) 425A/hr-ea. batteries up front weighing-in easily at over 125lbs each. So additional tongue weight!, which I'm guessing is now around 3,500-4,000lbs.. (probably another reason why) I had to add the Air-Lift bags on the rear axle.
Good luck with your planning process, it's really fun when it all starts coming together!
06-19-2017, 10:45 AM
. It has massive tanks all the way around, with the fresh being 158gal. I've towed with the tanks full and toys in the back, and also without so much load/gear. I took delivery of the coach back on 5/2/17 and it came through surprisingly as a 2018 model. Not complaining, but on the ride home from the dealer, I knew my rear end was very saggy and the coach was dipping forward... quite noticeably. I then followed "EpicCowlicks" video and suggestion and purchased/installed the Air-Lift 5000 along w the 72000 wire-less controller/compressor. Satisfied the situation perfectly! (Thanks Epic!) 
and hopefully I'll have a little more range with the long-bed. Better yet, I catch all tailwinds! 
