We just got back from a trip around the entire perimeter of the U.S. towing a 36 foot 5th wheel. I wanted to share my thoughts on the truck's performance and usability.

This was a retirement bucket-list trip that we dreamed about for years. We drove 19K miles of which 15K miles were towing the trailer. We visited 27 state and two Canadian provinces. The trip lasted 7 months.

The only issues I had with the truck were worn out stock Rancho shocks and slow air leaks around the valve stems on the two outer rear wheels. Both the shocks and the air leaks are known issues and discussed extensively on the 2017+SuperDuty forum.

For the entire trip I averaged 10.8 MPG. Power was *never* an issue and the exhaust brake worked extremely well. The truck is smooth, quiet, and extremely capable.

These are the features I most appreciated during the trip, ranked in order:

* Adaptive cruise control -- set it and then just steer. I found I was much less tired at the end of the day because of it. When traveling on the interstates I could go for hours without ever touching the throttle or brake.

* Exhaust brake -- anytime I was towing, I had the exhaust brake turned on. It helped when getting off the interstates and it really helped in the mountains of the Western states and the hills of Canada and Texas.

* Center, high-mount camera -- allowed me to easily align the truck with the trailer king pin during hitching.

* Remote tailgate -- I learned to leave the tailgate up during initial maneuvering to hitch up as it gave me the rear view and 360 view. When centered with the trailer and only a few feet away, I would then drop the tailgate using the interior switch and complete the final hitch-up using the center, high-mount camera.

* Voice commands for navigation -- we used the navigation system a zillion times. This is the first vehicle that I have owned with voice commands for inputting the destination and waypoints. Wow, what a difference voice commands make.

* Quiet cabin -- the interior noise of this truck is significantly less than my previous 2001 or 2007 GM diesels. Both my wife and I agreed that less noise made us less tired after long days on the road.

That sounds like an amazing journey. Any pictures to share? Favorite spots along the way?

OP Great write up. Thankx. Curious what was the Wt of your trailer? And was the 10.8 MPG just the towing portion or the complete trip?
today I dropped off my 10K # 5er for some warranty work. That was ~125Km down the highway that’s hills for the entire trip. Although this is a small sample with a NEW 350 SRW. It towed like a dream and the MPG was ~9.99 or 4.25 Km/L. I was pleasantly surprised.

The trailer weighs 12,500 pounds. The 10.8 MPG was for the complete trip, both towing and not towing. When towing, I estimate that I averaged 9 MPG. I towed at speeds between 60 MPH and 75 MPH, depending on the state law and truck speeds. I always try to go the same speed as the majority of the trucks.

When towing at 75 MPH, fuel economy suffers due to air resistance but that is the speed limit in a few states and going with the flow is generally the safest, in my opinion.

Thankx for the information. Very helpful.
Bill