Will extended idling harm the V10 in any way...including components such as the catalytic converter? By extended I mean perhaps 1 hour on occasion...more reasonably 15 - 30 minutes more often.

I ask because our volunteer fire department is considering a squad truck on a F-550 platform with the Triton V10. I know the engine is more than capable of doing what ever we want but just want to make sure were not going to damage the cat-con if we do happen to idle it once in a while. If the time were more than an hour we'd probably shut the truck down anyway to save some fuel. But sometimes car wreck scenes on the highway can take some time to clean up and you cannot shut down out there! Some say the Exh Gas Temps at idle are higher and can "melt down" the converter. If this is true...I've never seen it yet.

Thanks on my first post!

 

The local tree huggers might not like this but I idle my v-10 for extended times in winter and summer (to keep warm and cool )for as long as 1- 1.5 hours at a time on occasion. and have not had any ill effects.

 

For what it's worth , The company truck (F-250 SD 5.4) I drive,
starts at 7:00 AM and dosent get shut off until 7:00 or 8:00 PM
idleing about 4 or 5 hours through out the day.
The truck has 111,000 miles, has not hurt this truck.
I also keep the oil changed every 3000 miles faithfuly.

 

Thanks. Thats kinda what I expected since todays modern computer controlled fuel injection pretty much keeps the air/fuel ratio in check at all times. I know that older carb trucks could run rich and turn the cat into a virtual melting pot. But I was surprised when someone told me newer ones can do the same. Ford told me to be careful idling in tall grass as they do get hot enough to start fires under the right conditions.

 

Oregon/Washington=cold weather and LOTS of rain. Oregon/Washington soccer=goes ALL year outdoors. I run my V-10 for hours and hours at times parked next to a cold, wet, soggy soccer field while myself and whoever is along sit inside in the warmth and watch DVD's or play X-Box. I have never had any kind of problem with almost 90K on the odometer. I have front and rear a/c and heat so the biggest problem I have is getting too warm in the back as there's no way to differentiate the heat on the rear heater. The kids sometimes use the van as a changing room at halftime so the heaters run constantly while we're idling. Hope this helps.

 

Our current squad would see a typical duty cycle as follows for a medical ambulance assist:

Call comes in at 0:00 hrs.
Volunteers get to the station and start truck at 0:02 hrs
Truck leaves station at 0:03 hrs
Truck arrives at scene at 0:09 hrs
Truck leaves scene at 0:19 hrs when ambulance takes patient
Truck leaves scene, travels to station and shuts down at 0:30 hrs.

Just 30 minutes and not much of it is idle time.

That would represent 90% of the calls amounting to around 250-300 per year. Total miles per year could reach 1500 for calls. The other 10% of runs are broken up into car wrecks and fire assists where idling for usually no more than an hour could occur. Our grand total miles expected might be 3000 per year including parade miles and routine truck exercise each week.

Looks like were in the clear of any trouble with a V10. The diesel just doesn't make sense to me as our service needs dont call for fuel economy or tremendous pulling power. 4x4 is really the only powertrain option we want in an F-550 besides the auto (which is standard equip on a F-550).

Some of the guys here blindly think "diesel" when were discussing the new truck. But the cost is simply not justified in any real way. Our current F350 351W truck has been doing this job for 20 years/90,000 miles and a new F-550 V10 is much more advanced.

Our payload will be a 2000 lb body and around 3000 lb of equipment...which is expected to grow to no more than 3500-4000. But having the extra GVWR is worth the money to me as it does not limit our use. Our F-350 is maxed out and I dont want to end up there again.

Thanks for the input!