Tell ya whay you have'nt read many post on here searching for your ansewrs. my truck hauls. i haul 7 ton of feed with my truck.{i know guys its unsafe} what i
m saying is the advice you got was genuine not smashing on the 4.6. if its all you need fine......... but never will your 4.6 everrrrrrrrr compare to a 5.4. i get 15-18 mpg i dont care what you say. i put it in the tank every week and i know how far i go. its not my fault you cant figure gas milage.....

 

My truck is now three weeks old and has 1200 miles on it. I have been getting better mileage with it than I got with the old 4.6 already. I put my foot in it for the first time last night while pulling out in heavy traffic. Wow, I was suitably impressed with the acceleration, I loved my 4.6 but there is no comparison even with all the mods I had done to it.

 

I have the 04 4.6 STX and tow a 28.5' fifth wheel with it. Just towed to North Carolina and back from NY and was able to maintain 70-80 on the straights and small hills and 60 on the bigger hills. I had a Diablo Predator and all it did was make the shifts tighter. The torque curve in the 5.4 will make it feel about the same as the 4.6 until you have a few thousand pounds as a load....then the 5.4 will definately shine. Most people claim better mileage with the 5.4 over the 4.6 as the 4.6 has to work hard to move that truck.

 

hey man ive have exactly a f150 STX 4x4 with the 4.6 i love it plenty of power i want to put the flowmaster on mine. I get 17 mpg, and have had no problem in 17000 miles. if you want more info on my STX email me. though im not on here often.

 

Wow, look at the lies in this post!

7 ton of feed? hahaha, 15-18 mpg? hahaha

My intention of this thread was to get advice, HONEST advice. Man there's so many liars on these boards it's hard to weed out fact from fiction.

 

Why is 15-18 mpg so hard to believe? With my 04 4.6 I just got 18.9 mpg coming back from Asheville, NC to NYS running 80 MPH most of the way. I hauled a 28' fifth wheel camper down to its new owner and got 13mpg running 70-75 mph. Many, many people here report mid teens with the 5.4. If you accelerate gently from a stop you can improve your mileage dramatically..don't believe it? Just try it for one tank full.

 

I believe you when you say 18.9 mpg with your 4.6. It's the liars who make the same claim (or even higher!) with their 5.4s.

Funny, but I personally know quite a few people who own either and ALL of them refer to their 5.4s as "gas hogs" and most claim to get in the 12-13 range at best.

The 4.6 owners are mainly in the 18-19 mpg range and all seem quite happy. It seems that only on this board do we have people getting "about the same" (haha good one) with their 5.4s.

It's not that I blame anyone for wanting more power because there's no doubt that they have more with the bigger v8. But to lie about their mileage to justify their purchase is just wrong.

 

Why is this so hard to believe?

7 ton is only 2 ton over the highest rated F150. He never said he was pulling it down the highway. If his feed wagons are anything like the ones on our farm, they are pulled at relatively low speeds, 20-30 mph (it doesnt matter how big the tow rig, they simply don't go much faster).

Heck my father uses a 95 Ford Ranger 4.0L 4x4 to pull a 10 ton gravity box in and out of the feed shed up a 10 degree incline across uneven concrete as it's the only vehicle that will fit in the tight space. Granted he has to use 4 low as all the Ranger does in 4 hi is squeal the tires.

I've pulled that same wagon to and from the elevator on ocasion using my previous F250 PSD and my now F150. The F150 does work harder than the F250, but it does pull it.

Would I reccomend pulling these type of weights at highway speeds, no way, no how.

As far as my MPG claims of 18 at 65mph or so out of my 5.4L, I'd be more than happy to have you tag along to prove these claims if you are ever in my neck of the woods.

Infact I was getting a average of 19 mpg (55 mph) across southern Minnesota just last week.

The point is, you asked us for honest opinions and we gave them to you. I really don't see too many wild claims in this thread to say that we have lying out our tail pipes.

Not at any point did I say that a 4.6L was incapable of your needs (you know those needs better than I do), what I said was it made sense money wise to go with the 5.4L (as did many others) over a 4.6L.

It's up to you wether or not you follow our advice or not, as you'll be the one paying for and driving the truck.

 

I average 16 around town, and almost 18 on the highway out of my 5.4, for what its worth.

 

You're talking abou 4100 pounds!!! thats a LOT of weight..somewhere around 80% of the weight of the truck and WAY over the GCVWR for any 150.

 

Hey Sean.... I got an 04 with a 5.4 and see a consistent 16.2 average. It is much higher if I am on the open highway. Somewhere around 18-19. The truck is bone stock and has 23,000 on the clock. Gas hog? I would hardly consider this truck a gas hog. My wifes V6 only gets 18 MPG. and it's brand new! She can squeek out about 23 on the highway but keep in mind that this vehicle only weighs 4000 lbs. I must say, for a 6000 lb truck I am not dissapointed one bit with the mpg. As far as the other post about pulling a 5er and getting 13.......HAHAHAHA! I have towed and been towing for years. The PSD only get 9-10 towing and only gets about 17-18 solo. This truck was designed to pull! The 4.6 wasn't. I would have to see it to believe it! Even the lightest 5th wheel will weigh in around 5500 LBS. Considering you're about maxed out on our weight capacities (probably way over with a trailer at 28.5), Your not gonna pull the hills in NC with a 4.6 at 70 MPH and get anything like the mileage you're claiming! I live in NC I drive the roads and it is complete BS! Just my .02

 

Yeah, but thats alot less than the 14000 lbs that my fathers Ranger is overloaded by!

I realize this, like I said I don't pull it down the highway at highway speeds, just down back roads (our back roads are dirt btw ) and around the yards.

You guys really think that your truck will instantaneously combust if you over load the rating by 1 pound?

The ratings are for what the truck is SAFELY rated for, I know that once and a while I'm well out side those ratings and drive accordingly at my own risk.

 

I wasn't going to say anything for the longest time, but since this thread won't die (and I'm not helping it by typing this post), what the heck....

What's wrong with just stating that you picked up the truck that you wanted and appreciated the advice, even though that you felt that it didn't fit your situation?

I know I could handle it, as I realize it's your truck dude!

The second comment is what has really ticked off everyone as it takes the honest advice that we gave you and tosses it in our faces, like we are a bunch of hicks that don't know any better. Then to later call us a bunch of liars really takes the cake.

 

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt as you clearly did zero research before you posted. The fiver I towed weighs 4500 pounds empty and was designed specifically to be towed with lightweight trucks. It has a very low profile nose cone that is very aerodynamic. The unit in question is a 1992 Shadow Cruiser. I owned it for about a year and on both big trips (once to DC and once to NC) I got an actual mileage of 13.3 MPG. There is no way a 4.6 will pull the big hills at 70 towing a trailer like this. I was usually running 62 on the mild hills and 50 or so on the big ones. I tow in OD so that helps with the mileage considerably. I'm far from maxed out and these units tow lke they're not even there. Here's a pic for you

http://www.av8r.org/pics/main.php?g2_itemId=2383

I'd say that your PSD is sick if you only get 17 empty. I have 3 friends with 2500HD duramax/allison trucks and they all get 20 or better empty. I borrowed one to tow a 5 place enclosed snowmobile trailer this winter. Had 5 sleds, 5 guys and all our gear crammed into the truck and we got 18 running 75 up to Tug Hill to ride. Then again..maybe thats all the PSDs get? I've never driven one. WIth all the problems the 6.0 PSD has, I've never even considered it in my search for a new diesel replacement truck. Have they managed to fix this engine yet?

Anyway, just because you don't know about it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There are quite a few fivers now that weigh under 5000 pounds and more coming all the time. Its a nice trend to see with all the newer trucks getting higher capacities!

 

There is some truth to the statement that these trucks are depreciating way faster than they should (and not just the 4.6 models) My 04 STX scab 4x4 was almost $31K new. I didn't pay that, but less than one year later, with 7000 miles on it it was worth less than $16K to any of the 5 dealers I tried to trade it with. Much of this is due to Ford flooding the market with rediculous discounts. You don't get something for nothing. Big, national discounts upfront mean crap resale later on.