Just filled up the tank before another trip to Disneyland, we've got annual passes. I was amazed, I had done nothing but stop-n-go driving and I managed to get 10.2 MPG (230 miles & 22.6 gallons), which for me is great.

Then we did the 180 mile round trip to D-land and I got a whopping 13.3 on pure freeway miles at 70MPH on cruise! Gave the truck a 13.4 gallon drink when we got home.

Mileage is slowly getting better.


As a side note, I saw a white '08 F450 in the oversized lot at Disneyland hooked up to what looked like a 40 foot Titanium. Looked sweet, probably pulls it with ease. Didn't see the owners, would have been nice to swap stories.

 

Thanks for the milage post. Gives me hope that mine will also increase.

 

Kimminau hope to get our 5'th w out this weekend to a truck stop to check my axel weights loaded. its about 13,000 estimated. will let you know how it tows with 4.30s normally I have another 800# in the truck with the family, dog, cat and wood in the back. just moved it around in the yard this weekend. my 350 use to squat about 5 inches, don't think my 450 dropped more that an inch.

 

Another 321 miles and 33.6 gallons = 9.6 MPG, about 80 miles of it towing.

Had a regen right before I needed to refuel and I watched my MPG drop by 0.4 according to the dash computer. Still haven't been in for the reflash. I've got 4,100 miles with an average MPG of 9.8. I'm waiting for the 5,000 mile oil change to bring it in for the reflash. Should be the middle of June the way I've been driving recently.

 

Thanks for the update, Mattebury. My mileage has been steadily increasing. I've been keeping the turbo under 2. I just did a 250 mile round trip through very mountainous, winding roads from Cripple Creek to Denver and got an amazing 14.6 mpg! Even at 9000 feet and up steep grades, keeping the turbo under 2 still let me keep up my speed. It's just a much slower acceleration when you decide to speed up. This was with no hauling. I'm anxious to see what I can do with my 5th wheel next time.

Question: My back up sensors suck! I backed into a telephone pole day before yesterday and never got one beep! It took off my driver's side dually fender. I took it to the Ford dealer and they tested it and said it was working intermitantly and sometimes not at all. They even tried the same tests on another '08 and it worked but not very well because it only started beeping at about 4 feet. (The manual says the sensors should start working at 6 feet.) They sent a recommendation into Ford to replace the fender and replace the sensors. Within 30 minutes, Ford had responded that the claim was denied due to "Outside Influences" (Whatever that means!?). So, I'm still fighting Ford on this one.

Bob in Colorado

 

Just got back from a trip from so oregon to redding ca with our boat.

A few good hills and towed well. (only 7k lbs or so boat/trailer)

Fuel mileage sucked though. 300miles round trip at 90% 60mph.

300 at 38.8 Gallons. Pathetic 7.73 mpg. Man, I hate to see what its going to be with our 20k lb stacker trailer. :O

 

Just to add to this.

What is kinda sad about it is, my dad has a Prevost H3 Coach thats 45' long. Towing a stacker trailer. Total weight is about 70k lbs. (500hp and not sure tq but like 1600 or so)

It gets 5.5-6.0 mpg. There is no reason these trucks should get such poor fuel mileage when you can have a full sized coach do nearly the same. I'm not bitchin really cause I knew coming into it they wouldn't get great mileage, but really they should get better.

 

Yeah but just wait till they have to have the DPF's put on those engine's.........if it ever happens it will affect them as well.

 

My mileage only goes down about .4-.5 when it goes into regen. I dont think just the DPF itself is the cause of the crappy mileage. Some of it is gearing of course and with 4.88's its too bad they didn't make 5th an actual overdrive with rpms under 2k at 65mph then make 4th more like 5th. I dunno, or add a 6th gear like GM did. Without more info hard to say I guess.

Hopefully there will be more feedback from the guys with F450's and 4:30 gears to make comparisions to or even someone that does a GV tranny if it improves on flat highway speeds.

 

I test drove a King ranch F250 with the 6.4 in it (CC long Bed) and the 3.73 gears. I checked the mileage on the information center and it showed 9.6 ave. MPG. I reset it for my test drive and I drove it on the level Hwy for about 15 total miles. When I got back to the dealership it showed 12.5 ave MPG all hwy other than the .5 miles to the hwy. I was very disappointed in that. I know that the computer is not perfect but my 06 6.0 has around 6000 miles on it and I monitor every tank and the most I have seen the computer off is .4 mpg. I also have never seen a tank of fuel average as low as this truck was showing. My fist tank in my 6.0 was 16+ mpg. My truck on the same stretch of hwy showed 19.8 ave mpg. Now I will tell you that this new engine is very quiet. It was a nice truck I just think that they need to address the fuel mileage in the near future after all we are now over $3.00 per gallon and that cuts into my play money....

 

On mine the DIC reads about .5-.8mpg high. So that 12.5 average you saw might actually be worse.

 

In my opinion I believe that regardless of the weight it is more the rpms that are hurting mpg at 60mph you were probably running 2200 rpms, with 4.30s I run 1950 rpms 4.10s run about 1850. All 3 vehicles towing say 15,000 are going to pull it with about the same power, just the 4.88s are going to be revving higher, especially when it downshifts going up a hill to 4th gear, at 60 will run about 3,000 rpms? that will really eat up the fuel. My 99 v10 got about 7.5 towing not sure yet on my new 450 estimating from what I read about maybe around 9 if I am lucky. The 4.88s are geared to tow 22-24,000#. Towing your boat with say a 250 with 3.73s would probably get close to 10 mpg 60 mph at 1700 rpms. Glance back through the posts on this thread you'll see what I mean .

 

My F-350 CC SRW LB with 3.73 got 9mpg pulling my 13,000# 5th wheel that stands 13 feet high in the wind at 60mph. That was 300 miles no major hills from Eugene, OR area up to Seattle. Just a data point for comparison.

 

agree 100% the revs are killing the mileage. (BTW, it only shifted down one time going up the hills, so otherwise it stayed at the 2200 or so rpm)

Weight will affect it though, cause instead of going up the hill in 5th with a load at 2200 rpm, add some weight to the mix now your at WOT at 3k rpm in 4th. Its sucking way more fuel on those hills with the added load. (Cant wait to tow the stacker trailer. lol)

Good thing Diesel is the cheap fuel right now.

 

If you figure a 1000 mile trip at 7.5 verses 12mpg at 3.00 per gal it costs $150 more if you did 5000 miles a year towing thats $750 more to tow. When you have a $50,000 truck and enjoy it then the $150 more for the 1000 miles isn't really that big of deal when you really think about it, Just my two cents worth( or $150 worth)