My father just took delivery of a 2008 6.4 F-250 CC 4X4 auto 3.73 rear truck. He noticed that the fuel computer never seemed to go over about 13.5 MPG,this was city and hiway driving the trip home from the dealer. He seems concerned about the fuel mileage. His old truck a 2001 7.3 F-250 CC 4x4 auto 3.73 rear seemed to do much better MPG, around 16 city and 20 hiway. I hate to break the sad news but I think the 6.4 is going to use more fuel! He will need to figure out MPG on paper to get an accurate comparsion.

 

If he JUST took delivery, why is he worrying about mpg? These things need time to break in fully.

 

I just ordered a fully loaded 2008 F-350 King Ranch with the dually rear, 4.30 gears, tow command package and almost every available option other than the dvd player. Although gas mileage is always a concern these days, I am sure that the 6.4 will get better than the gas engines. I do not expect it to get anywhere as good of gas mileage as my 201 Excursion with the 7.3 and 3.73 gears. With the Excursion I get anywhere from 19 to 24 mpg depending on the traffic. My best has been 29 mpg on the highway from NY to Virginia which occured while doing the speed limit with no traffic. The worst I have gotten so far was 11 mpg which took place while towing a 6,000 pound car on a 2,500 pound trailer with heavy traffic. Normally, while towing I get anywhere between 13 and 18 mpg. I would think that most people buying heavy duty trucks, such as myself, are not buying them for great gas mileage but for towing or hauling heavy trailers or items. Good gas mileage is, of course a plus, but not the purpose of these trucks.

 

I agree Egobop but 8 9 10 mpg while towing 6800 lbs is 80s technoligy they need to kick it up a notch..

 

1'ST LEG OF OUR TRIP TO VA 750 MILES. 450 TOWING 16,350 FROM THE CAT SCALE, total 25,350 combined. Averaged so far8.8MPG, Man does this thing tow. The hills through the Poconos, set on 62mph it would down shift at about 60 and bring it up to 65 in a hurry. pulling onto entrance ramps on uphills, amazing, could not believe the power. Did Ford get this right towing, can not say enough good things about this truck towing. Will give a detailed report when we get back.Had to call Ford on where to get ulta low. Hard to find in Va. Found out BP, Amaco and AM PM carry it. Found one 8 miles from our campsite.

 

Why can the german sell you a passat, jetta or a golf with 180HP out of 1.9 litter VW stock with no aftermaket BS and here we have a 6.4 with 350HP and by the way you still get 49MPG with that engine if you keep it below 70MPH.
and by the way Ford is not that far behind in germany they do make great cars and trucks but they will not sell us these trucks here with that same tecknology well maybe they are starting, piezzo injectors on our trucks have been in european diesel cars for a while now.
the thing that bugs me the most is the fact that you have to worry about where to buy the ULSD diesel and you have to start looking for it at about 150miles from your starting point because when you tow 15k 5th you only get 7 maybe 8 MPG with my trucks configuration.
I personnaly think that if today I have to this again 100k gas motorhome or 08 truck with a fifth wheel trailer for a 100k I will not hesitate to pick the first choice just because traveling or vacationning is about relaxing and not worrying about my odometer where to fill up how long before the next ulsd gas station.

 

Make sure you get you a small tow behind vehicle for your motor home.....

 

You could just buy three 1.9L Vw's and tow your fifthwheel with them.....lol. As far as the comment about "80's MPG"......well I dont know what to tell you except I think you are forgetting that alot has changed since then like speed limits and and EMISSIONS. Those Diesel MotorHomes are not exempt from this new emission crap that is plagueing the new 6.4L's, if you are gonna buy one you better do it now before they change to this cleandiesel technology.

 

Here's my latest real-world data for my truck, see the particulars of my rig in my signature.

Last tank was 11.2 MPG, last four tanks have averaged 10.3 MPG and I've averaged 9.9 MPG since I got her five months ago.

Driving has been mixed surface street commuting with about 25% freeway miles.

Of the ~1,100 miles driven over the last four tanks, only 100 miles or so has been towing my 5th wheel.

 

Well guys I have a story to tell you and it is not a good one I just got home about three hours ago from what suppose to be a three day trip to Lake Havasu and this is what happened first we got 8 MPG going there and 6.5 MPG coming back but we never made it back home because the truck died on us about 120 Miles from home for the guys from southern California we were on the 15 freeway right before the 91 doing about 65 MPH towing the 5th wheel then the check engine light came on for about 15 to 30 segond then the engine shoot down so I coasted to the side of the freeway and it cranks but never started again we call Ford they sent us someone within an hour to tow us to Hemborg Ford in Norco because we had some friends that were following us towing the boat they picked up my wife and the kids and continued to san diego.
I get to the dealership about 8:00 pm on Sunday they show me were to have the tow guy park the truck which is still stuck to the fiver and tell me they will look at it tomorrow morning find a place to sleep or sleep in your fiver.
in the morning they hook up a computer to get massages from my truck why it is not starting anf they call Ford tecknical support and tell me that the code say there no diesel pressure and no oil pressure in the engine and it will take them about 5 days to get to it and another two to three to find out what is wrong with it exactly then another day or two to get parts and another day ot two to put it toghether and they want me to move my fiver from there driveway get my own rental until they fix it.
well Ford does not give you a rental with your standard waranty but I do have extended waranty which allows me to get a rental but how to get my trailer and my truck back to san diego I call the selling dealer he tells me ford allows towing for 35 miles with your trailer if it an F250 or more series truck but who is going to pay for the tow all the way to Mossy Ford which is where I bought the truck. they will not pay for the 900 dollars difference and ford will not pay it neither. so they called the ford rep for southern califronia which said no probleme they will pay for the whole towing from there they towed the fiver to my house and the truck to Mossy today because no one wanted to tow me back home yesterday around 5:00pm back to san diego it is too late or they were asking for 1500 to 2000 dollars to do it. anyway after spending 2 night in my fiver at the parking lot of Hemborg Ford I am finally back home and my truck is the Mossy to get fixed.
this was a night mare to deal with the customer service for the road side assistance for Ford are really idiots all of them because we talk to about 15 of them in course of 2 days and no one seamed to know what the hell they were doing. and add to the fact that a lot big towing companies I was told by the service people at Hemborg ford and the people that towed me that they do not like to tow for Ford because they do not get paid by them and they are the only one out of all the manufacturers that pay late and gives them a hard time before paying them.
my truck has 10130 miles on the odo and I think it is too early to have problems of this magnitude on a 60k truck and I did not know that if you do not have extended waranty you do not get a rental I think what happened to me is a nightmare imagine if I was on someones on somebodie's payroll you miss 2 days from work you are stuck with you family somewhere for 2, 3 day what if it happaned further away like on the 40 freeway in 118 heat what do you do.
the other thing that I found out is each dealer puts there customer first then the other when it is a big problem because most of them have 1 teck only that does diesel and we all know how busy they are still fixing the 6.0 that did not hit 100k miles or 5 years so you have to wait that is the reason i wanted to be towed and they agreed with me to San Diego.
I will post later what they find out is wrong with my truck otherwise the trip to Havasu was fun in the sun but it turned tragic sunday on the way home.

 

I avg 9-10mpg really hasn't changed. I plan on going for a road trip next month. really don't want it to break down on me

 

City or Highway? I think stop and good with the A/C going will kill your MPG. But let that baby run down the interstate for a few hundred miles with the A/C off and MPGs should start climbing...

Although that is my theory, I've yet to put it into practice.

 

drisschoufa,

I am still two years from purchasing a diesel to pull a 33-35ft fifth wheel. I believe the weight you are towing is about what I will be towing. The jury is still out on this truck with me. For the past two years, I have been reading and trying to learn all I can before I sink 60K into a tow vehicle. Right now from what I am reading on this truck from this site and others I don't think they got it right especially the fuel mileage. I hope that within the next two years that this thing improves or I might have to start rethinking my plans (motor home vs. fifth wheel). I need for someone to get it right, because I need a tow vehicle and I would prefer it to be a Ford. I hope things work out for you.

 

While, I would agree with you on the mpg issues, I don't know that I would say there are that many problems with the 6.4. Keep in mind many people will post there problems with a truck, but not many will post to say "no problems, everythings fine". If you were to read the 7.3 forums, and you base it's reliabilty on how many problems people post, you would think that engine is a problem prone POS. For some that may be true, but overall the 7.3 is considered to be one of the most reliable engines out there.

 

buy a motorhome because that is what I would do today and that is for many reasons including the availabilty of gas everywhere the fact that you can not go south of the border with truck and fiver is another and the third and most important is I bought this truck mainly for towing and the fact that I am getting such a poor MPG tells me where is the difference between gas and diesel 10 more MPH going up the grades no thank you.
I bought the truck doing limited homework our trips to bahia de los angeles and conception are now impossible the fact that we have to stop for gas between here and any destination like vegas, lake havasu, hidden shores is a probleme for me that I did not have before and would not if i had gas motorhome.
and now the reliabilty is questioned I broke down and god only knows what I went thru. all the things that I was expecting going with the diesel did not materialise imagine you brake down with your new truck 400 miles south of the border and need to be towed back to the states because even here the tecknology in these new truck is a probleme for the small dealer. as I was stuck in norco they had a customer of theres that has 12 fleet truck breake down with the same truck as mine in lake havasu the dealer there could not fix it after a day of trying he called hemborg ford where he bought the truck and they towed him back with his family and the 2 tow trucks that towed to san diego told me that they 2 to 3 2008 ford a week because they are breaking down on these stretch of the freeway just like it hapenned to me.
again the part I do not understand is why international has engines that go 200 to 400 miles in there truck and ford is having a probleme with there engine which is made by international.
go with the motorhome as i would without a doubt today knowing what I know and experiencing with this set up.