Gents,

Thanks for all the info. After a lot of reading and working with my salesman at dealership, I am going to order a F-350, DRW, lariat, 4X4, V-10, auto, Tow Boss, Camper Package and various other goodies. Out the door price........39,357. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
Again, many thanks

 

Sounds like you ordered the perfect truck for your needs. What color, post pics when it comes in ! ! !

Sounds like a good deal too.

 

White over Gold, camel interior, captains, chairs. power rear window. No nav system or moon roof.

Now the dreaded wait begins...

 

thats going to be one nice truck.

 

I know I will most likely start a debate. I'm not the smartest guy, but I was smart enough to retire at 48 years old and be comfortable. I'm now 56 years old.
I ran a business for years were I had to have costs vs income figure out on paper. If it didn't come out on paper then I had to look in other options.
You asked if a V10 would do for your service needs. I had to go back to when I was a young boy. My Dad owned a 1958 GMC Panel truck with a 247 CID I-6 with a 3 speed. He towed a 1950s 15' Aljo travel trailer from Canada to Mexico with us kids and Mom on vacations. Now remember a 50s 15' travel trailer was much heavier than many of todays travel trailer of larger sizes. What I find real interesting how most people are being BRAIN WASHED into thinking you have to have some HIGH DOLLAR truck with these large displacement engines to pull trailers and such. To bring my point a little closer to today. In 1992 my business partner bought a new truck. The first one he had ever bought. He just wanted the cheapest new truck he could buy for cash. Well the local Chevy dealer had a new CK10 Work Truck with NO OPTIONS V-6, 5 sp. radio delete. We owned horses & a 4 horse stock trailer. We would load the trailer with hay and horses and pull that trailer on the road and off-road with no problem at all. The truck got 14 MPG with a loaded trailer.
My point is this, the rule of thumb in the old days, was if you weren't driving 100,000 miles/year, or a company that owned a fleet that there is no way a diesel is cheaper to own than a gas truck/mile. THAT IS STILL TRUE TODAY IF YOU FIGURE IT ON PAPER. We can justify anything, but the TEST is will it come out on paper.
The choice of a V-10 is a good one IMO. What I read here & hear from people I know that own V10s is they are about $700 option, a diesel $7000. Mileage on the V-10 10-12 MPG towing, diesel 14-15 MPG. Start putting the figures on paper. Diesel 14 qts of oil, filters $15-up, V-10 6 qts oil, filter $5. Come on get out the paper. Were I'm living gas $2.459, diesel $2.879 Have you started figuring?
Just my two cents. I pull a 10,000# 32' Travel Trailer with a 12' slideout, with a 1986 F250 4x4 460, C-6, 3:55 gears. I top Copper Canyon on I-17 in Arizona at 32 MPH. It is a 6% grade about 7 miles long. All the people with there diesels pull about 45 MPH when the day ends we pull into a RV park with them ahead of me by 15-20 minutes. If you have BIG STUPID MONEY then it doesn't matter I guess.

 

Get the 4.30's!

I don't think you can even GET the 3.73's with the V10 anymore, and between the 4.10's and the 4.30's, there is almost a 5% increase in torque to the ground.

OK, so what, what's 5%? 5% is the difference between slowing down going up a grade, and accelerating. It's 5% less the engine has to work on the highway at ANY speed.

On top of that, I don't think it's even a 5% difference in gas mileage between the two, ESPECIALLY LOADED.

The engine will spin 5% faster overall, but you'll get 5% more power to the ground to counteract the aerodynamics of the camper, and the truck.

Loaded, 4.30's almost ALWAYS get better MPGs than 4.10's or 3.73's.

 

Without a doubt get the 4.30's

And Kermmydog, that was an excellent post

 

Great comments all. Will be placing the order tomorrow night. Just a side question, what is the weight difference between V10 and 6.0/6.4? Do the V-10's suffer from early front wheel bearing failures like many of the diesels do?

You Gents are a wealth of good info and very much appreciated.

 

cv67cheng,

You know your real question is will dooley do smokey burnouts with the V10 and 4:30 gears.. You dont have to lie to us

 

I know of a few people that do it And not with the newer 3-valver...

I think they took care of the wheel bearing failures somewhere around 2005 with the new coil spring front-end?

And the V10 is lighter. How much, I don't remember But the V10 in the same truck, with the same springs, chassis, everything, has a higher payload because the V10 weighs less than the diesel, so there's more payload left over ...

 

Must be close to 500lbs heavier, by the difference in the weight of my new truck over my old V10.

 

I don't have regret one about getting my V10 powered F350, but I chuckle and really wonder where these mileage figures come from. Pulling a 10,000 pound plus fiver over hill and dale, OR just down to the local lake campground on relatively flat round, I see between 7.5 and 9mpg. My normal is consistently closer to 8mpg, ad NEVER over 9mpg. Most of the mileage of my first year has been towing, and this year I have a 5500 round trip mileage scheduled for June in addition to several shorter trips, so I will get more towing figures under my belt and will post full reports for those interested.

Unloaded and driving conservatively at 50 - 55mph, I see 12mpg. Not a half over, rarely a half under.

When I see that the Duramax crowd sees only 2-3mpg better than me, and the sick-liter crowd only 1-2 mpg better, I am very happy with my V10. I just wonder where my miracle mileage is...

Michael

 

Thank You for your comment. I have wanted to say that for sometime now. I can afford to buy a new truck if I want. I only use my 86 F250 about 5000-8000 miles per year. Most of it is towing our travel trailer. There is no way I would come out. Unless I live to be 90 years old. The money I have to spend on my 86 is not much. It's hard to beat a Ford truck of any year. Heck in a few years it will be a classic.
Craig

 

Yes, please do. Do you hand calculate it? The reason I ask is I was seeing consistently poor mileage and after putting a canopy on my truck the mileage went down another .5mpg or so. I was frustrated at 9.7 or so mpg so I started hand calculating it and realized when the computer said 9.7 I was in fact getting 11.1; so, more than 10% better than the computer said. However, when the computer said I got 12.2 mpg, it was dead on accurate. I don't know why the computer can be that far off sometimes and not others, but I've come to realize I can't assume because the computer is dead on accurate to a 10th of a mpg sometimes that it's not off by at least 10% other times.

I don't drive highway/interstate miles much, but was very surprised to average 12.2 driving 75+ most of the miles. The mileage was better over 70 than at 50mph. I don't know why.

My next door neighbor bought an 06 Duramax. He's averaging 14mph, and he drives a LOT more highway miles than I do. With a 19' toyhauler with two quads he's nearer 10mpg.

 

This was actually talked about a long time ago, and for some reason, independent of rear-end ratio, lots of people reported better MPGs doing 70-75-80, instead of 60-65.

I get (SERIOUSLY!) 16.2MPG on the highway, the last time without the bed covered, but full of stuff.

Previously, I would get 15.5-15.8 without a cap/topper, and 16.5MPG or even better WITH a topper. So with a full bed of stuff covered by a tarp, I got right in the middle.

I think it depends on the length of the cab, and length of the bed, as to whether a topper is a help or not.

Anyway, I'll shut up now, this is not the right place for this...

Oh, and on the highway, I'm usually doing 75-80MPH on long trips.