ive got one with the 5.4 and the manual tranny. gets pretty good mileage for such a big truck. depending on how its drived it gets 12-15. but it has a manual tranny so its gonna be better than the autos. it has plenty of power for me. i pull a 6x12 motorcycle trailer with 3 atvs on it and it does great. and if i want to, i can accelerate fast with the manual. i dont see why you guys think its underpowered. its not made to race. its a friggen truck. it has 33x12.50s on it too. im happy with it. has 120,000 miles on it. still runs great. id say get it if you dont pull that much. i use mine bout 2 to 3 times a month to pull. hope this helps.

 

hahah i jsut couldnt stay away!!! lol your thinkin of the 6 liter dude! he said the 5.4 v8 GAS engine.

 

Wow don't pay any attention to what this guy says. You don't know how hard it is to keep from flaming this guy. Anyways...

I just traded in my '04 F-150 5.4 for this '01 F-250. The 5.4 is a great motor, but I think it is too small for these heavier SDs unless you plan to do absolutely no towing or hauling. Especially when towing in the mountains. My F-150 did pretty good, but I am glad I got this truck and engine combo. Something to think about.

At any rate, even if you do decide 5.4, don't worry about reliability issues. I ragged the hell outta my 5.4 3v and it never skipped a beat. You'll be happy with it, unless you got a load on with the big heavy truck.

 

Can't quite agree totally - the 5.4 (3V) in an F250 is an adequate tow up to about 7-8K trailer weight. Yeah, a little more omph would be nice in the mountains, but I hauled 13-14K up long 10% grades with mine (3.73 rear, would have done better w/4..10 or 4.30). It will do the job. Get something bigger if you are towing a lot in mountain country. (Some people say it doesn't have it for towing, and they're tryin to move 14K with the 3.73). If you exceed the 8K mark, move up to the V10, and F350 for GCWR issues. JMVHO.
PS: Me thinks dayooper is missing a gear in his gearbox......

 

I agree 100% with Alchymist, and I only have the "measly" 2V 99 5.4 in my SD. Granted, I do have 4.10 gears, which help a lot.

I currently pull a 5K GVW TT with a bed full of firewood and enough clothing and supplies for a family of 4 for an extended weekend with NO issues. Even on the steep grades, I have to back out of it some to keep from accelerating too much.

What Alchymist said is SPOT on. If you want to tow a TT around 8K GVW, the 5.4 will do the job, it will work, but it will do the job. I only go camping 6-7 times per year, and for those 6-7 times if I need to work the truck I will do so.

Remeber the 5.4 IS a small block engine that LIKES to REV, so let it REV on the hills and don't worry about it. With my O/D locked out, around 60 MPH I am turning around 2800 RPM and my 5.4 just purrs right along.

The fuel mileage is not great towing, and the V-10 IS a better choice for towing if you tow more than 8K and tow more often than I do, then again, if you do a lot of towing, I would pass on the gas-thirsty V-10 and get a power stroke.

Just my .02, good luck, but the new 3V 5.4's seem to have good power for their displacement, if you use them for loads they are designed for.

Lastly, I TOTALLY disagree with the negative comments by the ONE poster, IMO the 5.4 is a good, reliable engine and WILL work hard when asked to.

 

The 5.4L is not a problem prone engine. It is not underpowered. It puts out more horsepower than a 460 did. Most of the guys who are trying to recommend against a 5.4L have probably never towed with a 3V 5.4L Super Duty. I do on a regular basis.

I have a 2007 5.4L with the automatic and a 3.73 differential. As long as you're towing under 10,000 pounds you'll be fine. I often tow 9000 pounds easily. You won't win any drag races, but it'll easily get the job done. If I was getting another I would opt for the 4.10 gears.

If your towing load goes above 10,000 regularly then get a V-10 or a PSD.

As for mileage. I average 15 MPG mixed driving. Straight hiway I see 16-18 MPG depending on conitions. Straight city....well, it sucks. Towing the trailer pictured, I get 10-11 MPG empty (it's about 3500 unloaded). The mileage goes down as the weight goes up.

When towing with a 5.4, put the transmission in TOW/HAUL mode, stick it in drive and let it work. A lot of guys get worried the engine winds out too much, but it's supposed to.......just relax and let it do it's thing.

 

I agree with everything Redford said. The 5.4 is adequate for most people, but for $ 600.00 extra, you can get a V-10. If you're not sure what to do, get the V-10 and you won't be sorry. As for a diesel, I still haven't figured out why many people get them unless they tow/haul on a daily basis as the $ 6,000 + price tag for a diesel is a whole lot of extra money. On the other hand, maybe some own a hamburger shop and burn bio-diesel in their truck so the fuel is for free ;-)

 

Does anyone have an idea what the real world difference between mileage on the 5.4 and V10 is? I am looking for unloaded figures since load will obviously drive the MPG down.

 

Unloaded:
I got approx 11-12 in town and 14-15 hwy with a '01 F250 5.4L Supercab 4x4.
I get approx 9-10 in town and 13-14 hwy with my '05 F350 V10 Crew cab 4x4.

 

Even though I voted for spending the extra $600 and get the V10, the bang for the buck is worth it. But even the new 3-valve 5.4L V8 gas produces more power than most big blocks of back then. The only stock gas truck engine that I can find that is more powerfull was the 390 ci. It was hard to find a truck that produced 300 HP & 365 FT/LBS TQ. Really the 5.4L is not all that wimpy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_F-Series

 

What about the difference in *highway* gas mileage between the 3.73 and the 4.10 gears? Anyone have a grip on that?

I only tow 3K, with another 1K in the bed and 4 men and their stuff, but I don't even know its back there. Maybe on the steepest of eastern mountain grade? ... I really don't remember .... I'm generally passing all the cars on the grades.

Its a 2002 5.4 Auto 3.73 CC. Of course, my sons would want a bigger engine and taller gears, but I'm pretty satisfied.

Since I do so much driving at 75 - 80 mph down the interstate, I was wondering how much more gas those 4.10 gears would cost me.

 

Everything I've seen on this board and others, say the 4.10 vs 3.73 is negligible. Maybe 1, sometimes 2mpg. The 2 mpg loss probably because the new gears tend to make the foot heavier! Look, a lot of it boils down to what you're towing. With only 4K, you're not pulling that much. I'm pulling only about 5500 lbs when I pull, but the front of the 5500 lbs is tall and it's the wind resistance that kills me. Towing a 5500 lb travel trailer and a 5500 lb utility trailer (open, not a box like redford has) or boat is night and day.

 

I doubt it makes much difference. If your under a load, the 4.10:1 gears might get better mpg.

 

Ya think?

Again ... empty truck ... just me flying down the interstate commuting to work everyday.

I figured maybe that tach would be significantly higher, at least noticably higher, sucking up more of that good $3 gasoline. Actually, that was the reason I wanted the 3.73 gears, because the truck was going to be my eveyday commuter down the interstate.

If the taller gears help out low range, but don't really hurt the top end, then why do they even use the 3.73 as standard gearing?

Just my ramblings

 

At 60 MPh the 5.4l w/3.73 and the V10 w/4.10 aren't more than a couple hundred rpm apart.........experience talking, just upgraded. And mileage is about the same, perhaps 1-2 MPG diff empty, hardly noticable loaded. (9 MPG pulling 13K or so with each). Where the V10 shines is when you hit the hills.