How bad will it be
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Elder User
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From: Washington,KS/Lincoln,NE
How bad will it be
Thinking about 39 foot 5th wheel camper for my 350 dually w/4.30 gears and 5 speed auto. She'll weigh 15 K and approach 13 feet up. How bad might I expect my fuel economy to be? It'll get 15 on road empty if I keep it at 2000 RPM or less. Thanks
Last edited by Larry NCKS; Feb 3, 2008 at 10:37 AM. Reason: add signature
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From: San Diego, CA
That all hinges on "that depends."
- How fast you drive
- How much do you weigh
- What's the terrain
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Originally Posted by Larry NCKS
Thinking about 39 foot 5th wheel camper for my 350 dually w/4.30 gears and 5 speed auto. She'll weigh 15 K and approach 13 feet up. How bad might I expect my fuel economy to be? It'll get 15 on road empty if I keep it at 2000 RPM or less. Thanks
Elder User
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From: N.Ridgeville, Ohio
Well I am pulling a 13K 5th wheel, 39 feet 6 inches long F-350,6.4L,LB,CC,Dually.. We have the 4:10 gears only because we had to order off the lot and could not find one with the 3:73 gears. With the 4;10's we do get 15's on interstates, solo, 63/65 MPH easy terrian. We have many fellow campers that pull like weights with the 3:73's with no problem at all. I should have held out for the 3:73's and a bit better MPG.This is my opinion only..the 4:30's are overkill..the 3:73's are enough.
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There is no free lunch. If you tow heavy with a 3:73, and by heavy I mean over the rated tow capability, you can expect tranny problems down the road when out of warranty. The 4:10 and 4:30 trucks are rated to tow more for a reason. The gearing helps the auto tranny cope with the weight. I wonder if the dollars you hope to save on fuel by using a 3:73 will pay for that expensive out-of-warranty tranny down the road? I replaced 2 trannies in my 99 F350, which I attribute to (1) a poor tranny design compared to the new trannies; (2) towing heavy with 3:73 gears over the rated capability over the truck; and (3) modifications to the 7.3 that put too much torque on tranny. You should not have all these issues but simply overloading a tranny not designed to tow really heavy loads may be enough to cause problems. I learned from my mistakes and now tow with an 08 F350 with 4:30 gears and have no plans to modify the motor. It is a towing beast. I will gladly pay for a little extra fuel secure in the knowledge my tranny and truck are coasting along well within the rated tow capabilities.
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From: MI
Ok, here is what I found out. Had an 06 f-350 cc 4x4 3:73 gear,transfer flow 70 gallon tank in bed. Towing Raptor 38' 5th wheel toy hauler loaded, 15,000lbs
Michigan to Talladega AL 5.5 to 7.0 mpg fig by hand each fill up.
Same trip same 5th wheel same fuel tank with 08 f-450 4:88 gear same driving habits got 7.5-8.5and no hunting gears at all. the F-350 6.0 with 3:73 gear hunted gears all the time.
Michigan to Talladega AL 5.5 to 7.0 mpg fig by hand each fill up.
Same trip same 5th wheel same fuel tank with 08 f-450 4:88 gear same driving habits got 7.5-8.5and no hunting gears at all. the F-350 6.0 with 3:73 gear hunted gears all the time.
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From: N.Ridgeville, Ohio
With all due respect....Why would one deliberatly pull over weight and over spec's . The poster will be within all specs with his camper no matter what ratio he may have.
The 4:30 will not prevent someone who would ignore rated spec's to pull over weight anyway..
The 4:30 will not prevent someone who would ignore rated spec's to pull over weight anyway..
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The poster stated his trailer would be 15k. Assuming he has passengers, stuff in bed of truck, etc., he will be over the max or right at it. Better off with a 4:10 or 4:30.
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From: Henderson, NV
Larry can tow 18,800 according to ford publishing https://www.ford-trucks.com/specs/20...er-duty-1.html
He has 3800Lbs left for cargo people Ect...
As far as milage i would PM firehawk198 hes a member that has some time pulling with a set-up close to yours as far as engine and gear ratio and he has posted around 8.7 MPG loaded with a 16,650 trailer. He logged several 1000 miles and could proably answer some questions as far as towing for ya. Hope this helps
He has 3800Lbs left for cargo people Ect...
As far as milage i would PM firehawk198 hes a member that has some time pulling with a set-up close to yours as far as engine and gear ratio and he has posted around 8.7 MPG loaded with a 16,650 trailer. He logged several 1000 miles and could proably answer some questions as far as towing for ya. Hope this helps
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Larry apparently has 4:30 gears and can tow close to 18,800, but not really since the GCWR is 26,000. My truck with an empty aux tank and fifth wheel hitch, and no passengers, weighed 8,800 leaving the capability to tow about 17,000 plus or minus once you add passengers and gear. The point I was making is that the same truck with 3:73 gears has a GCWR of 23,500 so it would be able to tow about 14,500 pounds max. It is not worth it in my opinion to sacrifice towing capability and performance to save a few dollars on fuel if you are towing that heavy.
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From: Central Massachusetts
my dry trl weight was about 12k, I was surprised when I scaled out, with all the gear, dog, family, bikes was towing 16650# gross weight with my truck was 25350#. for over 2,000 miles this summer with 4.30's averaged 8.76mpg Most roads ran up to 5mph over to stay with traffic. Where the speed limit was 65 kept it between 62 and 67 depending on traffic and road conditions. Coming up over the Poconos in Pa the speed limit was dropped to 60 mph because of the tire valleys in the roads. One thing I can say is this truck can pull at any speed you want going up hills. I did not care for it in cruise going up hills. It would drop down to 62mph downshift and take off up to 67 mph at the top of hills. I could control the downshifting better out of cruise. I would get a little run at the bottom of the hill bring it up to 67mph and let it drop at the top to about 62 without it downshifting. What a joy to tow with. Planning on about 3,000 miles this year. I liked the 4.30s for towing and it really feels strong at 2,000 rpms=62mph. Had to be careful sometimes it would creep up to 10mph over the speed limit if you were not watching it.
Last edited by firehawk198; Feb 4, 2008 at 02:30 PM. Reason: spelling
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I have a 08 F350 Dually Tow boss package 4.30 gears, Auto, quad cab. 4x2. I live in Vegas, going to Cali most of the time (mountains everywhere) I tow a 48 foot enclosed car trailer, empty 11k loaded pushing 16-19k. I get about 9 on average.
I put the air dam on, and did one trip so far. The truck drives better cause the wind does not get underneath the truck and push me all over. MPG, too early to tell, but seems like it went up by maybe .5 of a mile better to the gallon.
I put the air dam on, and did one trip so far. The truck drives better cause the wind does not get underneath the truck and push me all over. MPG, too early to tell, but seems like it went up by maybe .5 of a mile better to the gallon.
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I don't know if this will help or not, but I pull a 39' Weekend Warrior 5-er with my 2005 6.0L w/ 4.30. Loaded it is 15-16K. Typically, I get 7.5-8.5 mpg. There are obviously numerous factors that can affect this in either direction. Unloaded on the hwy, I usaually get right at 14 mpg and 12 mpg in the city.
Like I said, I do not have an '08....yet.... but maybe it will give you an idea of what to expect with yours.
Like I said, I do not have an '08....yet.... but maybe it will give you an idea of what to expect with yours.
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From: AKRON, oHIO
I agree with Creekowl 3 (he's my brother.lol). I just got my F450 yesterday. I have been towing with my Cheully crew cab dually. When I was in Fl. visiting him a couple months ago we weight our trucks. His like he said was 8800 pounds and mine 8000. With my 40' toy hauler and two harleys in the back my total weight was 26,500 (way over my GVW). That's why I went to a F 450.
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From: newark,de
My friend just took his 12,500 lb. Ceder Creek fifth to Florida and got a whopping 6.7 mpg with his 6.4L engine, 3.73 gears 4X2 supercab. Rather pittiful mpg by anyones standards, and he is not a happy camper. He traded his 03 truck with the 6.0L same truck, gearing and 4x2 but his mpg's were consistently 3-4 mpg better towing than with the new truck. Solo mpg he is getting about 9.9 city, and 14 highway much worse than the 6.0L did. With mpg figures like this it is a wonder Ford hasn't come up with a solution to improve these numbers. I know I'll wait until things improve before trading my 05' 6.0L.