I have a 1990 F150 with a 5.0 that is my daily driver. I bought the truck new & it has been a great truck for 18 years now, never letting me down once. I have the 5.0 (302cu in) at 185hp 270 pounds of torque and it has done everything I ask. I pull a 21ft Caravelle boat & trailer (4500 pounds) through the Ozarks & it does a good job. My point is with fuel going up like crazy I would be happy with a new truck that had the same horsepower as I currently have but would get a lot better fuel mileage. High gas prices are here to stay - fuel mileage is the answer not high horspower quick quarter mile times. I look at my sticker from 1990 & the mileage was 14 -18, as far as I can see not much has changed. Trying to bouble the mileage seems like a better answer to me.

 

that's why they have smaller trucks than the F150, with smaller engines that make about the same power as your truck does now and get better mpg. I'd look into it if I were you, and quit trying to shove your ideal of a truck down everyone else's throat because you think the F150 should be your way, when it sounds like you'd be mighty happy with a ranger anyway.

 

Amid the news of layoffs at its big truck and SUV plants, per the following article, note the news about the new F-100. About 2 years too late...

As for this Fosters guy, he seems to believe that gas is going down to a buck a gallon (and it will, the day after Santa Claus brings us each an "economic stimulus" check for $10 million, a couple V10 F150's, and 27 virgins...) Oil just cracked $129 a barrel today...

Ford scales back truck, SUV production - May. 20, 2008

 

yep, right after ford gives us all this enormous HP that everyone's complaining about.

 

What is wrong with wanting to improve the mileage on the F150? Lord knows, there is plenty of room for improvement, or should we just wait till Dodge, GM and Toyota improve their mileage and then whine and ask why Ford can't build an engine that gets decent mileage? Whoever gets the mileage up, will be the one who sells trucks. The rest, no matter how pretty they are, how fast they are, or how pumped up they are, will be gone. .................................................. .....The Definition of Insanity....... Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.....

 

There are a handful of folks on this page who are requesting big horsepower; the rest of the world is buying smaller cars in response to the gas price crisis. I just read an article about a guy who is fixing up old 3-cylinder Geo Metros and selling them on Ebay for $7 grand...and new they were $9 grand.

If you have to feed your family, or buy gas for a gigantic truck, which would you do first?

"Good gas mileage is the new performance"....

 

if it comes down to that, maybe you should go buy another vehicle to begin with?

if it comes down to buying gas or feeding your family, nobody "needs" a truck. you don't "need" to tow that 30 foot camper, because you don't "need" a camper to feed your family. You don't "need" that 24 ft pontoon boat, either. if you're a contractor of some kind and you use a halfton truck for work, raise your prices with the prices of gas, everyone you're competing with is facing the same deal. Or better yet, buy a more suitable vehicle - i've yet to see a foreman that uses an F150 to it's max; usually they're used to carry around a few hundred lbs of tools or tow a 1 ton small trailer...

and last but not least, if it comes down to buying gas or feeding your family, you're doing something wrong with your finances...

all trucks get bad gas mileage, get used to it, live with it. if you don't like it, go get a prius, or a 3 cyl metro while they're still cheap.

if I want to pay for a 12mpg vehicle, leave my choice alone, you have other choices that get the MPG you're looking for. - there are no other vehicles that do what I want in a vehicle - tow, carry, etc. There are plenty of vehicles that do what you want - mpg.

 

Fosters, Why do you think that your choice is the only correct choice? You seem to think that nobody else should have an opinion except you. Drive your 12 MPG truck with good health and be happy, nobody wants to take it away from you. Tell me something, if improvements should never be made, how do you explain your mustang? "Every bolt-on in the world", it didn't come that way, did it? You improved it. So what is wrong with improving mileage and power? Nobody said that they wanted less power, but everyone wants better mileage.

 

could not have said it better... Fosters if you need that kind of power because you use your truck why did you not buy a f250 and leave the f150 to the people who only use their truck every now and then and want better mileage before getting horsepower numbers that the truck does not need. Just an observation that if you NEED that much power get a powerstroke or v10 f250/f350.

 

Hey fosters, I'm a self employed contracter and I really depend on my 150 for work. I couldn't down size if I wanted to because I need a good size truck with a decent amount of power, but it would also be nice to get decent gas mileage out of it which I really don't. Sticker on the window said 14 cty. 18 hwy. and I would've been lucky to get 10 hwy when I 1st got the truck. After a few mods, I'm getting around 15 hwy. 13.5 cty. These gas prices are really starting to take their toll on me as I have been raising my prices like you suggest to keep up with the rising cost of operating and I have been losing ALOT of work lately as result.

 

That's a Dr Phil quote

 

never once did I say my choice is the correct one. people here are asking for power in the top engine available in the truck. The mileage camp is continously making posts like "OH for god's sake, stop all this madness about power, we need mpg instead!". There are other engines available and other trucks available that get better mpg and whatnot. What's wrong with having one choice that has class leading power?

I'm not saying improvements shouldn't be made; quite the contrary, the 5.4 needs a lot of improving in the power department. it is far behind all of the competition in that department. It is dead on as far as mileage with every other half ton truck. so you tell me, why is YOUR choice of improvements the correct one?

I've said it before numerous times, I am looking for a V10 f250/f350, since obviously HP and TQ won't ever come to the F150. The F150 does tow everything I need it to tow, I would just like it to do it better, easier. that's all.
so you mean to tell me you depend on the capabilities of the 5.4 f150 so much that cannot get by with the 4.6 in the f150? if you're taxing your truck THAT much on a daily basis, that a 4.6 can't cut it, you really ought to look into a diesel or at least an F250. What is your competition doing different that is causing them not to be affected by gas prices as much as you?


What I want the MPG camp to explain to me, is why all these posts about "stop asking for power we need mpg!" yet, in both the F150 and F250/F350, the bigger more powerful gas engine gets slightly better mpg than the lower gas engine? In that case, why is it so bad to ask that the most powerful engine in the lineup be competitive with the rest of the trucks in the power department, when they're already getting the same MPG? and third, knowing pretty much all half tons get about the same mpg regardless of power, and the differences are miniscule, isn't that an indicator that MPG is not really affected by how much power the motor has? And if so, why all these posts about stopping the talk about hp? It seems the MPG camp has made it's mind up that the sole reason these 3 ton boxes get bad gas mileage is because we have too much hp...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ord-awake.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...allon-gas.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...-the-game.html

 

Fosters, you're an angry man.

Tim

 

nope, just one who has nothing better to do at work

 

Can't afford a 250, 350 or a diesel, and they don't make a 150 the size of my truck w/ a 4.6, at least I couldn't find one. Hell, I had a hard enough time finding a scab with an 8' bed. There really aren't that many of them out there. Most of them are short beds. You really can't make any statement about what I can use or need since you have know idea what it is I do for work.The same could be said for anyone else you are making comments for or about!