Ford 350 mile per gallon

8mpg

Headwind hurts more than a tailwind helps.

Between 10-12 MPG US @ 65-70 MPH with 11,500 lb 5th wheel. Depends on terrain and wind.

200K miles on a 05 Cummins 4:10s crew cab dually. Last trip stayed at 65 on I95 and got 10.4 hand calculated and full to the top and both fills.
The big boys are really slowing down to save money, some as slow as 60.
Company rigs not so much.

FWIW, I ave about 8-9 towing rig in sig, grossing 24k at 70 mph, 4.10 gears.

Head or tail wind does make a huge difference. I just want to report that my 2021 F350 diesel gets much better mileage than my 2008. The 2008 averaged around 9 mpg, and the 2021 gets 12 mpg. That's averaged over several thousand miles with all kinds of ups, downs, head and tail winds.

JRscooby wrote:
Over years of watching it, I found a cross wind is worse than straight-on head wind. Worse is front quarter, where pushing against front and side.

Agree with JR, I'll take a strong head wind anytime, rather than a cross wind. Towing a little slower, in either case, is a fuel saver!

Jerry

Two things that will really hurt fuel economy are speed and head winds. We have a 2012 F350 CC DRW towing a 19,000 LB 5er. We typically get 9 MPG running 65 MPH on typical flatland roads. With a strong head wind, we will drop to 7 to 8 MPG. With a good tail wind, we can hit 10 MPG. If we run up to 70 MPH, we will drop ONE MPG overall.

So, if you are not happy with your fuel economy at 70 or 75 MPG, slow down. It is the same result as a head wind to drive faster.

Ken

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

buc1980 wrote:
What the mile per gallon you get pulling the FW.I get 6-9 with a front strong wind.That the first time when I get so poor MPG.

6.2L gas or 6.7L diesel?

Year makes a difference too. After 2020 Ford went with the 10 speed transmission which helps on MPG.

The way we travel it's hard to pin down a real MPG since we hit the mountains quite a bit. On the flats I think we are about 10-12. But so many other factors come into play - size and weight of the FW, how it's loaded, wind, terrain, traffic etc. For those reasons I don't bother even tracking MPG. We're going to travel where we travel anyway so it's a moot point.

BB_TX wrote:
Strong head wind can make a huge difference. Typical drive over flat to rolling country with little wind at 70 mph my 2012 F350 6.7 would avg about 11. A little head wind would drop to 10. A lot of headwind down to about 9.

Wind makes a huge difference. When we had our old 7.3 F250 pulling 9k lb 5er. We had ranges from 7mpg to 16mpg
- 7mpg was into a 30mph headwind.
- 16mpg was with a 30mph tailwind.

Both were short days where we called it early.

Long term average with that truck was just shy of 13mpg.

2005 F350, 6.0, Montana 3711FL, maybe 15,000lbs, get 9.5mpg.