Ford 6.2 Opinions

Golden_HVAC wrote:

Many get surprised when they buy a 2500 truck that 'can tow anything' and then find out that they meant anything under 1,500 pounds of pin weight. The F-250 has a slightly higher GVWR, and they tend to be able to carry 400 pounds more with the gas engine, due to lighter curb weight. Still a crewcab is about 400 pounds more than the regular cab, and you did not say what you are looking at.

Besides the 5.7L in the Ram 2500, just about all 250/2500 gasser trucks have a payload of about 3,000 lbs or more in a crew cab configuration these days.

Since you're buying used I wouldn't stress out about F250 or F350 since they're the same outside of a helper spring on the F350. If you find a good deal on an F250, just add the helper spring or airbags and you've got an F350.

I purchased a Used Fleet/least work truck... in July 2015.

I am pulling 9,000 trailer.. and 1,500 in the bed.. with a tongue weight of 1,100 pounds...

original engine and transmission.. 140,000 miles. and No bad carfax reports
a total rolling weight of 16,800 pounds and it uses NO engine oil.. or transmission fluid.. NONE.
currently 1,000 miles from home. :)

empty.. 14 to 16 mpg..
fully Loaded.. average 9.1 for that 1,000 miles.. West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina Hills.

2012 Ford F 250 XL, 6.2L, 3:73 E-Locker, 2 wheel drive.. Super-Cab, Long bed.

I have a 6.2, F350 work truck that I really like. It spends quite a bit of time running back and forth on Interstate 70 near the Eisenhauer tunnel and because of that it spends quite a bit of time in the 4,000 RPM range where it makes plenty of power and sounds wonderful...:). Gas mileage? 10 mpg's or so mixed but the truck is loaded with a couple thousand pounds, spends a lot of time at higher RPM's and is new with only 2,000 miles on it so this isn't a fair representation of what the truck would get under normal use.

I have a 2015 with 6 months and 10,000km on her. Getting about 14mpg, mixed daily driving, mostly around town. It does pretty good on the hwy but the extra weight of the truck kills its mpg around town. Other than that its a great, reliable, solid, proven, powerful (for a gasser) set-up. It needs to rev to make power, if you're the type that can't handle that look at a diesel. I have the 3.73 rear end(as do most), wish I had the 4.30, just for the little bit of extra grunt.

S

Happy with mine, IF towing the 4.30 rear is the way to go, although I'm 12,000 lb with the 3.73.

Thanks for the information and thanks for the links patriotgrunt. Plenty of good reading there. From everything I've read so far I think a 6.2 would fit me well.

I'm going to buy used and don't really know whether I'll buy a supercab, crewcab, F-250 or F-350. It'll probably depend on what I can get for a good price.

Thanks again, Danny

I have a 2013 F 350 6.2 and have towed a 12,000 pound fifth wheel coast to coast and over Wolf Creek Pass. I am very happy with it and have had no issues.

If you are thinking fifth wheel and new pickup, I would select the F-350 SRW over the F-250 just for the extra cargo rating. This will give you the cargo capacity to carry a generator, or anything else you might want to carry.

Also fifth wheels tend to get heavier as you get closer to putting down a deposit, 'honey, this one has a electric fireplace, and larger kitchen' = that sort of thing.

Of course if you already have the fifth wheel in mind, then you will know the exact weight of the trailer, and pin weight 'empty'. And you will know if it has a forward or rearward mounted fresh water tank. Normal 60 gallon tank is about 540 pounds, and that can be split equally between the trailer axle and pin, or more on the pin, or not, depending on how far forward the tank is to the hitch.

Many get surprised when they buy a 2500 truck that 'can tow anything' and then find out that they meant anything under 1,500 pounds of pin weight. The F-250 has a slightly higher GVWR, and they tend to be able to carry 400 pounds more with the gas engine, due to lighter curb weight. Still a crewcab is about 400 pounds more than the regular cab, and you did not say what you are looking at.

Have fun shopping!

Fred.

Great engine. My neighbor has one to pull his camper and he loves it. I think Ford's got a real winner with the 6.2 and so far reliability has been great. Most people are recommending to get the 4.30 axle but they're hard to find and with the weights you're planning to move, the 3.73 axle may be just fine. For mileage I included a link from Fuelly.com of actual users getting well over 12 mpg's in mixed conditions:

http://www.fuelly.com/car/ford/f-250_super_duty?engineconfig_id=299&bodytype_id=&submodel_id=

Here's another link from actual owners discussing 6.2 topics:

http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f154/

Finally, you can always check Ford-Trucks.com for more 6.2 talk:

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum206/

Good luck and enjoy the new truck!