From Tundra to which 3/4 ton

wintersun wrote:
Before investing in a 3/4 ton truck for occasional trailer towing and everyday driving I would take a long hard look at the new Ford F-150 with the 5.0L V-8 engine and its optional 36 gallon fuel tank and optional 17" pr 18" wheels.

With a WD hitch and sway control bars it should have no difficult towing your trailer and hauling your family members and all your gear.

You will have at most a 7,200 lb. tow load and to get a 2500 truck with a 17,000 lb. towing capacity is truly overkill. You will have a harsher ride and can expect to pay 50% more for fuel for no real world advantage.

It will help a great deal to get the truck with the lowest gears offered by the manufacturer for the model with the gas engine. With Ford it is going to be 3.73 gears. Higher gears help with EPA statistics which is important to Ford and the CAFE standards it has to meet but will hurt towing performance and not likely to make a significant difference in everyday fuel economy.

The big three all have to meet CAFE average fleet fuel economy standards set by the federal government and trucks drag down their averages but also are the most profitable vehicles they sell. They have done to transmissions with more speeds and to using ultra high gears to improve the EPA test results which are not conducted in a real world driving situation, which is why seldom does anyone actually get these results with their own vehicles.

to be honest, I did not even consider the new f150 because well....it's a 150.

My Tundra has no trouble pulling the weight of my trailer and payload, however on twisty roads it can get pushed around a bit more than I would like. That is a matter of physics, soft 1/2 ton suspension and being relatively light for a tow vehicle.

as far as hitch setup, I have reese dual cam WDH with 1200lb bars and everything tows level and straight, never any sway on the highway even when being passed by the big rigs.

I am usually over my payload by a fair bit when camping and worry about a "panic situation" I would rather have way more truck than I need than "just enough" or "maxed out".

I haven't really investigated the new 150 but don't really understand how you can have the soft smooth ride of a 1/2 ton and handle that much weight with "authority"??

I'm also not against a firmer ride, as I've had many 3/4 ton trucks in the past that where daily drivers for me 99% of the time. Also I don't know about 50% more fuel costs? My Tundra get 15.5 mpg mixed driving 40/60 city/hwy. and it seams the Ram 6.4 Hemi should get similar results from what I'm reading??