First tow report

[nohurry]

Just got home. 302 miles, 255 of which were towing the travel trailer (approx 7k lbs).

First of all, handling was excellent, I could maybe tweak the equal-I-zer hitch a little, but it seemed pretty close. We have a Labor Day wknd trip planned that will take me close to the local CAT scale. I'll try to swing in and get the weights to know for sure. Coming from a 150, it felt very solid. No jerking whatsoever. I noticed more bounce than I thought it should have though on older roads which may indicate the stock shocks are as bad as folks say they are. No sway at all, and passing semis were a non-issue. No heavy wind to speak of, so we'll see how that goes later.

Brakes/controller- smooth and solid. Ford controller performed flawlessly, and was easy to set. Again, coming from the 150 it was very reassuring to have the bigger components.

Comfort/interior ergonomics etc- Can't say enough about Fords interior. Seats, guages, storage all comfortable for long trips. Mirrors! Oh man what a difference from the clip ons I used on my previous truck!

Interesting note that when in tow/haul the lane change blinker feature blinks five times instead of the normal three.

Ok, my impressions on the 6.2's performance- I'll qualify this by again saying I came from an f150 with the 2V 5.4, and I've never towed with a diesel. I also had a 1990 f250 with the 460 a few years back.

The power is there in this motor, at least plenty for my trailer. I'm going to call it "sneaky" power for now. What I mean by that is this motor is so smooth and quiet up to 4k RPM's you just have to get the gear and RPM you want for a given situation, and watch the speedo to see what's going on. So much different than my old truck that would scream at 3500. Being a bigger truck than I was used to it seems to be going slower than it really is to me. Even when not towing. I'll get used to that. I locked out 6th for the entire trip, which I'll do every time I tow. With the 3:73's it just seems to be pulling like it should up to 60 miles per hour which is the highest speed limit I saw on this trip. My actual speed never exceeded 63. Cruising at 60 in 5th yielded 1900 RPMS. No big mountain passes on this trip, just a couple short moderate hills, and lots of rises and dips. There are no long straight flat roads in western Washington LOL. Power wise, no problems maintaining speed limit on anything I encountered, and take-offs from a stop were impressively quick. I did notice that it definitely pulled harder the more miles I put on, and I'm not imagining that. I'm sure it was the adaptive thing. Should do even better as the truck gets more miles on it (had 973 miles at start of trip). So overall It gave me pretty much what I expected, but I don't think I'd want to pull heavier over big passes with it. Not saying it wouldn't, I just wouldn't on a consistent basis.

Transmission- tow/haul is quite a different animal. I commented before about this things propensity to up shift quick. Not so in tow haul, espessiailly if you're putting your foot in it. I didn't see 5th gear till I hit almost 55 if pulling hard. Empty I'd be in 5th by 35. Rolling along at highway speed, if I came to a hill, I could push the accelerator quickly a ways and get 4th. If I wanted to, I could push it down further faster and it would go right to 3rd. I liked that. I also never encountered it "hunting", but then I watch for that and manage it. The bad? The actual shifts themselves should be quicker. Tow/haul supposedly does this by increasing line pressure to reduce heat, but it's not enough IMHO. I know a tune would help this, but I bought an extended warranty and that's not in the cards. It's really not bad enough to bother me. The ability to manually shift is awesome too.

Mileage- I got 9.68 MPG hand calculated, and the trucks computer said I got 9.7, so it wasn't too far off. I can live with that, and it's actually better than my 03 f150 got towing the same trailer, which was around 8.

Ok last thing- CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THE DOWNHILL THING TO ME!

I live on a steep windy hill (about a mile), you have to slow to about 25-30 around the corners even when not towing. So right off the bat I'm going down the hill, put on the brakes for the first corner, it shifts down, then the next corner, and before I know it I'm in 1st gear and engine is almost redlining! At this point I'm freaking, as is the wife. Then I remember about the tap the brake pedal to shift down thing. I thought you just tap the accelerator to up shift? Didn't happen. I basically made what amounted to a panic stop and started over again. It happened twice on the way out. Soooooo, you come to a hill, tap the brake to the gear you want? Then what? What if you need to slow down more? If you push and hold the brake will it not shift down? Yes, I read the manual, but It didn't really explain it. Help me out here.

Other than that. The truck was :B

[mdamerell]

Part of what you might be experiencing is how you use the brake pedal. With ABS systems they want a slow steady brake pedal so the computer can do it thing. When you pump the brake pedal like you would do with non-ABS in slippery weather it confuses the computer and the ABS system.

I noticed when in Tow/Haul with my F350 if I just tapped the brakes it would shift but if a did a light steady it would slow without shifting. As I got into it harder it would shift. I suggest you try some different styles of braking and see what works for you.

Anyway, that is my experience,

[N-Trouble]

Quickly take it out of tow/haul and it shouldn't do the agressive downshift/engine braking thing.

[Winged_One]

I had close to the same issue with going down some mountains in Montana. I ran into a problem where I had it on cruise, didn't notice a significant hill and the truck downshifted to 5th going up. Then it didn't get a chance to upshift to 6th before it started going down the other side. In fact cruise was still on and the truck shifted to 4th to keep me at 65mph or so. Annoying, but my own fault.

Did learn you have to hold the gas down a bit to get it to upshift. But that can get you in trouble going down a hill.

Better to switch to manual, and upshift it yourself. When you shift to manual, it will be in whatever gear it was when you shifted to it, so you can easily upshift.

BTW, glad your enjoying your new Ford. I know I loving mine.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

nohurry wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

I live on a steep windy hill (about a mile), you have to slow to about 25-30 around the corners even when not towing. So right off the bat I'm going down the hill, put on the brakes for the first corner, it shifts down, then the next corner, and before I know it I'm in 1st gear and engine is almost redlining! At this point I'm freaking, as is the wife. Then I remember about the tap the brake pedal to shift down thing. I thought you just tap the accelerator to up shift? Didn't happen. I basically made what amounted to a panic stop and started over again. It happened twice on the way out. Soooooo, you come to a hill, tap the brake to the gear you want? Then what? What if you need to slow down more? If you push and hold the brake will it not shift down? Yes, I read the manual, but It didn't really explain it. Help me out here.

Why were you and your wife "freaking out?"

With modern computer controlled engines you can go as fast as you want or as slow as you want. There really is no "red line" anymore.

If you're going too fast, hit the brakes and let the computer do it's thing. If you're going too slow hit the gas. It may take a second or two when hitting the gas for it to upshift. It just depends on how it was programed.

The bottom line is, you have a great modern truck, just drive the thing the way you want to and the computer will do the worrying for you.

OK, Let me define my "freaking out". I was just going "Ah, what's going on here" cause I didn't think I was in control. I wasn't in the least worried the truck would break etc. Just couldn't figure out the situation at hand, and the wife sensed that. After talking to a few people, I think I've got it figured out now.

Got ya.

Just put it in tow/haul and let it do it's thing. It will down shift or up shift at 99% of the right time. Computers are a wonderful thing in automobiles when driving. It will do all the calculations and worrying for you. 🙂

[nohurry]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

I live on a steep windy hill (about a mile), you have to slow to about 25-30 around the corners even when not towing. So right off the bat I'm going down the hill, put on the brakes for the first corner, it shifts down, then the next corner, and before I know it I'm in 1st gear and engine is almost redlining! At this point I'm freaking, as is the wife. Then I remember about the tap the brake pedal to shift down thing. I thought you just tap the accelerator to up shift? Didn't happen. I basically made what amounted to a panic stop and started over again. It happened twice on the way out. Soooooo, you come to a hill, tap the brake to the gear you want? Then what? What if you need to slow down more? If you push and hold the brake will it not shift down? Yes, I read the manual, but It didn't really explain it. Help me out here.

Why were you and your wife "freaking out?"

With modern computer controlled engines you can go as fast as you want or as slow as you want. There really is no "red line" anymore.

If you're going too fast, hit the brakes and let the computer do it's thing. If you're going too slow hit the gas. It may take a second or two when hitting the gas for it to upshift. It just depends on how it was programed.

The bottom line is, you have a great modern truck, just drive the thing the way you want to and the computer will do the worrying for you.

OK, Let me define my "freaking out". I was just going "Ah, what's going on here" cause I didn't think I was in control. I wasn't in the least worried the truck would break etc. Just couldn't figure out the situation at hand, and the wife sensed that. After talking to a few people, I think I've got it figured out now.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

I live on a steep windy hill (about a mile), you have to slow to about 25-30 around the corners even when not towing. So right off the bat I'm going down the hill, put on the brakes for the first corner, it shifts down, then the next corner, and before I know it I'm in 1st gear and engine is almost redlining! At this point I'm freaking, as is the wife. Then I remember about the tap the brake pedal to shift down thing. I thought you just tap the accelerator to up shift? Didn't happen. I basically made what amounted to a panic stop and started over again. It happened twice on the way out. Soooooo, you come to a hill, tap the brake to the gear you want? Then what? What if you need to slow down more? If you push and hold the brake will it not shift down? Yes, I read the manual, but It didn't really explain it. Help me out here.

Why were you and your wife "freaking out?"

With modern computer controlled engines you can go as fast as you want or as slow as you want. There really is no "red line" anymore.

If you're going too fast, hit the brakes and let the computer do it's thing. If you're going too slow hit the gas. It may take a second or two when hitting the gas for it to upshift. It just depends on how it was programed.

The bottom line is, you have a great modern truck, just drive the thing the way you want to and the computer will do the worrying for you.

[Fordlover]

nohurry wrote:


Mileage- I got 9.68 MPG hand calculated, and the trucks computer said I got 9.7, so it wasn't too far off. I can live with that

0.02 MPG error in the trucks computer!?? Unacceptable!! Lemon law that sucker right away!

Just kidding, enjoy your new truck, and try not you miss your old F-150 too much.
:B

[rightyouareken]

On my F150 I find the downshift on hills in tow/haul to be a bit over eager too. It seems to think that you want more engine braking any time you use the brakes, even when slowing for a corner. I've not had it drop to first like you explain, but it had shifted when I didn't want it too. For example, say I'm going down hill and have used the brakes, causing it to downshift. Say its holding 45mph in third gear down the hill just fine. Then a corner comes up that requires me to slow down to maybe 35 or 40 mph. The transmission will probably think that you want more engine braking because you used the brakes and shift to second, which really has the engine screaming. After the corner, if you apply the gas for a few seconds it should gradually shift back up, but its not instantaneous.

Small gripe. It hasn't really been an issue for me in 3,000 towing miles but can be slightly annoying on occasion. I guess if it really bothered someone they could use the manual gear selection function instead.

[EcoBullet]

Sounds like it downshifted if you were redlining in first.

[TucsonJim]

Good report. Can't help you with the braking though. I will take my F350 out for it's first run next weekend. My '04 Chevy PU was getting 7.3 mph in mountain driving.