Ford Superduty V10 towing trip

[AlBeGone]

Hello everyone. As the subject says, I was on a 1800 mile trip this summer and I hand calculated the mileage I was doing towing my 10K pound fiver @ 65 mph avg. I thought some of you might be interested in comparing notes. No BS in these numbers.

Towing in hilly terrain, I averaged 7.53mpg
Towing on fairly flat terrain, I averaged 8.36mpg

Empty it does:
11.4 mpg city.
14.7 mpg hwy.
12.4 mpg combined.

I was with two camping buddies, one with a 2005 GM 2500 w/Vortec 8.1L, the other with a 2006 RAM 2500 w/Cummins 5.9L. Guess who was the overall gas consumption winner...

So here it is. Besides being thirsty, I love the truck. It's a smooth quiet towing beast.

[AlBeGone]

Wow sorry guys, I'm not online too often...

To all other V10 owners, thanks for the input. This should give everyone a good idea what to expect from this towing beast.

jerem0621 wrote:
Your numbers towing are accurate based on my experience as well. My truck was a dually and empty got around 9 -10 ish basically no matter what I did. If I could get 12-14 like you empty I would have been ecstatic.

Since you mentioned the 8.1 your buddy had.. may I ask what the MPG for your friend was? I have been considering an 8.1 in a Suburban recently. I suspect that the MPG's between the V10 and the 8.1 are relatively comparable. But I am not sure.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

We stopped comparing long ago, towing it's a wash but I'm clearly better on fuel when empty.

fla-gypsy wrote:
Your towing mileage seems accurate considering it is a 5th wheel. The wind resistance makes a huge difference. I get a little better with my TT but your combined figure is within 2/10ths of mine. Kind of hard to compare to others unless it was a straight apples to apples comparison with height and weight.

Yes I agree. We have the same truck, I too have the 4.10 axle w/20" wheels.

[mudfuel07]

I get about 7 towing our "new" TT and about 10 unloaded. Yes, they're thirsty, but they are also extremely reliable. Funny thing is, our old fifth wheel that weighed less by about a 1,000 lbs gave me worse mileage than the TT. 6.0 vs. the 7.

[fla-gypsy]

Your towing mileage seems accurate considering it is a 5th wheel. The wind resistance makes a huge difference. I get a little better with my TT but your combined figure is within 2/10ths of mine. Kind of hard to compare to others unless it was a straight apples to apples comparison with height and weight.

[SoCalDesertRid1]

Those are pretty good mileage figures for a V10 running empty. The towing mileages isn't surprising.

I recently did a trip with both of my F350's running together.

-'97, 7.3 diesel E4OD auto/od, 4wd dually with 4.10's and 235 tires.
-'92, 351 gas C6 auto/no od, 4wd srw with 4.56's and 285 tires.

The diesel truck was loaded and towing, 20,000 lbs combined gvw.
The gas truck was running bobtail with minor weight in the bed, 7500 lbs gvw.

Both trucks ran together, same speed and route the whole trip. I drove the diesel and paced my son, who followed behind me in the gas truck. I drove at what I know to be the optimum freeway mileage speed for the gas truck: 55 mph.

Both trucks have dual 20 gallon tanks. Both trucks started the trip with 2 full tanks on each truck. We stopped together at the same gas stations on the way, and at the destination. I topped off the tanks on both trucks each time.

I found I was putting right about the same amount of gas in the one truck as I was diesel in the other one, each time. Amazing how they can get roughly equal gas/fuel mileage, all other factors being equal (speed, hills, wind, driving style, etc), when one was moving almost 3 times the weight that the other was moving!

Diesel really is awesome :B

[xplodn]

Did 5600 miles towing with my Excursion this summer. 2wd stock height pulling a 5k pound hybrid. Had just about every terrain you can imagine averaging from 8.25 to 11 with over all trip mileage at 9.27 at 65mph. It had plenty of power to pull hills heading up to South Dakota and ran through the Texas heat without getting above 200 on my trans. I do wish I had done the Y pipe and tuner before but we all learn the hard way.

In retrospect, did 6 hours of highway driving with 4 adults and two kids for Thanksgiving at 68-69 mph and got 16.5 average filling up at the start and finish at the same pump at roughly the same ambient temp.

[cpaulsen]

Mine is close also.....usually around 10-11 city and average about 14 highway when empty,Have gotten as high as 16.2 empty/highway. Towing my 5ver with truck and trailer combined is approx.17,900# and get about.....anywhere from 7.1-8.5 depending on where I go.

[danojeno]

I was a little surprised to see the 8.1 get better mileage. I get between 6 and 7 mpg with my 2500 8.1 towing a 12.5k fiver. I have fiddled with my driving while towing and the differences are minor...though the rockies killed me over the summer. I‘m sure my bigger tires put the hurt on me too (295 70 17).

[Wes_Tausend]

...

To the OP. That's about what our Excursion gets pulling our newer 30' TT. The older 30' TT was slightly better. The older camper was a two-stepper whereas the newer unit is a three-stepper entry. The higher road clearance of the newer TT didn't help getting in/out of our driveway and now pulls harder on the highway. Rats.

The 14.7 mpg empty highway was a best case, no-wind, scenario, with slightly under 14 more normal. The best it ever did towing was a 9.9 with a brisk tailwind and 50 mph max road-speed in OD. One of the truly rare times the wind was ever favorable. :R

Wes
...

[45Ricochet]

AlBeGone wrote:
Guess who was the overall gas consumption winner...

Just a wild guess here :W but it wasn't the Cummins :B
Very easy since it doesn't use GAS, and of course having owned a couple of em that pull down 20 plus running empty.
I had a 1981 3x3 GMC way back when, double digit sure would have been nice. Great truck though until 2001.

[jenoble99]

transamz9 wrote:

hookie wrote:

jerem0621 wrote:
Your numbers towing are accurate based on my experience as well. My truck was a dually and empty got around 9 -10 ish basically no matter what I did. If I could get 12-14 like you empty I would have been ecstatic.

Since you mentioned the 8.1 your buddy had.. may I ask what the MPG for your friend was? I have been considering an 8.1 in a Suburban recently. I suspect that the MPG's between the V10 and the 8.1 are relatively comparable. But I am not sure.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

I just sold our Yukon XL with the 8.1 and 4.10 rear end. I was right at 10mpg in suburban traffic and around 12ish hwy solo. Towing a fairly high profile TT weighing 7500 ibs I'd get 7-8mpg going 65mph, if I went really easy and slowed down I'd get 8-8.5mpg. But she didn't labor at all, nice easy towing. Spent a lot in gas, but it was waaaaay cheaper than a diesel and towed our rig great.

I'm not trying to turn this into a gas diesel thing so please don't take it that way. but how can you say that your 8.1 was waaaaay cheaper than a diesel to operate? My diesel gets right at 7-8 more miles per gallon in suburban traffic and 10 ish more mpg on the highway solo. Pulling a 7500 TT at 65 would be around 4 more mpg. The 8.1 was an option so I know it cost more than the standard 6.0. The diesel wouldn't have been waaaaay more expensive. If you traded the 8.1 then you would have gotten more for the diesel in trade.

I'm just trying to figure out how you do your math?

I took it as the initial purchase price was cheaper.

[brirene]

Yup, that's right around where mine was too, but your empty numbers are better. That's why I went back to diesel. Improved mileage and range more than offsets slightly higher maintenance costs, imo.

[transamz9]

hookie wrote:

jerem0621 wrote:
Your numbers towing are accurate based on my experience as well. My truck was a dually and empty got around 9 -10 ish basically no matter what I did. If I could get 12-14 like you empty I would have been ecstatic.

Since you mentioned the 8.1 your buddy had.. may I ask what the MPG for your friend was? I have been considering an 8.1 in a Suburban recently. I suspect that the MPG's between the V10 and the 8.1 are relatively comparable. But I am not sure.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

I just sold our Yukon XL with the 8.1 and 4.10 rear end. I was right at 10mpg in suburban traffic and around 12ish hwy solo. Towing a fairly high profile TT weighing 7500 ibs I'd get 7-8mpg going 65mph, if I went really easy and slowed down I'd get 8-8.5mpg. But she didn't labor at all, nice easy towing. Spent a lot in gas, but it was waaaaay cheaper than a diesel and towed our rig great.

I'm not trying to turn this into a gas diesel thing so please don't take it that way. but how can you say that your 8.1 was waaaaay cheaper than a diesel to operate? My diesel gets right at 7-8 more miles per gallon in suburban traffic and 10 ish more mpg on the highway solo. Pulling a 7500 TT at 65 would be around 4 more mpg. The 8.1 was an option so I know it cost more than the standard 6.0. The diesel wouldn't have been waaaaay more expensive. If you traded the 8.1 then you would have gotten more for the diesel in trade.

I'm just trying to figure out how you do your math?

[Monaco_Montclai]

Well here's my numbers, 09montclair, Monaco,29ft,not towing, a constant, 12.6,towing a hhr--3100lbs, dead on 10.thouse numbers are from va to pei. And we have finaly got 18k on the clock, that's from new, so hopefully it will get better. Now it's all happy-camping

[BigBaron]

Our fairly new 32' class C rental with a V-10 got almost exactly the same numbers over 3,300 miles. It really doesn't matter what you are pulling with that engine, does it?