Notes after an 18 day trip to the Midwest

[LeBout]

My wife and I just returned from an 18 day, 3000+ mile trip to the Midwest (we live in Oregon) to help my parents move into assisted living. I wanted to give a SHOUT OUT to two things that made our trip amazing!

1. My Ford F-150 with the 3.5L ecoboost engine. We picked up this truck in March with just 36k miles and this was our first time pulling our 2008 Fleetwood Wilderness. WOW!!!! What a beast! Crossing the Rockies is no small feat and this pickup out-performed my expectations. I was passing people going UPHILL. The smoothness of the way Ford engineered the Cruise control when pulling is nothing short of amazing. My last pickup (a 2005 F-150 5.4L V8) can't hold a candle to what the ecoboost engine can do. Whatever Ford did in this newer design...they got it right for pulling trailers!

2. My wife and I purchased two Honda 2000 watt generator/inverters a few years ago and have used them sporadically, but THIS trip we fired them up almost every day. What a pleasure these generators are to own and use!

I'll have some other posts from our trip coming soon.

[bobndot]

Nice pic !
Thanks for the report , i like your floorplan.

[LeBout]

Here's one of my favorite pics! 🙂

[LeBout]

gbopp wrote:
Did you check the MPG while towing?

Of course! 🙂 As you know Fords aren't known for overwhelming mileage, especially while towing but we were at least able to keep it in double digits, which was better than my 2005 F-150.

Speed was a factor as was, of course, wind speed and direction. Going 55 MPH I was able to keep it around 12 MPG. Going 65-70 mileage dropped to 10.5 roughly. Pretty much what I expected and with gas prices in the Midwest hovering around $2.20 /gal it was acceptable. (Plus I have a 36 gallon tank which allows us to go farther between fill-ups.) 🙂

[Steeljag]

Looking forward to the pics !

I also enjoyed the ECO Boost while towing our TT for four plus years! Smooth, quite, powerful, and just fun to drive. I no longer need it, and it has under 30k miles so maybe I should sell it ? But, I do like that truck !

Thanks for the trip report !

[gbopp]

Thanks for posting. :C

Did you check the MPG while towing?

[rbpru]

I have towed 30,000 miles in the last three years from the deserts to the Rockies with my 2011 F-150 E-boost, pulling a 25 ft. Dutchmen in tow haul mode.

They are a really good TVs if you ask them to do what they are rated to do.

Welcome to the Mid-west

[Lwiddis]

Good report on the Ford.