Thoughts on the Triton V10 Engine

[martyn8677]

Looking to purchase an F350. I see lots of these engines with fairly low miles. I have heard they are great engines, but get poor gas mileage. Would use to haul my camper and pull a small boat for fishing trips. Would not be a daily driver. Just a play truck.

BTW, my current camper is fairly lightweight.....an Outfitter Apex 8 short bed. About 1800 lbs dry weight. I am looking to upgrade to a single slide camper though at some point.

Anybody had any experience with these engines hauling their campers?

Thanks.

[cleary]

retiredtoo wrote:
Owned the V10 or 5 years and now a dodge diesel. I've kept really good records. The Diesel is just as inexpensive to operate as the V10. Diesel is more costly, but the V10 was doing 8 mpg. With the same load on the diesel, I'm getting 13.8 MPG. Wipes out the difference in fuel costs. I had to run 90 octane minimum in the V10, otherwise, O2 sensors and other stuff would get unhappy. Glad I got out of the beast and into the diesel. I bought a used diesel that was cheaper than a new V10. Never looked back. And the torque is a walkaway for the diesel over the V10.

Interesting about the 90 octane gas thing. All I ever put in our two V-10s is 87. Never had a problem.

Chuck

[garryk6]

Area13 wrote:

garryk6 wrote:
I currently own two 2000 V-10's and a 2002 5.4V-8. The 5.4 combined with a 6spd manual and with everything loaded up at 10,800lbs and 3.73. It gets 13-15mpg traveling around Alaskan highways, byways and gravel roads. The V-10's vary. They are in two Excursions. One has factory 3.73 gears and stock 265x75x16 tires, one has 4.30 gears and 35x12.50x16.5 tires. both auto. The one with 4.30 gears has banks headers, exhaust, and a Whipple supercharger. On the highway they both get 13-15mpg. Around town the 3.73 gets 8-9 and the 4.30 gets 8-10. But seat of the pants, the 4.30 and Whipple V-10 beats my old 05 6.0 diesel, and my old 02 7.3 diesel hands down. I have owned all these trucks, and have enjoyed them all, but the diesel maintenance and living on an island with no diesel experts, and no highways turned me off the diesels...
Just my personal experience.
Garry

I have driven both the V10 and the 7.3 for years. What is the "Diesel Maintenance" on the 7.3? Don't get it? I change the oil once in a while and just drive it. It is one of the last non emission trouble free diesels you can get.The 7.3 is a MONSTER towing, especially low end and is MUCH better on fuel than the V10. With a few mods I run over 600 Torque on it and barely tap the skinny pedal to pull huge loads. The V10 is nice and quiet, but don't pass any gas pumps. IF the 7.3 needs work (if ever), very simple to work on. Just my experience currently owning both.

Thanks for the clarification, for others information. I will caveat the diesel issue to the physical sitting of the truck. I live in Alaska, but had my 2001 CCLB Dually 4x4 7.3 psd ZF-6spd with stock 235-85-16 and 189K miles was sitting in WA state. Because my family who was watching it for me, did not like driving the "beast" it sat for three years. Ended up chasing battery drain issues, that came from the glow plug solenoids and some other minor issues. also had the cam sensor issue, but not too big a deal. And it always seemed to be cold blooded... after a trip to WA and getting it going, I traded it straight across for a 2000 Excursion V10 auto 4x4 with 110K and have had little to no problems since. It tends to sit too, but not as long, as my family is more prone to drive the gas Ex than the old diesel. If I ever move back to the lower-48, I would consider another 01 or 02 7.3 6speed 4x4 dually. The 7.3 and the 6 speed got me almost 20 mpg on long highway cruises when I kept the speed to the limit.

But the oil changes are cheaper with the V-10, and I am not fighting the glow plugs any more, and so that was my experience. Living on an Island in alaska, is not for diesels, since the driving length is like less than 14 minutes, and the diesel is barely warming up, so either you have to start it early and idle forever to defrost the thing, or drive to work cold... that is why I now drive gas in Alaska. Even with the block heater, my 6.0 Ex would hardly every warm up.

Just my observations,

Garry

[Sparky87k5]

I've owned 3 V10's. Bought a new 2004 F250 4x4, 6 speed manual & 4.30 gears with 35" tires, carried my present camper easily. Fuel mileage was 14-15 running empty at 65mph and 8-9 with camper running 60-65mph. Never a lack of power. My 2001 Excursion 4x4 ran 4.30 gears with 35" tires and averaged about 13-14 running 65mph. My present 2000 F350 Dually 4x4 with 4.30 gears, auto trans and carries the camper like it's not there gets 8-9 running loaded and about 13-14 at 65mph empty, with stock 235x16" tires. I've pulled my 28' boat on a triple axle trailer and weighs 14k without any problems with all 3 trucks. The best is the dually though. Never had any problems with the V10 engines, would buy another without a doubt.

[Area13]

garryk6 wrote:
I currently own two 2000 V-10's and a 2002 5.4V-8. The 5.4 combined with a 6spd manual and with everything loaded up at 10,800lbs and 3.73. It gets 13-15mpg traveling around Alaskan highways, byways and gravel roads. The V-10's vary. They are in two Excursions. One has factory 3.73 gears and stock 265x75x16 tires, one has 4.30 gears and 35x12.50x16.5 tires. both auto. The one with 4.30 gears has banks headers, exhaust, and a Whipple supercharger. On the highway they both get 13-15mpg. Around town the 3.73 gets 8-9 and the 4.30 gets 8-10. But seat of the pants, the 4.30 and Whipple V-10 beats my old 05 6.0 diesel, and my old 02 7.3 diesel hands down. I have owned all these trucks, and have enjoyed them all, but the diesel maintenance and living on an island with no diesel experts, and no highways turned me off the diesels...
Just my personal experience.
Garry

I have driven both the V10 and the 7.3 for years. What is the "Diesel Maintenance" on the 7.3? Don't get it? I change the oil once in a while and just drive it. It is one of the last non emission trouble free diesels you can get.The 7.3 is a MONSTER towing, especially low end and is MUCH better on fuel than the V10. With a few mods I run over 600 Torque on it and barely tap the skinny pedal to pull huge loads. The V10 is nice and quiet, but don't pass any gas pumps. IF the 7.3 needs work (if ever), very simple to work on. Just my experience currently owning both.

[retiredtoo]

Owned the V10 or 5 years and now a dodge diesel. I've kept really good records. The Diesel is just as inexpensive to operate as the V10. Diesel is more costly, but the V10 was doing 8 mpg. With the same load on the diesel, I'm getting 13.8 MPG. Wipes out the difference in fuel costs. I had to run 90 octane minimum in the V10, otherwise, O2 sensors and other stuff would get unhappy. Glad I got out of the beast and into the diesel. I bought a used diesel that was cheaper than a new V10. Never looked back. And the torque is a walkaway for the diesel over the V10.

[garryk6]

I currently own two 2000 V-10's and a 2002 5.4V-8. The 5.4 combined with a 6spd manual and with everything loaded up at 10,800lbs and 3.73. It gets 13-15mpg traveling around Alaskan highways, byways and gravel roads. The V-10's vary. They are in two Excursions. One has factory 3.73 gears and stock 265x75x16 tires, one has 4.30 gears and 35x12.50x16.5 tires. both auto. The one with 4.30 gears has banks headers, exhaust, and a Whipple supercharger. On the highway they both get 13-15mpg. Around town the 3.73 gets 8-9 and the 4.30 gets 8-10. But seat of the pants, the 4.30 and Whipple V-10 beats my old 05 6.0 diesel, and my old 02 7.3 diesel hands down. I have owned all these trucks, and have enjoyed them all, but the diesel maintenance and living on an island with no diesel experts, and no highways turned me off the diesels...
Just my personal experience.
Garry

[ZRX-Steve]

Prior to 2005 the Modular 6.8L V10 was a 2 valve engine with 310hp 425 tq, 2005 and up were 3 valve with 362/457 hp/tq.

[fast_5]

Hi. Here is a comparison. Not a Gm. Vs Ford thing.
we bought a new to us rig in pigeon forge
Tenn a few years back while on vacation.
At that time we owned a 2002 gmc 2500 hd
6Liter 4*4. 410 rear end. 4door shortbox with low miles
carrying a lance 820. 8'6" camper with no slide. We
Bought a 2004 ford f350 duely. V10. 373 rear end.4*4
4 door long box with a lance 1161 11"6" camper
with slide. The ford weighted in at almost
1000lbs more than the gm.
So we brought back to ontario both camper
traveling the same roads at the same time.
The old rig was completely empty. The new rig
was fully loaded from our return from a 3 week
trip to florida. We had to stop for many fuel
refills for the gm because of the smaller gas tank, so
I filled the ford at the same time. On every fill up the
ford was within 1/2 gallon of the gm. So yes
they like the gas but in my opinion with the weight
size increase I have done well.
mike

[Bedlam]

The V10 is still available in the F450-F750 chassis cabs.

[cleary]

We're on our second V-10. This one a 2006. Loaded with our camper ready to roll we tip the scales at 13,300 lbs. On this trip we are pulling a 20 foot double axle trailer with two ATVs, lots of gas, spares for the truck and trailer and a cooler full of beer.

Our mileage has varied from 10 MPG on fairly flat paved road with a tail wind to 7.78 MPG on a mixture of paved and gravel road with lots of hills and headwind. That is about what our mileage range is depending on conditions. There is absolutely no lack of power.

We love it and wouldn't hesitate to get another one except you can't get one in the new F-350s.

Chuck

[Area13]

twodownzero wrote:
I would not buy a gas engine for hauling a heavy camper unless it's on flat ground.

Even when not towing, with a 3k lb camper on board, I'm happy to have the Cummins' power under the hood.

Having owned a Diesel engine for over 9 years, I cannot possibly imagine what it'd take to convince me to go back to gasoline unless the engine was 600+ cubic inches and gas was 25 cents a gallon.

It will work, but it will be slow and burn a LOT of fuel. And who goes on a short vacation?

I get 14-16 mpg with just the camper on. Towing the mileage is crappy. But if you got 10 with a gasser, that'd be a miracle, and that means 50% more fuel!

Not slow, incorrect. I drive a V10 rig daily weighing in close to 13k with a utility boom, bin package, parts, TONS of power up ANY grade.

Burns a lot of fuel, YES!

[twodownzero]

I would not buy a gas engine for hauling a heavy camper unless it's on flat ground.

Even when not towing, with a 3k lb camper on board, I'm happy to have the Cummins' power under the hood.

Having owned a Diesel engine for over 9 years, I cannot possibly imagine what it'd take to convince me to go back to gasoline unless the engine was 600+ cubic inches and gas was 25 cents a gallon.

It will work, but it will be slow and burn a LOT of fuel. And who goes on a short vacation?

I get 14-16 mpg with just the camper on. Towing the mileage is crappy. But if you got 10 with a gasser, that'd be a miracle, and that means 50% more fuel!

[jimh406]

sky_free wrote:
OK, I know I shouldn't ask this, but why should you get a diesel to haul a truck camper?

You would want one if you are regularly going to tow quite a bit and/or also go over really steep passes a lot. Also, since they generally get more mpg, your range increases as much as 25% which can be important in some areas like the West/Northwest. Or, if you just like the sound and smell of diesel fuel. 🙂

Oh, might as well read brholt's gas engine update if you've read this far. http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27847580.cfm

[sky_free]

CaveRun wrote:
Get a diesel if you're going to haul a truck camper, or pull a trailer.

OK, I know I shouldn't ask this, but why should you get a diesel to haul a truck camper?