volsbear

My buddy has a 2010 F-250 Cabela's Edition with a 5.4. He tows a boat and now tows a large camper trailer. He doesn't seem to have much trouble. A few times, he has put two ATVs on the tonneau cover and towed a heavy boat with it as well.

95stepside

Our farm truck is an 09 with the 5.4 and personally I think it does just fine. Pulls anything we need it to, higher payload than our half tons. Mileage is pretty consistant around 12 mpg though

pswann64

The older 5.4L 2V motors are about indestructible in my opinion provided you take care of them with regular service at your own hands with oem parts. The f-250 SD is a great work truck and will handle most towing needs. I currently own four of them for a grade and landscape business. We pull skidloaders behind them; trailer weighs about 2k and tractor about 7.8k so daily 10k load, all are auto trans with OD button, always off when towing. Having praised the truck bodies and undercarriages; I will say the 5.4L 3v in our '05 is problematic as is the 6.0L diesel in our '04 F250 CC. Different people will have varying opinions but from a business perspective the 5.4 3v and 6.0 diesel are too complicated and costly in their design for me too consider them viable options. The mpg on the gassers is about 10 mpg loaded and about 13 mpg for the diesel in town. We just put the newish 6.2L on the road in an '12 F250 SD ext cab, after a couple of tanks of gas it looks like 9.8 mpg loaded and about 14.2 empty around town. Economy, while extremely important, takes second chair to being able to start and stop under load, properly set up trailers with brake control are a must on any haul truck. Also equip your truck with a brake and rotor kit, you can find slotted and cross drilled rotors with HD pads for about the cost of the factory setup when it's time to replace them. Irrespective of what the service manuals suggest; oil changes at 3k-3.5k Plugs at 60k, Front ends at 100k, E rated tires, american made +/-30k. Do some research and formulate your own opinions but constant misfires, cam phasers, and an adviser suggesting a new motor for a 5.4 3v with 144k on it or a 6.0 diesel that costs 4k in addition to the truck to get it out the door, followed by +/-12K for egr coolers, oil coolers, ficm's and other issues kind of makes you wonder. Certainly hoping for better results with the 6.2L

skymanr

I bought an '06 and it was having phaser issues so I pulled the valve cover to look and saw a couple rockers that were locked up. There were metal shavings everywhere so I pulled engine and replaced it with a reman. I put magnaflow exhaust, k&n intake and a tune from 5star tuning on it and it has plenty of power. Drives like a beast when unloaded and pulls real good around 65 mph. I've been running valvoline full synthetic in hopes to avoid the cam phaser issues again.

Munson

Just about 200 thou k on mine I use it regularely. Pulls my old trailer just fine with my quad in the back. Not to mention on 37's. Take that 5.4 haters!

FX4ford

Being in the military we have a bunch of crew cab long bed 4x4 f250s and almost all of them have the 5.4. They aren't going to win any drag races but who really buys a truck, especially a super duty for that? But they will pull anything you hook up to them and can handle having the snot beat out of them daily without issues. Last deployment our project truck was an 07 and according to its on board meter it averaged around 12-13 mpg and they weren't exactly easy miles. Like stated earlier as long as you take good care of them they will last for ever. Especially the early 5.4s

biglee88

My 03 has 306 thousand miles on it all original except the Trans was replaced at 280 it's pulled 37 inch tires everyday since it was 2 months old truck is extremely dependable

austintylerr

I have one 03 f250 4x4 with the 5.4 she’s a beast she kills like hell and isn’t gutless by any means I give my truck the beans and she just handles it I’m at 300,000 without a check engine light or any issues I’ve heard the v10 do make more power but are less reliable

NapalmMan67

I've owned an '01 F250 with the "wimpy" 5.4 (3.73:1) for 21 years. Used to tow a 16' enclosed trailer and a 7000lb capacity car trailer loaded most times at about 4500lbs with no problems. As others have said, it won't win any drag races, but it keeps on chugging.

Only bad thing is the body has rusted so bad I can't justify repairing it now and it's got less than 51k original miles.