Gene K

Some trucks seem to come with more pieces of the trailer tow package than others when ordered without it.

Example (Friend's Truck):

2016 2.7EB
$95 Factory Hitch Option

1. Trans Temp Gauge and Productivity Screen Digital Trans Temp (Standard?)

2. 4-Pass Auxillary Trans Cooler (????)

3. 7-Pin Trailer Harness (All Trucks with Hitches?)

4. HD Trailering Module - Flasher (All with Hitches?)

5. Factory Wired for Ford Trailer Controller (All with Hitches?)

6. Wiring to add aftermarket brake controller (All with Hitches?)

The one that really surprised me was the Trans Cooler. I have no idea why it's on this truck.

old_programmer

This is going back some years when we bought our 2001 Explorer. It was a smaller dealer and they knew that many of their customers towed boats or TT's so always ordered their truck based vehicles with a transmission cooler and 4.10 rear end. They left it up to the customer to handle the wiring and hitch receiver if the vehicle didn't have the full tow pkg. It wouldn't surprise me that some independent dealers still do this knowing what their customer base wants.

BAM298

Just to follow up, I towed for the first time yesterday with my new F150. Roughly 400 miles up through Tennessee, Kentucky and into Ohio. Plenty of mountains/hills and the truck did great. I watched the digital temp gauge the entire time and it stayed between 194-199 for all but a few times, and did spike to 201 three times (for like a minute) and to 203 twice, again for maybe a minute on a long climb. I was averaging 75mph however would slow to 60-65 on big hills just by modulating the throttle. Didn't use cruise control at all. Gas mileage was horrible, worse than my old 5.0L but the truck pulled better, rarely kicked down to 4th at 3k rpms, seemed to alternate between 5th at ~2300rpms and 6th ~ 2k rpms for the majority of the time. Didn't seem to shift too frequently either. Did have tow/haul mode on. Wish I got better MPGs but realistically I'll tow that trip 2-3 times per year so I can live with it.

Aj06bolt12r

Next time you make that trip try locking out 6th gear. I bet you see a little better MPG and eliminate a ton of shifting. I would say the trans will run cooler too but the trans temp was exactly where it should be.

Higher RPMs with lower boost will net you better MPG than lower RPMs at higher boost up to a certain point.

The reason for this is that low rpm high boost conditions force the PCM to make the air fuel mixture very rich to control detonation / pre-ignition. Basically using extra gas to cool the combustion chamber.

At higher RPM there is more air moving through the engine so that has a cooling effect, plus in a lower gear at a higher rpm the load that the engine sees is effectively spread out over more "power strokes" so each piston, rod ect is seeing less net load. AKA its easier on the engine.

This is a tiny engine doing the work of a large engine so this would be my advice.... but its your truck soooo.......

BAM298

^ Never thought of it like that. I just figured the lower the RPM the more efficient it would be. I'll be towing that stretch again in May and will try to remember to lock out 6th gear and report back.