2018 V8 10 speed 3.73dif. towing report
10-26-2017, 10:28 AM
#1
2018 V8 10 speed 3.73dif. towing report
Ok, so We have had the truck for almost two months now and we did a 1500miles round trip from Indiana to Florida towing our (former) 5400lbs travel trailer.
I'm writing this to share our experience and collect advise of those that tow with the same drive train/configuration.
Our previous tow Vehicle/experience:
Our previous tow vehicle was a 2006 BMW X5 with the 3.0l engine.
We towed 12k miles with it on everything from the flats in Indiana to the 11000ft uphill in Denver,CO to high cross winds in Utah and 110F in Nevada... With that configuration I would drive in manual, 4th gear and set the cruise control at 62mph (GPS) so the transmission will be almost all the time with the torque converter locked and in some long uphills I would have to engage the 3rd gear. In 4th the engine would be at 3K rpm.
Doing that, we would get 9.9-10mpg towing.
How the F150 did (from the towing perspective):
On the way to Florida I left the transmission do it's thing, only setting it on tow mode and I set the speed at 65mph (GPS) for I wanted to check what/how Ford guys had set this drive train.
On the flat it was ok, driving in 8th and sometimes 9th gear, but it was extremely annoying if you had any incline for the transmission would be shifting between the 9th and the 6th(sometimes 5th) all the time...
Any incline it would downshift 3-4 gears... In some instances the transmission would reach the temperature of 105C.... But even with the annoying shifting, we went all the way -700 miles - so I could get a good average for mpg. we got 8.6mpg.
On our way back, I eliminated the overdrives (8th, 9th and 10th) and drove in tow mode without them. At 65mph and 7th gear (which is 1:1) the engine would run at just below 2500rpm and it was a pleasure. Almost no shifting and when shifting, it rarely would go to the 5th gear, so usually only one gear shifting. The way back was the same route and we got 9.9mpg towing (it was 10mpg most of the time but for the last 1/4 of the trip we got high opposit winds...) and the transmission was all the time at 93-95C temperature.
So what I learned was that, for this configuration, when towing you should manually block the overdrives: The ride will become more comfortable, the transmission will be spared and you will get more mpg.
Has this being your experience towing?
I don't know why Ford don't disable the overdrives when in towing mode....
I'm writing this to share our experience and collect advise of those that tow with the same drive train/configuration.
Our previous tow Vehicle/experience:
Our previous tow vehicle was a 2006 BMW X5 with the 3.0l engine.
We towed 12k miles with it on everything from the flats in Indiana to the 11000ft uphill in Denver,CO to high cross winds in Utah and 110F in Nevada... With that configuration I would drive in manual, 4th gear and set the cruise control at 62mph (GPS) so the transmission will be almost all the time with the torque converter locked and in some long uphills I would have to engage the 3rd gear. In 4th the engine would be at 3K rpm.
Doing that, we would get 9.9-10mpg towing.
How the F150 did (from the towing perspective):
On the way to Florida I left the transmission do it's thing, only setting it on tow mode and I set the speed at 65mph (GPS) for I wanted to check what/how Ford guys had set this drive train.
On the flat it was ok, driving in 8th and sometimes 9th gear, but it was extremely annoying if you had any incline for the transmission would be shifting between the 9th and the 6th(sometimes 5th) all the time...
Any incline it would downshift 3-4 gears... In some instances the transmission would reach the temperature of 105C.... But even with the annoying shifting, we went all the way -700 miles - so I could get a good average for mpg. we got 8.6mpg.
On our way back, I eliminated the overdrives (8th, 9th and 10th) and drove in tow mode without them. At 65mph and 7th gear (which is 1:1) the engine would run at just below 2500rpm and it was a pleasure. Almost no shifting and when shifting, it rarely would go to the 5th gear, so usually only one gear shifting. The way back was the same route and we got 9.9mpg towing (it was 10mpg most of the time but for the last 1/4 of the trip we got high opposit winds...) and the transmission was all the time at 93-95C temperature.
So what I learned was that, for this configuration, when towing you should manually block the overdrives: The ride will become more comfortable, the transmission will be spared and you will get more mpg.
Has this being your experience towing?
I don't know why Ford don't disable the overdrives when in towing mode....
Last edited by RACarvalho; 10-26-2017 at 10:38 AM.
10-26-2017, 10:51 AM
#2
I have not towed with my 2018 yet...I have experience with my 2015 Coyote
I have mostly towed with the largest uhaul trailer (6x12 enclosed) and have maxed out its capacity a few times.
With the 6 speed, I had no problems with trans temperature or maintaining 100km/h in the top gear. Approaching an incline however, I would lock out 6th and sometimes 5th gear to keep the RPMS in the meat of the torque curve.
Just watch the The fast lane truck videos on youtube. They pulled a trailer with the Coyote and while it made it up in a good time, it had to stay over 5000rpms almost all the time to maintain 60mph.
I have mostly towed with the largest uhaul trailer (6x12 enclosed) and have maxed out its capacity a few times.
With the 6 speed, I had no problems with trans temperature or maintaining 100km/h in the top gear. Approaching an incline however, I would lock out 6th and sometimes 5th gear to keep the RPMS in the meat of the torque curve.
Just watch the The fast lane truck videos on youtube. They pulled a trailer with the Coyote and while it made it up in a good time, it had to stay over 5000rpms almost all the time to maintain 60mph.
Last edited by Thugzy; 10-26-2017 at 11:07 AM.
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RACarvalho (10-26-2017)
10-26-2017, 11:02 AM
#3
Thugzy,
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I don't want to turn this in another Ecoboost vs Coyote discussion so enough to say that I know Ecoboost inside out but I wanted the Coyote.
As I wrote, towing with the V8 in 7th gear at 2500rpm is a pleasure for me.
I'm not racing when towing so the FLT videos are entertaining but not representative to what I want from a truck....
Tks,
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I don't want to turn this in another Ecoboost vs Coyote discussion so enough to say that I know Ecoboost inside out but I wanted the Coyote.
As I wrote, towing with the V8 in 7th gear at 2500rpm is a pleasure for me.
I'm not racing when towing so the FLT videos are entertaining but not representative to what I want from a truck....
Tks,
Last edited by RACarvalho; 10-26-2017 at 11:05 AM.
10-26-2017, 11:06 AM
#5
So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say if you don't want a eco and want a V8 to tow with, then you should scratch the f150 off of the list. Either bump up to a f250 with a 6.2/6.7 or look at another manufacturer. I was curious to see how bad Ford was going to mess this up. Next truck for me will either be a 6.2 or 7.0 super duty depending on when that 7.0 makes it's way to the market. If neither one of those maybe a Titan or ram. Enjoy your guys new trucks!
10-26-2017, 11:08 AM
#6
Thugzy,
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I don't want to turn this in another Ecoboost vs Coyote discussion so enough to say that I know Ecoboost inside out but I wanted the Coyote.
As I wrote, towing with the V8 in 7th gear at 2500rpm is a pleasure for me.
I'm not racing when towing so the FLT videos are entertaining but not representative to what I want from a truck....
Tks,
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I don't want to turn this in another Ecoboost vs Coyote discussion so enough to say that I know Ecoboost inside out but I wanted the Coyote.
As I wrote, towing with the V8 in 7th gear at 2500rpm is a pleasure for me.
I'm not racing when towing so the FLT videos are entertaining but not representative to what I want from a truck....
Tks,
No problem, and understood.... I removed my comments on the EB... no need for Eb Coyote war
10-26-2017, 11:10 AM
#7
Before buying the truck I was researching this transmission and I found a website (that I lost the link to it) were engineers (I'm a mechanical engineer) were evaluating the design of this transmission and comparing it with others and I remember that the 7th is 1:1 and the others above it are overdrive.
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EcoBooster71 (10-26-2017)
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10-26-2017, 11:14 AM
#8
Before buying the truck I was researching this transmission and I found a website (that I lost the link to it) were engineers (I'm a mechanical engineer) were evaluating the design of this transmission and comparing it with others and I remember that the 7th is 1:1 and the others above it are overdrive.
Edit: And here is confirmation of that:
http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2016/09...nsmission.html
a 1st gear ratio of 4.69:1; 2nd: 2.98:1; 3rd: 2.14:1; 4th: 1.76:1; 5th: 1.52:1; 6th: 1.27:1; 7th: 1.00:1; 8th: 0.85:1; 9th: 0:68:1; and 10th: 0.63:1
10-26-2017, 11:25 AM
#9
So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say if you don't want a eco and want a V8 to tow with, then you should scratch the f150 off of the list. Either bump up to a f250 with a 6.2/6.7 or look at another manufacturer. I was curious to see how bad Ford was going to mess this up. Next truck for me will either be a 6.2 or 7.0 super duty depending on when that 7.0 makes it's way to the market. If neither one of those maybe a Titan or ram. Enjoy your guys new trucks!
Again, I'll not turn this into an Eco vs Coyote war so I'll comment only on the F150 capabilities to tow.
I special order my truck, waited 3 months for it and I'm very satisfied with it.
The reason I bought it is towing.
The only things that I'd change on it would be the transmission program (eliminating the overdrives when in tow mode) and that blasphemy of the start stop....
My F150 have 2700lbs payload and 11000lbs towing capacity.
It have towed my previous trailer (5400lbs) for 1500 miles flawlessly and my new trailer (7700lbs) without problems.
I don't intent to tow more than 10K lbs and I tow for leisure, usually for more than 10 hrs/day, so comfort is important.
The F150 hits all the requirements for me.
I did a deep comparison of the F150 with the Ram for I have discount to buy a Ram and I found out that the F150 have more payload and towing capacity and better quality and safety records than the Ram so to my application the F150 was a no brainer.
Please, don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing the 3/5 tons or ecoboost or anything else, each product purchase have an application and an explanation and even if the explanation is " because I wanted it" it is ok, it's your money!
I'm just giving my explanation so you can have a different perspective when you go buy your 3/4 ton.
Last edited by RACarvalho; 10-26-2017 at 11:38 AM.
10-26-2017, 11:34 AM
#10
I'm almost sure that the transmission is the same, they only change the shifting points (rpms) in the program, depending on the engine characteristics (torque and power curves, etc)....
The point here is that towing at higher RPMs MAY lead to less fuel consumption IF at lower RPMs you are opening the torque converter frequently...
The point here is that towing at higher RPMs MAY lead to less fuel consumption IF at lower RPMs you are opening the torque converter frequently...