15 PS maintenance, and routines?
 

My last diesel was a 7.3 in a 99 F350, standard oil changes @ 5K, 4 gallons of Rotella T, $10 Motorcraft filter, check the coolant for additives to prevent cavitation, replace the fuel filter every so often, and adding anti-gel in the winter.

What is different with the new generation Diesels that use ULSD, and DEF? I am pondering an upgrade to an '15 F250 powerstroke, but would like to know what my maintenance costs would be, considering I put 640 miles a week on.

My 16 is the same as the 15, I have left it all stock. I use synthetic 5w40 MC diesel oil. I try to hit 5 to 6k on changes. I have the dealer do it, its around 130 for the service. I drain some fuel from the water separating filter underneath every couple weeks but dont ever see any water in it. The DEF is not bad I buy mine at TSC, and its about 9 bucks for 2.5 gallons. It uses about 2.5 gallons a month or about every 3k that is with me towing most weekends which uses more. I average about 13mpg overall city, highway, and towing combined over 21k so far. I change my fuel filters at 15k intervals on the advice of the local lead diesel tech at the dealer.

Based on 6K intervals, and 33K a year, I would be looking at $780 just in oil changes, vs the $120 I pay now for 10K intervals. Being that 95% of my driving is highway, and the other 5% is rural city, I could do extended 10K intervals, but even then its more than 3 times the cost just in oil, and that doesn't include filters I normally wouldn't be replacing. Even doing it myself would be too expensive.

I don't tow enough to justify this maintenance. When I do tow, we take two cars or the truck is overloaded. An F250, even with the PS would not be, it would be on the edge though, which would still limit me to a 7600# trailer when it comes time to replace it.

Putting together a pro/con list, looks like the cons outweigh the pros.

Fuel use, a wash, current truck is under 18 MPG, and the diesels I drove were exceeding that in normal driving, towing however there would be gains, but not enough towing to make up the difference.

Handling would be greatly improved, and the #1 reason I even consider this, my 16 handles like crap when towing, and has become a wanderer in DD, which I am hoping the dealer can fix in a few weeks.

Cons

Fuel cost more, so even at the same, or a little more MPG, still wont be enough to offset fuel use.

Maintenance costs are more than tripled at same change intervals, quadrupled at 6K intervals.

Some of the things I really like about the F150 I would lose, the LED lights, the 360* cameras, the auto high beams, just to name a few. Yes I can replace the headlights with aftermarkets, but they are not as good as the factory LED lights I have now, and I can get by without the other items if I really needed to.

I really like the 15 KR I saw, but unlike the last time I went from an F150 to an F350, the cons are outweighing the pros by a landslide, and I didn't even tow back then. Just the cost of fuel and oil changes alone have made a diesel impractical today.

Maybe instead, wait a while, and keep looking for a 2014 F150 FX4 with a Max Tow high payload. I saw a few that are 7700 GVWR which is 700 more than I have now, and may have what I need for towing, and let my wife drive that one as her DD instead of her Focus.

The book shows 10k intervals on oil change too, and the OLM is set for that, I do them at 5 or 6k, just as a precaution as I get a fair amount of city driving on mine so higher idle hour count. Usually I can find a coupon to get the price down on the oil changes too. I tow 3 or more weekends a month for about 10months of the year so its worth it for me, but I get where you are coming from.