I recently did a 580 mile round trip, almost entirely highway miles with speed limits between 70 and 80 (kept my speed to between 65 and 83 depending on traffic conditions). The majority of the distance was covered right around 80mph.

I made it 288 miles out, a few miles of driving in the destination, then 288 miles back. Fuel economy was 16.8 MPG with the 6.2L V8.

This was with full synthetic 5w-20, stock size 275/65R18 tires, bottom front air dam removed (for snow season, which hasn't quite arrived yet), soft tonneau cover, and 300 pounds of sand bags over the rear axle (for snow season, which hasn't quite arrived yet).

I'm thinking with air dam and without the sand it might have been 17mpg.

We could have made it the full round trip on one tank, but ended up filling up an hour away from home because we needed a break.

The window sticker says 12/16, so I'm pretty happy with nearly 17 at mostly 80mph speeds.

 

Now, just think if you drove 65 the whole time and could have been at 18 +.

 

Yeah, 16+ is decent for 80mph. When I had my 13 6.2 Platinum 6.5' it usually got 12-13 around town. Most hwy trips were thru smaller mountains and I got 15-16. On longer trips with more flat ground I was able to eek out 18. But as was mentioned, that was really trying to get decent mpg by running 65-70.

 

> and 300 pounds of sand bags over the rear axle

It was decades ago, but, I was working at a new car dealer when we received a truck that had been totalled. It had bags of sand in the back over the axle, that got wet, and froze solid. Guy hit the brakes hard or hit something and the bags came right through the truck bed AND into the cab through the sheet metal. It was not pretty. Make sure the bags are tied down (I go for a wood box against the front of the bed), secured, and in a single layer. Your bed will likely still be destroyed in even a mild accident, but, you might still be able to walk away without the sand bags being a pain in the behind.

Probably not feasible any more, but, what we used to do is weld or attach a 6" cast steel pipe as a rear bumper and fill it with water/anti-freeze or sand during the winter.

 

Nice mileage. Really it comes down as much as to how hard you accelerate, etc...babying the throttle and taking two miles to reach 80 mph will net far better results than being a man and tromping the gas and hitting 80 mph in 6 seconds, lol! The 6.2 has always been a capable engine...doesn't get a lot of love.

 

Id love to have one in an F150, 12th gen

 

Not sure how anyone could say that. They are EXTREMELY sought after because of all the love they get. Both in F150s and Super Dutys. And in the lighter Aluma-duty trucks they are hard to find in trims other than base work trucks. I've been trying to find a decent one for my mom and they rarely stay on dealer lots for more than a couple weeks. Usually gone within days. Finding a 6.2 F150 is even more difficult.

 

Sorry...I should have quantified...was speaking more from the Super Duty side of things where the 6.2 "base" engine is often overlooked because of the misconception that you "have to have a diesel in a F-250". The non-Raptor 6.2 in a F-150 is indeed a great (and hard to find!) option.

 

The 6.2L in the Super Duty sucks. It's a dog compared to the diesel. In the lighter F150? Absolutely. The 6.2L engine would be the engine to have.

 

I truly got lucky.

I was only casually looking at trucks, knowing that I needed to hand-me-down my '95 Bronco to my son to drive to school and work. I scanned the sites of a few dealerships, and one had a 6.2L F150 with 57k miles sitting on the lot, in the Lariat trim with a 6.5' bed. Within a half hour of finding this one on a dealership website I researched and discovered it was not an easy engine to find in a used F150, and that it had a lot of power, and a reputation for reliability. I called my wife and mentioned, "You know I wasn't really thinking of buying a truck today, but if I were to buy a truck I'd probably want one like this." She said, "If you think it's a good one go get it." A couple hours later I had handed over payment and was driving it home.