so last night my wifes sister and husband were moving into their new home,l we used my truck and a relatives 12 foot trailer, this was my first time towing with my truck and was excited to see how it felt. i didnt expect to be wowed being my truck has a 6 inch lift and 35s. it didnt do to bad around town but im kind of worried of how it will do when we move down to alabama in a few weeks. i will be using a smaller trailor but i feel like it will be an expensive trip with fuel. but also last night i sold some 20 inch rims off my lincoln LS for $400, if i buy a EVO will i get better performance while towing? it has a towing mode from what i have read. will it be worth it as far as towing is concerned? will it help my fuel economy?

 

Do the math, if you are looking at a tuner just to save on gas...well...you need to find another reason to buy one. Example, gas is currently $2.79 a gallon in my neck of the woods. Asuming the tuner gets me an extra 2 mpg (which is probably a generous assumption), I would save an extra 41.2 cents per gallon (I average 11.5 around town in a 5.4 4x4 screw). At 41 cents saved per gallon it would take roughly 975 gallons of gasoline to break even with the $400 price of the tuner. 975 gallons would move my truck 11,212 miles before I would start to see savings from the tuner. So it is going to take some time before you see any savings, even longer if you primaraly drive highway miles. If you are concerned about the cost of driving to Alabama while towing a trailer, I humbly suggest you put that $400 towards gasoline.

Unfortunatly the bottom line is that if you want to save on gas; go buy a Prius.

 

Or at least a Focus. (a Ford forum and all)

 

sorry if i made i seem like i was only trying to get better gas. that not what i meant, i am looking for better towing capability and therefore improving gas mileage. im trying to make it easier for my truck to make the trip and i figured getting the edge will be the cheapest most improving mod that i could do at the moment. a little improved gas mileage will just be a little bonus. as far a buying the programmer where do most people buy theirs, i have looked at ebay and they go for about 350, php is 400 but i am not really looking into getting any custom tunes at the moment. decisions decisions.

 

Your looking for better mileage...not better tow capability even though you word it as such.

My truck gets used for towing all the time. Boats in the summer time, my rock crawler in the fall and spring...both weigh 5000+ pounds and tow very well. Mileage does take a substantial dive though. Where as unloaded i get 15-16 city(5.4 motor) and 18-19 Highway(also, running edge at level 3), i get 12ish around town, 13-15 highway when towing a heavy load. Just the nature of the beast and your numbers can be higher or lower depending on your driving habits, towing conditions, load weight, the road your on and about 1000 other factors.

Best advice i can give if your worried about "capability" is put your truck back to stock. Adding aftermarket rims, tires, lifts, etc kill mileage and tow ratings. My 04 had a 4" lift and was running 35's...even re geared, it towed like crap. My 05 is stock except for very slightly larger than stock tires and it tows considerably better.

 

Buy one used, that way it doesn't cost $400. Can always get it custom tuned if you want to get it flashed to a gryphon later. Keep a lookout on these forums, sometimes they go for less than $300.
https://www.f150forum.com/f61/edge-evolution-41414/

 

Buy it. Couldn't hurt.

 

that's assuming that gas prices don't go up, which is obviously unlikely. should they rise $1/gal, which is very possible, breakeven point will be a fraction. Furthermore, 11,xxx miles should average to less than 6 months. Going with the above average estimate of 11k miles/year...in a year, assuming that gas prices don't drop (which realistically they won't), one would be making/saving AT LEAST $400. The savings has a greater chance of actually being higher than what I have estimated.

this also doesn't account for a MUCH better performing vehicle.

 

Sorry to butt in here, but I was just about to post a similar towing / tuner question.
That is Does the tuner in towing mode also control the shifting? In that does it allow you to use the OD on the highway ? My trailer is a construction dumping, about 1.4 ton empty.
cheers

 

Yes, it controls the shifting as well. Yes, you still have control over OD.