brulaz

Yup. MaxTow with 3.73 gears.

Expect the tranny to downshift to 5th sooner with a 3.55 rear when under load. So there'll be even less chance for low rev lugging in 6th.

But IIRC some of my up-slope runs were as low as 1200 rpm in 6th and boost was going on. And even there, locking out 6 and going to 5th increased fuel consumption. Just seems that the lower the revs, the lower the fuel consumption, even when lugging hard in 6th (or as hard as the tranny would let me). Not sure if the rear end ratio will change that.

Buck50HD

On one of the first towing trips with our 7500lb 26' tt, I had a stretch of about 60 miles totally flat and little wind. I cycled back and forth between 6th and 5th, 5 minute average in each. Consistently found this:

5th gear got about 0.3-0.5mpg better, every time. I have towed in 5th ever since. Easier on fuel, the engine, turbos, trans and my ears. Much quieter in 5th... doesn't sound like a hurricane under the hood. Also, rarely needs to downshift out of 5th on hills. It just boosts and pulls. Gets about 9mpg on ave with regular. I always tow at 58-62mph.

brulaz

Maybe it depends upon how much you're pulling.

I did better in 6th every time, but I'm only pulling 4000#+1000# in the bed. And I get ~12.3mpgUS with that.

You're obviously pulling a lot more (or faster) with 9mpgUS .

flixden

I think it only happens when you are just around the point where the tranny switches between 5th and 6th. You can duplicate it with a load, or even empty.
Like that one hill on my way back from work. Pretty steep, but at 50mph, the truck wants to stay in 6th gear (empty). It's borderline, you can hear the engine "struggle" or being close to the limit. As soon as I lock out 6th, the mpg's increase slightly. Now in 5th, when I unlock 6th, the truck does not even change gears back to 6th, it stays in 5th. That's how close it is to shifting on that hill. It's probably not easy to find the exact right conditions for this, I think, but it is the same Buck50HD describes, when his truck switches forth and back with only very slight changes in the conditions.

papa tiger

Thin the truck is going to pull its best with the RPM's near the torque curve 22/24 hundred rpm's.

McCarthy

Well, There's your problem.

smokeywren

What's the point of pour post, McCarthy? His full statement was,"Our Honda Ridgeline use to get about 10 mpg towing this trailer, so I'm hoping to do slightly better with the new F150."

The Honda Ridgeline was on my short list of potential new pickups. But it didn't have enough GVWR and GCWR to handle my 7,000 pound cargo trailer with 850 pounds of hitch weight, so I had to scratch it off the list. My EcoBoost gets less than 10 MPG dragging a 5,000 pound TT, so 10 MPG in the Ridgeline would have been okay with me. Plus the Ridgeline gets almost 30 MPG unloaded at 75 MPH, while my Ecoboost averages about 17. I had 2005 and 2009 Odyssey EXLs that were wonderful, and the Ridgeline has the same drivetrain, so that's why I was considering the Ridgeline.