jay1028

I am getting ready to do some traveling with our 26ft TT. TT weighed in at 5600lbs loaded on a CAT scale. My question is concerning gas octane when towing. I have watched YT towing videos with the 3.5L, but no one mentions what octane gas they are using. I have read elsewhere on the forum that non towing they get 2% better mileage with premium. Mileage is not a concern when towing because it is going to be bad anyway. The 2017 manual states in the Fuel section:

For best overall vehicle and engine
performance, premium fuel with an octane
rating of 91 or higher is recommended. The
performance gained by using premium fuel
is most noticeable in hot weather as well
as other conditions, for example when
towing a trailer.

From your towing experience, is it necessary to run premium or do you get along fine with regular 87? There is no mention of octane in the Towing section. I know in the Escape forum, premium will gain addtional 10hp in the 2.0L. Since the 3.5L has so much torque and hp, does premium matter that much especially since my TT is only 5600lbs?

pilotpip

Mine seems to get about 2mpg better all the time with premium, towing or otherwise, however the big place it seems to help is throttle response.

smokeywren

My 3.5L EcoBoost engine will run just fine and tow my 5,000-pound TT or 7,000-pound cargo trailer just fine using regular unleaded 87 octane "gasohol". But it gets enough better MPG on premium when towing that I can run premium at about the same cost per mile as regular. And my F-150 talks to me and says it is much happier burning premium than regular when towing.

So when planning a towing trip over about 200 miles, I try to plan ahead and have a near-empty gas tank before the trip, then fill up with premium just before we hit the road.

Then after I return home, I'll switch back to regular if there are no more towing trips planned for the near term.

SkiSmuggs

I always towed with premium in my 2011 EB because Ford recommended it. But during the winter I went for the cheap Gulf (non top tier) regular and my fuel mileage would drop seriously. I blamed winter gas. Then I got a offer of an Exxon/Mobile credit card with 25 cents/gal off for 3 months and switched to Mobile (Top Tier) premium. My MPG improved by 1.5 mpg. Never used anything else after that.

mass-hole

I run 87 octane on my 87 5star towing tune, all day, everyday. You DONT need 91 while towing, its simply recommended to get the most consistent power under high load. I supposed if you didnt have a tune and it felt like it wasnt making enough power, then it might be worth it to get the little extra out of the stock tuning. Any 87 octane towing tune will have more than enough power to handle anything that should be hooked to these trucks.

Any MPG gain you might theoretically see with 91 will be offset by the cost. I've personally never noticed an improvement loaded or unloaded. Even running ethanol free fuel towing made no noticable difference.

You'd probably be better off investing the money you would be spending on 91 on an aftermarket intercooler. That will get you more consistent power by improving IAT's than any octane of fuel will provide.

acdii

Whatever you do, don't tow up I-70 on 85 octane. Trust me, the truck gets HOT!

SkiSmuggs

I ran LMS, 5-Star and SSi tow tunes, plus a Wagner CAC and still used premium to tow. 5-Star ended up being my favorite for towing and SSi when not towing. It wasn't so much for power but to protect from knock. 10,000 lbs is a load for that little engine, but I was passing diesels on the grades.

mass-hole

I only have experience with Unleashed and 5star, but 5Stars towing tunes are dialed in near perfectly for towing.

jay1028

Thanks for all the input. Sometimes you you just don't follow the manual. I am going to go with 87. My first few outings with the truck will be in Florida, so no hills. I never had to put premium in the 96 Explorer 5.0 for 20 years, just didn't go north of Atlanta with it and those hills were taxing. Now with this truck, things will be different.

acdii

The Exploder wasn't really meant to use Premium, you would have just wasted money. The EB will auto tune to the Premium, and why Ford recommends it for heavy use. It really does show a remarkable difference between grades when towing, it just seems to work easier.

On the 5Star tune, My only comment on that, make sure you use 91 octane if it is a 91 octane tow/perf tune, if not, Things get a little(lot) hot. Towing up I-70 to Lincoln, and through Utah(granted it was triple digit in Utah), truck overheated in Utah and nearly overheated in Colorado. Reason was that all I could find was 89 octane, and I had a 91 tune. Returned it to stock on the trip back, could really tell the tune helps, but did not overheat in stock mode.