Sold my RAM, bought a new 2022 Ford F250. You guys can say what you want, it's mine now, a done deal, no going back. This is a copy of the post I put up on the FTE board...
So, my first trip with the new truck, only 186 miles on the clock when I left.
I'll get the numbers out of the way first.
Filled up before leaving, drove up to Missouri where I stopped for the first fuel refill. I purposely left the aux tank shut off to make it easier to get a true MPG figure. Kept the cruise on about 77-78 for most of the trip.
The dash readout showed 20.9 MPG after 653.7 miles of driving from Texas to Missouri, and it took 32.8 gallons to fill the tank, giving a true measured MPG of 19.92, so the dash readout was optimistic by 1 MPG.
Later, I picked up a small 5th wheel that is intended for a 1/2 ton pickup to tow, 10K GVWR, actual weight 8500 or so, and after towing it 416.6 miles on the filled main tank, again with the aux tank shut off, it took 38.9 gallons to refill it for a measured MPG of 10.70, the dash readout showed 11.5 MPG, so again a little optimistic.
So, my impressions after now having nearly 2500 miles on it.
Comparing to my previous truck, a 2500 RAM mega cab 2WD Cummins auto.
First, the ride started out being not as good as my RAM, by quite a bit. Bumps caused pretty harsh jolts, followed by quite a bit of body shuddering. It has gotten better, I think it has taken some breaking in of the suspension components, things getting in sync with each other, bushings and springs seating in maybe???
Ford always touts how quiet their vehicles are, and the 6.7 PowerStroke engine, as all owners know, is very quiet, very much on par with gas engines, and quite a bit quieter than the Cummins 6.7, and this is very true, but the interior road noise on this truck is very surprising, way louder inside than my old RAM. And, I have a bad rattle when going over sharp bumps, coming from the passenger side rear seat area, that I haven't been able to track down. I thought it might be the seat belt buckle hitting the side panel, that's what it sounded like, but I have it buckled in across the seat and the rattle is still there over sharp bumps. I then looked at the bottle jack that is strapped down behind the seat, tightened it down, but no change.
The driver seat is very comfortable, a good bit better than the seat in my RAM, and the ventilation really helps keep your hiney from sweating after long hours behind the wheel. The head rest is sometimes bothersome, I may just turn it around or something so it doesn't touch my head.
The fuel economy, numbers given above, is a little disappointing, but hopefully will get better with some more miles to loosen things up.
The towing fuel economy is already a little better than my old RAM, but the bobtail economy is not quite as good.
Towing...
I had to keep fighting my old habits from my RAM.
In my RAM, I would use the trans range limiting to lock out 6th gear when towing at speeds below 70 for best performance.
In my new F250, this is totally un-necessary, at least so far with the small 5th wheel I was towing, any speed I wanted to set the cruise on, the truck pulled it in 10th gear with nary a complaint and nary any performance deficit. Pulled all the hills without downshifting, and never could I detect that it was lugging the engine at all. The only time it ever downshifted on a hill was where I had stepped down on the throttle slightly in anticipation of slowing as the truck started to climb a hill, something I always did in my RAM because the cruise would droop so much before starting to pull, the new Ford doesn't have this issue, and when left to do its own thing it kept right up with hardly any droop. I just need to forget my old habits from when towing in the RAM!
I have tried all the drive modes and find very little noticeable difference in any of them, towing or not. I finally just left it in normal after trying tow/haul when towing the trailer.
Pic of the truck and trailer.
#ad
So, my first trip with the new truck, only 186 miles on the clock when I left.
I'll get the numbers out of the way first.
Filled up before leaving, drove up to Missouri where I stopped for the first fuel refill. I purposely left the aux tank shut off to make it easier to get a true MPG figure. Kept the cruise on about 77-78 for most of the trip.
The dash readout showed 20.9 MPG after 653.7 miles of driving from Texas to Missouri, and it took 32.8 gallons to fill the tank, giving a true measured MPG of 19.92, so the dash readout was optimistic by 1 MPG.
Later, I picked up a small 5th wheel that is intended for a 1/2 ton pickup to tow, 10K GVWR, actual weight 8500 or so, and after towing it 416.6 miles on the filled main tank, again with the aux tank shut off, it took 38.9 gallons to refill it for a measured MPG of 10.70, the dash readout showed 11.5 MPG, so again a little optimistic.
So, my impressions after now having nearly 2500 miles on it.
Comparing to my previous truck, a 2500 RAM mega cab 2WD Cummins auto.
First, the ride started out being not as good as my RAM, by quite a bit. Bumps caused pretty harsh jolts, followed by quite a bit of body shuddering. It has gotten better, I think it has taken some breaking in of the suspension components, things getting in sync with each other, bushings and springs seating in maybe???
Ford always touts how quiet their vehicles are, and the 6.7 PowerStroke engine, as all owners know, is very quiet, very much on par with gas engines, and quite a bit quieter than the Cummins 6.7, and this is very true, but the interior road noise on this truck is very surprising, way louder inside than my old RAM. And, I have a bad rattle when going over sharp bumps, coming from the passenger side rear seat area, that I haven't been able to track down. I thought it might be the seat belt buckle hitting the side panel, that's what it sounded like, but I have it buckled in across the seat and the rattle is still there over sharp bumps. I then looked at the bottle jack that is strapped down behind the seat, tightened it down, but no change.
The driver seat is very comfortable, a good bit better than the seat in my RAM, and the ventilation really helps keep your hiney from sweating after long hours behind the wheel. The head rest is sometimes bothersome, I may just turn it around or something so it doesn't touch my head.
The fuel economy, numbers given above, is a little disappointing, but hopefully will get better with some more miles to loosen things up.
The towing fuel economy is already a little better than my old RAM, but the bobtail economy is not quite as good.
Towing...
I had to keep fighting my old habits from my RAM.
In my RAM, I would use the trans range limiting to lock out 6th gear when towing at speeds below 70 for best performance.
In my new F250, this is totally un-necessary, at least so far with the small 5th wheel I was towing, any speed I wanted to set the cruise on, the truck pulled it in 10th gear with nary a complaint and nary any performance deficit. Pulled all the hills without downshifting, and never could I detect that it was lugging the engine at all. The only time it ever downshifted on a hill was where I had stepped down on the throttle slightly in anticipation of slowing as the truck started to climb a hill, something I always did in my RAM because the cruise would droop so much before starting to pull, the new Ford doesn't have this issue, and when left to do its own thing it kept right up with hardly any droop. I just need to forget my old habits from when towing in the RAM!
I have tried all the drive modes and find very little noticeable difference in any of them, towing or not. I finally just left it in normal after trying tow/haul when towing the trailer.
Pic of the truck and trailer.
