Nieghbor not happy with new 6.3 mpg Powerstroke

[glhs]

My nieghbor was deciding between a new Ford or Dodge and ended up buying a Ford because Dodge doesn't offer the Megacab with a longbed and the regular crew cab is a bit small.

Took his 2008 6. 4 on a trip pulling his 5th wheel camper and boat and the overhead said he was getting 6. 7 mpg. He hand calculated it and showed 6. 3 mpg .

He then towed only his camper back (someone else brought his boat) and the overhead said 7. 1 mpg. His new truck has 4. 30 gears

He says it does pull better than his 2005 6. 0 that had a Banks chip and 3. 73 gears. It used to get 2- 2. 5 better than the new one.

Anyone know is this normal? He is thinking of taking it back tomorrow and telling them to stick it!

 

[FATCAT]

Yup, that is normal when pulling heavy loads. the folks at dieselstop.com will confirm that. He can thank the EPA for these terrible numbers.



He bought a large truck with low gearing and is pulling very heavy loads ... what does he expect? 20mpg?



Apparently empty he will only get between 12 - 13 mpg. The folks with the 4. 88 rears are getting even worse milage.

 

[bmoeller]

The gearing sure isn't helping any.

 

[TAbbott]

"He can thank the EPA for these terrible numbers. "



Yup. Them and the weight police that convinced him he needed to "upgrade" to an F-450 in order to safely handle his trailer and boat. The 6. 3 mpg is what we used to be able to do with 80,000 lbs and an 18 wheeler. Some of us even used to average the 6. 7 his overhead showed. Now, even with the older truck the mileage is down about 1/2 mpg just because of the new fuel. 5. 8 - 6. 2 is about what we can do @ 65 - 75 mph now depending on whether there's wind or not. But the smoke is less! A little less. Very little less. Maybe.....

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Yep his MPG is right on par with what I'm seein on the Diesel Stop. Another guy with an F-350 was complaining his transmission keeps going in and out of OD on the flat towing a 10k lbs trailer, shooting his RPM to 2500-2800 RPM. He has the 3. 73 rear end and turned right at 6 MPG pulling his 28' Jayco toyhauler. Sounds like the 6. 4 with the auto isn't a great towing combo especially if it keeps jumping out of OD and causes the RPM to shoot so high. I'm sure part of the problem is the V8.

In another thread guys were talking about test driving F450s with the 4. 88 and next higher gear ratio and showing 9-11 on the overhead.

 

[glhs]

He was hoping to be getting 8-10 when towing... ... ... ... if anything not worse than the 6. 0. It was the only truck available at the time with navigation. He said you can get 4. 10s w/posi in a F-350 dually but posi is not available in a dually with 3. 73 gears. It definately has more torque and stayed in top gear the entire way. Another interesting note is the 2005 6. 0 would show about 10-15 psi towing while the 6. 4 is 20+.

What do Cummins 6. 7s get towing?

 

[steveinaz]

Ijust pulled a 9000lb load from Tucson to Phx . I was mad that I was only getting 13. 9 miles to the gallon. Guess I should rethink that one. SteveinAZ

 

[TAbbott]

I went to the DieselStop.com. Was looking around over there and found a one liner that I liked. They were talking about the new 2008 6. 4 diesel, working on it and needing to remove the cab to do much of anything to it.



Here was the guys comment:



"This is what happns when your engineers smoke crack during their lunch break. "



He went on to say that this was the reason, as a current Ford 6. 0 owner, that his next new truck was gonna be a Dodge with a Cummins.



I thought it was amusing... .

 

[FATCAT]

I went to the DieselStop.com. Was looking around over there and found a one liner that I liked. They were talking about the new 2008 6. 4 diesel, working on it and needing to remove the cab to do much of anything to it.



Here was the guys comment:



"This is what happns when your engineers smoke crack during their lunch break. "



He went on to say that this was the reason, as a current Ford 6. 0 owner, that his next new truck was gonna be a Dodge with a Cummins.



I thought it was amusing... .

I read that thread also. :-laf In all seriousness though, I would think that machanics would rather work on the trucks with the cab off. If only all hoses were like tractor quick-disconnect type and that there were only a handfull of large electrical plugs to disconnect. Just unbolt the steering linkage and wa-la, you should be able to remove the cab pretty quick ... maybe donw the road in the near future though.

 

[PWitteveen]

My brother bought a 2008 F-450 and he is not happy with his mileage either. He is seeing between 6-7 mpg pulling his 5er. He was getting around 9-10 with his 99 F-350 with the 7. 3. He hopes his mileage will imporve when the truck has more miles on it.

 

[Giachino]

What do the ford owners expect?? If we had an extra 1k lbs, a 5 speed, and 4. 30 or 4. 88 rear end and drove 70+mph with a trailer... . mileage wouldnt be pretty either... . they should have got a 350 with 3. 73 or 4. 10 if they wanted better mileage..... might be abe to go faster than 85mph unloaded as well!

 

[HoleshotHolset]

Whoa. I don't think my 12-valve Cummins would eat that much fuel if I took it out of high gear and ran 2800RPM down the interstate...



I haven't found a hill yet that required coming out of high gear at highway speeds. The only limitation is EGT temps, but I've got too much fuel and not enough turbo... that certainly is not the case with a brand new IH/Ford Powerstroke.



Matt

 

[glhs]

The truck is an F350 dually. Before he bought it the service tech who went to school for the 6. 4 powerstroke said they will do 20% better mileage than the 6. 0. Quite the contrary as it is doing 20% less.

Looks like Dodges 5. 9s and 6. 7s get about 9. 5-10. 5 mpg towing heavy.

 

[MRosinski]

My dads 6. 7 will do 10. 5-12 pulling his 11,xxx lb. brick of a trailer. Not bad for a truck with less than 3000 miles.

 

[LSchulz]

The 6. 3 mpg is what we used to be able to do with 80,000 lbs and an 18 wheeler.

That's a good point. I was talking to a guy at a truck stop the other day while waiting for someone, and we got to chatting about mileage and such (talking about my veggie bus). He was driving a tri-axle Western Star with a 550hp 3406E pulling a Cat 330. He had just crossed the scales at 130,000lbs, yet was still getting around 5. 1-5. 2mpg. If he's pulling 20 times the weight, why can we only get 3 or 4 times the mileage at best with a brand new "state of the art" truck? They may be cleaner, but we're burning even more fuel than before...

 

[glhs]

Three or four times better towing? More like 1. 25 times better pulling 5-6 times less. What would that Cat get going solo?

We are now using more barrels of oil everday but we are burning it cleaner .

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

He was driving a tri-axle Western Star with a 550hp 3406E pulling a Cat 330. He had just crossed the scales at 130,000lbs, yet was still getting around 5. 1-5. 2mpg.

Here's a way to put something like that into perspective. Hold a 1-gallon jug in your hand, and tell yourself there's enough energy in that jug to push that much mass down the road 5 miles at a reasonable speed . . . unless you're talking about nuclear fuel, it's hard to come up anything that tops efficiency like that.

 

[FATCAT]

. . . unless you're talking about nuclear fuel, it's hard to come up anything that tops efficiency like that.

Yeah, that gallon of diesel if compressed to cause fusion would be enough energy to light NYC for a year or so ... or get you up to Warp 1.

 

[WDixon27]

so what your saying is we need higher compression pistons and maybe weld the head to the block and we are good ta go :-laf

Yeah, that gallon of diesel if compressed to cause fusion would be enough energy to light NYC for a year or so ... or get you up to Warp 1.

 

[Missouri Mule]

I know a member that just went to the dark side (bought 6. 4, ford 4x4, 1 ton ,drw, crew cab, 8ft bed). Said pulling his boat he's getting 11 mpg, running empty 16-17 mpg.