Buying a Ford F-150

[Hilola]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

I've always switched to mid or premium grade in my Ranger on the fill before a known long hard climb. That's on the belief that the knock sensor will be less likely to kick in and retard the timing.

I don't have any problem with occasionally, before heavy duty climbs, topping up with premium.
Ron

That might be a good solution since any truck I purchased would also be used as a second vehicle (not towing). I guess when towing, you just have to suck it up (or down, in this case, lol)!

[Hilola]

Originally Posted by MikeS

Another "easy" solution is to just go to the F-250 with the diesel, then you wont have to worry about octane. The F-250 should be enough to tow most Escapes.

Ah, if only I could afford one!

[Mr. Bill]

I just bought a 2018 F150 king Ranck 3.5 eco boost. I was gonna go cheaper but why. At this point in life I want to enjoy the journey. If you can afford it, get what you and your bride want and enjoy the journey. I love the Kiing Ranch.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Hilola

Ah, if only I could afford one!

Hi: Hilola... I couldn't afford a Ford so I found a nicely loaded gently used Ram Eco Diesel 4X4 Laramie Longhorn. It also had the towing pkg. and air bags in the rear coils. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[grantpallen]

Congratulations Ron on your decision to buy a lighting blue Lariat. My wife doesn’t care about the mirrors, and she does most of the driving. Maybe go with the blind spot indicators!

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by Mr. Bill

I just bought a 2018 F150 king Ranck 3.5 eco boost. I was gonna go cheaper but why. At this point in life I want to enjoy the journey. If you can afford it, get what you and your bride want and enjoy the journey. I love the Kiing Ranch.

Very nice Bill. Enjoy it. We certainly enjoy the Lariat. Maybe next truck would be a KR, but to be honest the Lariat trim is downright luxurious for me.

[Hilola]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: Hilola... I couldn't afford a Ford so I found a nicely loaded gently used Ram Eco Diesel 4X4 Laramie Longhorn. It also had the towing pkg. and air bags in the rear coils. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

I haven't looked at the Rams. Are they that much less? What kind of payload does your truck have?

[Fox hunt]

Congratulations on your new truck!
last year i bought a new F150 i was looking for used but I love a red truck and this one had most of the stuff i wanted. it wasn't the Lariat so i had after factory leather seats installed nice quality and tough for my dogs.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Hilola

I haven't looked at the Rams. Are they that much less? What kind of payload does your truck have?

Hi: Hilola... Because I bought used but with B-B warranty for another 50,000 Km's I missed the 1st two years of depreciation. Big discounts if you can find the right truck. Living in a small town has advantages. Some folks here trade right after the "Bloom is off the rose". Payload is around 1400#. Pin wt plus a wife, and a few camping chairs doesn't add up to that much. Good thing I drink light beer!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[barry]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

Well I can't swear on the forum and you can't hear me yelling but trying to decide what options to order on a F-150 is making me crazy.

I could live with the most basic truck without any bells and whistles. To me, a truck is something that I throw stuff in the back and generally don't expect it to be car like in anyway. But I do want the 2.7 and the 10 speed. OK, no problem adding that.

But my wife loves the idea of the memory power seats. She thinks that'll make it easier to pry my out of the driver's seat so she can share the driving. Whoa, now we're getting into bells and whistles and have gone from base to a Lariet. I'm pretty much resigned to that's where we're at.

But so many packages and options, my head is spinning.

So, we seem have lot's of members with F-150's. The first issue is the mirror options. I'm leaning towards believing that with my Classic 19 I don't really need the extending mirrors. Anyone with Classic and non-extending mirrors have a comment?

Ron

Hi Ron


Bit late to the party but.........



Last fall I went from a 2009 Ranger 4X4 to the Ford F150 with a 2.7 litre engine. I found a XLT 4X4 Supercab, with the towing package, on the lot during the fall sales and got it for a really good price, it seems the Supercab isn't as popular as the SuperCrew so this made it easier to make a deal. I was surprised to find that the dash mounted brake controller is not part of the towing package (duh) and made it part of the deal, just something to note.



On the Ranger I had to add mirror extensions to to "kinda see" what was behind me. The F150 has just the regular mirrors and I find I have a superb view behind, way better than the Ranger with extensions. Granted the 5.0 Single axle I'm towing is 80" wide compared to the 84" of your 19.


On a side note, I'm finding that I get 3 to 5 mpg better mileage towing with the 2.7 compared with the Ranger. The Ranger did an admirable job but the F150 takes it to a whole new level, you will enjoy it.
Barry

[Hilola]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: Hilola... Because I bought used but with B-B warranty for another 50,000 Km's I missed the 1st two years of depreciation. Big discounts if you can find the right truck. Living in a small town has advantages. Some folks here trade right after the "Bloom is off the rose". Payload is around 1400#. Pin wt plus a wife, and a few camping chairs doesn't add up to that much. Good thing I drink light beer!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

Well, I suppose you could always leave the wife at home to increase the beer payload, lol! (Just kidding, Mrs. Alf!)

[thiggins]

Definitely get the larger gas tank. You will love the peace of mind.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by thiggins

Definitely get the larger gas tank. You will love the peace of mind.

Hi: thiggins... My 98L. std. tank on the Eco D. almost requires a second mortgage to fill here in Canada. After a 690 Km tow home the pump shut off at exactly $100.00 Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Fox hunt]

bigger gas tank is great i love it! i wish i had more pay load but i can make it work. i prob would have gotten the extending mirrors if i had thought about it but i can see very well with my non extending truck mirrors and i have not added mirror extensions. mine is the new model 5.0.

[barry]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: thiggins... My 98L. std. tank on the Eco D. almost requires a second mortgage to fill here in Canada. After a 690 Km tow home the pump shut off at exactly $100.00 Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

Alf
I just filled my truck up, with nearly a 1/4 of a tank left, and the pump shut off at the $150 pre authorized limit, I had to re-authorize my credit card to put in another $18 or so to fill the tank. The 136 litre tank is great for traveling as you can skip the stations but when you have to fill up it hurts!
Barry

[Fox hunt]

yes it does hurt especially in CA. but not have to stop very often is amazing!

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Fox hunt

yes it does hurt especially in CA. but not have to stop very often is amazing!

Hi: Fox hunt... It hurts me if I don't stop. The sound of running fuel can be disastrous. Good thing I tow my own "Restroom". Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[barry]

Originally Posted by Fox hunt

yes it does hurt especially in CA. but not have to stop very often is amazing!

Try BC, we're paying nearly $6 per US gallon and just revel in the fact that gas is "so cheap" in the States!

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by barry

Try BC, we're paying nearly $6 per US gallon and just revel in the fact that gas is "so cheap" in the States!

Hi: barry... My Diesel fill was $5.05 per US gallon in Canuk bucks. $11.50 of that fill total went to "Taxes". Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[mizterwizard]

For towing nothing beats a diesel and among the pickup diesels nothing beats a Cummins. The reason diesels are great for towing is that they are running near their peak power RPMs at highway speeds so when the hills come up all they have to do is spool up the turbo. No down shifting or other nonsense. Newer diesels also have more power available in total so they can climb the hills faster. They also cost $10,000 more than the largest gas engines. You will never pay that back towing an Escape even if you run it half a million miles. They are totally overkill for the task at hand.

Among the diesels, the Cummins comes in a Dodge/Ram truck which is the worst truck of the big 3. The Ford if probably the best truck of the three but the Power Stroke diesel is the worst of the three. The Chevy with a Duramax engine and Allison transmission is the best all around diesel truck. I expect a lot of argument on this but as a professional mechanic with 50+ years of experience it is my considered opinion that this is the way it stands.

A large fuel tank is always a good thing. If you are so shocked by the cost of filling it up then don't. Put in what ever you think is enough and drive on. Some day you will be sitting beside the road somewhere inconvenient and thinking, "I should have filled it up." If your stock tank doesn't hold enough to give you peace of mind on those long lonely pulls then an aftermarket in-bed tank is not that expensive and can be removed when you want to.

Towing mirrors are available everywhere. Check this out:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...towing+mirrors

For that matter you can buy a stripper truck and add aftermarket equipment to your heart's content but it makes more sense to buy some things from the factory because they are hard/expensive to add later. Mirrors are easy and cheaper than factory so that is what I would do. Wheels and tires are the same. My wife's car came with really stiff run-flat tires. When winter came we got a set of snow tires on different sized rims and everything about them was better than stock. When the OEM highway tires wore out we got a set of newer tech run-flat tires on nice wheels and again they were better in every way. Wheels and tires are easy and if bought when needed they are .... well, not cheap but reasonable.

Instead of fancy mirrors, I would look at cameras. There are cameras you can buy that mount in the license plate frame, high mount brake light, tail lights, mirrors, marker lights and just about any other place you might imagine you would want one, including on the trailer. A set of 5 cameras could provide coverage that no set of mirrors could match. What you need to enable this is a stereo with GPS, DVD or some other reason for a large screen in the cab. You can have a dedicated screen but they tend to be ugly when installed.

The rest of this is a bit technical and not suitable for reading by those who don't care.

As far as fuel requirements go, it seems that few people here understand what is involved. Octane is a particular petro-chemical. It has particularly good resistance to knocking so it has become the standard for comparison of anti-knock qualities in fuels. Low octane does not equal low quality. Cost is a quality and low octane tends to be low cost. If everything else is the same then the lowest octane fuel will also be the cheapest fuel. If a fuel with infinite octane was available and cheap then engines could be a lot better in many ways. An engine designer has to trade off what is possible against what is practical against what is desirable against what is affordable. Hence different engines for different uses.

Every engine is designed with certain uses in mind. Manufacturers know that most people want to run the lowest cost fuel they can find so they design around it. Therefore most engines will run just fine on 88 octane fuel. That doesn't mean that they will run their best on 88 though. All modern engines can adapt to adverse conditions, including low octane fuel.

Things that affect the octane requirement of an engine are: Operating temperature, combustion chamber temperature, engine RPM, charge density (throttle setting), intake air temperature, how well the fuel and air are mixed, mixture ratio, ignition timing, certain emission controls, etc. To just cruise down a level road at moderate speeds in cool weather places hardly any demand on the fuel and just about anything will do. To climb a steep mountain pass at highway speeds in the middle of summer towing a trailer with lots of weight and wind resistance with a whistling turbo puts a heavy strain on the octane requirements. The same engine that was perfectly happy in the first instance may complain loudly under the second.

To protect itself from damaging detonation a modern engine will retard the timing and possibly enrich the mixture when it starts to knock. Ironically this increases the temperature inside the engine. That increased temperature increases emissions so there may be more EGR as well. This all reduces power and economy but it will save the engine. Under these circumstances a higher octane fuel will benefit power, economy and engine life. The increased economy will probably offset the increased cost of 92 octane fuel.

So, there is little to no benefit in running higher octane fuel than the engine requires but when it needs it there is advantage. If you know you will be working your engine hard then splurge on the expensive stuff. If you are just going to be running errands or cruising light then go with the low cost stuff.

Of course if you can afford a brand new truck with all of the goodies then you probably don't care about the cost so you could just fill up with the most expensive gasoline available to show off your spendthrift economics.