I want to purchase a 2006 and am looking at the XLT with 18" wheels, 3.73 axle and the 4.6 Triton vs the FX4 with 20" wheels, 3.55 axle and the 5.4 Triton. The dealers milage ratings for both are 23 hwy, 17 city. In reality, which truck will give me the best fuel ecomony. I drive around 30,000 kms/yr
Dominic

 

My 2002 FX4 with a 5.4/3:55ls,got 20.9mpg on the highway doing the speed limit using cruise control.I had a K&N dropin,and flowmaster 40 catback duals.

My new 2005 FX4,5.4/3:73ls.K&N dropin,flowmaster 40 catback duals,with only 1670 miles on it,gets 17mpg on the highway.Again at the speed limit using cruise.Hope that helps ya.

 

So what changed on the 06 vs. the 04? My truck is an STX regular cab with 4.6 that stickered at 15 and 19 mpg. There is not supposed to be any major difference so why 17 and 23?

Any idea of what changes would lead to this 2-4 mpg increase?
My truck comes stock with 17 rims, and 3.55 gears.
Chris

 

I can tell you that no 04+ FX4 with 20's will even get close to 23mpg or 17 city, thats just crazy that dealer is crack , the 4.6 might get 1-2 mpg better mpg, but you you would give up power and towing performance all my friends that got the 4.6 are kicking there own *** for not getting the 5.4..my 2 cents

 

My XLT Screw with 3.55LS and the 5.4 is stickered at 15 and 19, gets about 11-12 and 15..

 

These trucks are heavy. I would go with the 5.4, which is what I have and can tell you it's no rocket ship. I don't know what the mileage difference is, but sometimes a smaller engine is not better on gas as it has to work harder.
I did figure mine out once and got about 12mpg(mostly city)

 

My 05 Scab 4.6 w/auto, 3.55, 17" wheels, 7,950 miles on the ticker averages to about 17mpg with a mix of city & hwy. I just came back from a 330 mile round trip on a half tank with the cruise on at 65. I know 65 is slow (speed limit is 70/day & 65/night and both trips were at night) but I was carring around 300lbs of cargo in the bed and 475lbs of passengers. 330 miles / 13 gals = 25.38mpg


Truck has a glass top, Airaid intake (tube & filter) and Magnaflow SI/SO muffler (not a catback, just the muffler).

 

There are so many factors that govern gas mileage that it is impossible to predict an individual’s mileage.
On my truck I tend to get better than EPA, even though I live at high altitude, lots of hills, all horrible stop and go traffic, lots of power mods, have added over 225 lbs to my trucks weight, run very bad Southern California blend gas, which I get cheap from Costco, have oversized rims/tires.
And oh yeah, I like to romp it from stops.

But I am an experienced driver, have a tonneau, exhaust, monitor with a ScanGauge, understand the use of the torque converter freewheeling function, etc. etc.

So my worst tank in 14 months was 15.5 MPG. That’s all stop and go around town winter blend, lots of cold starts, lots of idling, some romping it.

My best tank in the same time period is 23.8 but that was summer blend, stock intake, 100% freeway, on ramp to off ramp at the speed limit, cool weather, low altitude, mostly cruise, on the straight as a string Interstate 5 freeway.

I think if my truck had 3.73 gears it would get better around town, worse on the highway.

My normal mileage around town is 16 if I take it easy; normal on the freeway is 19-20 if I push it.

 

I've never taken my truck past 2100RPM from a stop.

 

I wish you were in driving range.
I would love to drive one of the trucks that get poor mileage for a couple hours, with my ScanGauge hooked up, and see what kind of mileage I could get out of it.
I have to wonder if it is location, fuel, driving technique or an actual problem with fuel usage.
I know that before I put a vacuum gauge on my truck my mileage was pretty bad. Then I noticed how much gas you could waste on this truck at steady speeds. Going to the ScanGauge really showed the difference.

I can take off with traffic, cruise with traffic, stop normally and get either good gas mileage or lousy gas mileage, depending on how I use the pedal. This is more pronounced on this truck than on any of my other vehicles.
Chris

 

Come down to Alabama and i'll let you try it.

 

My '05 Supercrew XLT 4x4 with a 5.4L, 3.55 gears, and 17" wheels got 17.5 mpg doing 65-75 mph the last time that I had it on the highway, and that was at around 3000 miles. At 6400 miles, the lowest that I've seen was around 12 and some change when I went fishing everyday for 5 days pulling the fishing boat and using 4wd where I was parking and on the ramp and also pulling around a flatbed 18 ft. trailer for about 30 or so miles, all on the same tank. My normal is 14-15 mpg for my 34 mile round trip commute to and from work driving thru town. You will probably get a little less with 20" rims due to the extra weight. All that I have is a K&N filter.

After having a '97 Mountaineer with a 302 and 3.73 gears, I think that I'd die if I got the 4.6L. Believe it or not, I'm getting better milage to and from work with the F150 than the Mountaineer. I'd hate to see the different when pulling the big trailers and the pontoon boat.

 

He might be in Canada, so it might be 23/17 kmpg

 

My old 2000 was a reg cab with 3.55 gears and the 4.6 and my current truck is a 05 reg cab with 3.55 gears and 5.4. The gas mileage is very close to what my old truck did even though this current truck is heavier and has the bigger engine than my old one did. I get 13 city and 18 highway my old 4.6 got 14 city and 18.5 highway not enough of a differnce to write home about if you ask me.

 

Why is that, are you afraid yor engine will blow up??