My question for the guys complaining about their truck's performance, Does your truck have the towing package? Mine does and I towed my 3500 lb. Mustang on an open Uhaul trailer from Tennesee to Texas. Over 600 miles all interstate. I-55 and I-10. That was over 5000 lbs. I averaged 11 mpg and cruised at 70 mph with overdrive on! The truck only dropped down 3 times and that was due to going over an overpass. I was pleased with the performance. Granted this is not an enclosed trailer so I didn't have the wind resistance which is a big factor.

 

I have to towing package and an Edge programmer. 3.73 ls rear diff. I do have 33X13.5R18 tires so Im sure that hurts. I average 9 mpg doing 55mph with my 7000# trailer. I tried the floor it and see what happens method and blew up both cat's on the way to the lake. That taught me to slow down.

 

I may get flamed for saying this, but there must be something wrong with you truck if it can't pull a 23'TT. I know that your 35's don't help, but still you camper can't weigh much more than 4500lbs. What gears do you have?

Last friday I had to tow the company S185 Bobcat on our 14' trailer (about 7000 lbs) up and over a 6% grade that is about 1 mile long I was doing 55ish mph at the bottom and I was at about 40 mph in 2nd gear by the time I got to the top, and I only had it at 1/2-2/3 throttle. The tranny temp never got above 175 deg. Heck even with my 94 F150 4WD, 300-6 and 5spd with 160,000 miles can pull the S185 over the hill at about 30 mph in 2nd gear, and that truck is a dog with the 33's on it.

Just my .02 worth, but for a 1/2 ton I think that these trucks good a great good towing or atleast most of ours do!

 

I've actually been very impressed with the towing power. My buddy has a 20 ft. enclosed car hauler that is flat at the front weighing in at 5,400 loaded. We used to tow it with an '01 Tahoe with the 5.3L. It did OK but had to shift at even the slighest upgrades. I towed it recently with my truck and it was a night and day difference. It never has to downshift and pulls steadily along ,even at 70mph. Given I can't tow in overdrive but that's to be expected. It's not a diesel afterall.

 

I pull a 25 foot boat up a steep road, I can only do 40 in 1st gear shift to 2nd and speed drops until shift to first. I think I need to get rid of these 3.55 gears and get some 4.56's.

 

What exhaust do you have?

Wonder if it's effecting your tow power..

 

if your going to tow with great frequency then do your tranny a favor and switch to 4.10 or 4.56 gears and take the strain off that train ..

and dont knock ford for there supposed "false" advertising.. they said there truck could tow 10,500 lbs.. they never said it could do it very fast

my manual says my truck with the 5.4 and 3.55 i can tow 8600.. and the same truck with the 5.4 and 3.73 can tow 9500 .. such a large increase for such a small change

 

Do you have an idea how much it would cost to switch my truck from 3.55 to 3.73 gears?

 

Well I gave my honest review, I gave real world feedback which includes the positive and the negatives. I said the truck's chasis and suspension handled the load well, I was impressed. As for power, the truck was not a dog, but I think we ALL can agree that a 5spd trans is much needed.Thats not bashing Ford or the F150, thats giving an honest suggestion and recomendation. I think as a Ford owner I am allowed to do that after all. Also I said that it would be nice to have more lower RPM torque to prevent such high RPMs to maintain speed. After all, the mod motor 5.4 is a high rpm engine unlike traditional OHV engines.

I have a Magnaflow 14in SIDO muffler with custom tailpipes. I did notice a loss or torque with the Flowmaster which is why I switched to a Magnaflow. Again I will reiterate that I was impressed with the overall performance of the truck, however it needs a 5spd and some more lower rpm torque would be nice to eliminate the need for consistent 3500+rpms over minor grades because you will kill the trans shifting from 3rd-OD constantly with a load.

God forbid someone make some sort of constructive suggestions around here...

 

I have had 3 F150's ('95 Scab 351, '00 Scab 5.4, '04 Screw 5.4) in a row and have pulled our travel trailer with all of them. The '95 had the most power of all of the trucks, but was the least stable of all of them. The '00 got the best mileage pulling the trailer (~5000lbs), but the '04 is the most stable and sure footed light duty truck I have ever pulled anything with. I realize its not a super duty, but it has pulled everything I have ever hooked to it without hesitation. Yesterday I loaded it up with right at 7000lbs of tractor and trailer to move a building and it performed flawlessly.

I will be hooking to the travel trailer in just over a week to go to Talladega and will get some pics of it when I do.

*Edit*
I just wanted to add that all of our trailers have electric brakes on atleast one axle, the travel trailer and our dump trailer have them on all axles. If you are going to pull anything larger than a atv trailer, brakes are strongly recommended.

 

welp i've just recently towed a dump trailer to my local dump.. whole rig weighed in at 9080 lbs.. first thing i've towed with this truck and i gotta say it handled it like it was nothing.. might get my friends 20' flat bed and put my other friends 06 colorado on it and tow it around to see what some real weight feels like..

 

I posted this question to an RV forum that I belong to: "Would I have any problems towing a 23' TT with my F-150 5.4L." They said that I souldn't have any problem towing that size TT. 365 Ft Lb of torque, 80% available at just over 1000 RPM, should be sufficient, but that the 3.55 gears might be a problem on some hills and recommended at least 3.77's. That's seems like good information from an impartial source.

In addition, here is what you get with the 5.4L 3V

The Ford 5.4L 3V engine uses a “SOHC” Single Over Head Cam, "Extra-Hard” Aluminum-Lead Silicon Alloy main bearings, “High-Silicon” Hypereutectic Aluminum Alloy-Graphite Skirt Coated - Strutless Modified Barrel Skirt pistons, Moly Plasma Filled low-friction rings, sintered iron valve seats and inserts, roller finger cam followers, Cracked - Powdered Metal connecting rods, Coil on Plug Ignition System, Sequential Electronic Fuel Injection, Variable Cam Timing, Charge Motion Control Valves, Electronic Throttle Control, Composite Metal oil pan, Magnesium Valve Covers, Cold Air Intake, Aluminum Heads, 3 Valves per Cylinder, on Ward’s 10 Best Engines list, and much more. All of which impresses me as a more sophisticated truck engine design than anything out there.

 

yep you nailed it right on! Now that I think about it, I did have a v6 at the time. I should try it now that I did the 5.4L swap!

Im not asking it to win races while towing a huge load, im just asking for it to actually tow the trailer w/o problems.

My buddy that was towing a 25' enclosed trailer loaded with quads, dirtbikes, and various other camping materials was pulling hard on me. he has a 05 Nissan Titan with a 7" CST lift, 35" nitto grapplers, and 20" wheels, with an air inkate, tb spacer, and exhaust for his mods.

 

If you plan to compare pulling power to a Titan or Ram than you will be dissappointed.

I mean Im a Ford fan as well as an F150 fan, but even I will admit the F150 needs more power.

 

The Titan has only 5 more HP and 14 ft.lbt. That dosen't seem to be significant.