Wittom, just wanna say thanks for posting ur experiences and keeping everyone up to date on your truck with all the positive comments and the struggles you have been having. Very imformative and useful!

I've added a 3" lift on the front and 34" tires to my 2wd 3.7. Its stock otherwise and im lovin the truck. It has a little over 25k miles on the clock and no issues so far knock on wood. Its not a neck snapper but its a lot of fun and even with the lift and tires Im still averaging 21 mpg with about 90% being freeway miles.

 

@ccstp did your 3.7 feel sluggish after the lift and tires? also is it a lift or leveling kit? thanks thinking about doing something similar

 

Hi sorry, yes it is a leveling kit. Just a 3" spacer on the front. And yes it did rob some power. I don almost all freeway miles so it doesnt affect my driving style much at all tho. But yes I definitely did notice a loss in power.

What are you thinking about doing as far as lift and tires?

 

@ccstp I was thinking keep my stock 17's and plastidip them then do a 2 or 2.5 inch leveling kit to fit 33x12.5 nitto trail grapplers or an all terrain tire ( I heard trail grapplers aren't the best on sand) I would then put exhaust cold air intake or gotts mod and a tuner. I have a supercrew so I already feel a need for more throttle response

 

Glad you are happy with the truck. I'm pretty happy with mine too, though I do sometimes wish I had more power.

It's everyone's experiences with this base V6 that are going to help that person on the fence, doing an internet search for info. I didn't ecpect this thread to go on for so long, but I'm happy to give my experience with this truck. Just as important, and something that I look forward to, are others posts about their experience. Keep posting.




Here's a good place for a little more data. Filled up the truck today. Did a quick trip up to VT for a hike. Pulled the little trailer for an overnighter. Was probably 40% highway and 60% rural roads. Lot of hills in VT requiring downshifts. I filled up after going 462.7 miles. The low fuel indicator had just come on. I'll bet this truck can do 500 miles on one tank of fuel if driven conservatively. By hand I got 19.09 with an 18.5 onboard. I thought this was great considering I was pulling the little trailer and was going through the hills of sothern VT.

The truck ran much better than the last time we pulled the little trailer.

 

It's tempting, but I don't think this truck is cut out for performance. I've been itching for a toy. That might be the solution for my need for speed, fuel economy be damned.

 

thanks for all the great info. I am considering a 3.7 also. Does your truck have the 18 inch wheels ?

 

Yes, my truck has the 18" wheels. It was part of the STX decor package for 2011. The STX is basicly a well dressed XL, which I am greatful for.

 

That is about the same as what I get with my 2011 Supercab XLT 4x4 with the 5.0L with 3.73 rear end. I have about 14K miles on it now. Putting a 4 people in it and filling up the bed with dive gear does bring it down to about 19mpg on the Highway. They seem to be very optimized for being empty.. and some different brands of gas make a difference.

 

i got home from work yesterday and wth there was a 12 F150 Scab in my driveway, looked exactly like my 04 but newer of course. It is a rental my wife has for her Mazda is in the body shop.
We had got one of these in at work last week so I already knew the 3.7 had a lot more grunt than my 4.6.
Anyhew, the mpg calculator says 16 yesterday but I reset it this morning on the way in to work (I hijacked the rental today). It is about 12 miles to work, and mid point the mpg read 34 mpg. It averaged out at 28 by the time I parked it.
This is misleading I assume, since it takes more data to have accurate averages but wholly cow I was ready to call the bank at the 28 mpg!!

It has been said that brand gas makes a big difference, Let me reiterate IT DOES absolutley.
I had been getting 12-14 mpg in my 04 and just by adding BG44k to a tank and using a certain brand gas it got 19 -20 last weekend.

great thread !

 

I filled up today before heading home from our mini vacation. Forgot to reset the lie-o-meter at the gas station. I'd gone about a mile before I realized that I hadn't reset. When I did it read 99.9mpg for about 20 seconds. It gradually dropped untill it reached about 29mpg. It stayed there for a while but every time I had to give it throttle it'd drop a little. After about 30mi it was at about 21mpg. After about four hours and over 200mi it's reading 17.5. Was towing our little trailer too.



Alright then, more data. I filled up before we left for our mini vacation. The tank before had more rural highway driving. I got a 21.36 with a 20.8 on the lie-0-meter. As I mentioned above, filled up before we left upstate NH got a 18.98 with a 18.2 on the lie-o-meter. Pulled the little trailer from home to the campground. Then a bunch of driving around up there. Lot of hills that require one, two, sometimes three gear downshifts. Not bad mpg considering.

 

Checking in again. Gassed up yesterday. It's been a while. Went about 420 miles, got a 19.15, with a 19.1 onboard. This tank was the trip home from NH with the little trailer plus mostly around town driving. Not ideal conditions for mpg in the 20's. Since filling up, and having put a couple hundred miles on the truck, the onboard is reading about 20.5.

I'm going to admit to anyone reading that I got the itch for a V8. I was starting to think that, though I had reasons for getting the V6, I really should have more power. So, I looked online, for a truck that was essentially identical to the one that I have but with the 5.0. Well, I found one. It was a 2011, identical to the one that I have but for the 5.0 and tow package. I drove about a hundred miles to Lowell MA to check it out. I went on a test drive with the sales person. I didn't really get on the gas hard. I don't drive like that most of the time. What I noticed is that under normal driving conditions, at low rpm's, the 5.0 didn't feel any different than the 3.7.

It would be nice to have the grunt of a V8 but gas prices aint what they used to be and I'm not as young as I used to be. The numbers didn't work for me, and I really didn't think that there was enough of an advantage, in my case, for upgrading to the V8. I guess for now, I'm still happy with the 3.7.

 

I reckon your lackluster experience with the 5.0 is due to its high-strung nature. Peak torque doesn't come on until 4250 RPM. I gather you'd have to really get on the gas to feel any appreciable difference.

 

Look out, Ford - the 2013 Ram will have a 305 hp 3.6 liter V-6 with 8 speed auto that gets EPA 18/25 mpg and does 0-60 in 7.6 seconds.

 

Witton and gang, I rented a 2012 150 crewcab 4x4 two weeks ago for the weekend. It had the 5.0. I am pretty sure it had the 3:55 rear end. Spent most of time on highway and averaged 19 and at times 20. Much better than my tundra at 15-16 mpg.

It did not have off the line ump like my tundra but a 4:30 rear end will do that. Very soft ride also. I was a bit annoyed by the speedometer as the dial is thick and the number close enough together that you could never really tell just how fast you were going. Am I going 66, 69 or 69 mph? I would have to lean forward to look. It appears there is room for a bigger gauge.