My 2001 has finally broke beyond what I am willing to fix so I am in the market for a new f-150. I am seeing alot of the 3.5l v6. How is that engine for towing. I have a camper that is around 7000 lbs fully loaded. My old f150 with the 4.6 had trouble with it. I am having problems seeing how a 3.5l can tow as much as they say it can easily.

Does anybody have one and tow a camper with it? I would be interested in what you are experiencing with this engine.

I am looking at the supercrew 4x4, hoping to make the jump Friday or Saturday.

Thanks

 

That's what the 3.5 excels at - it's turbocharged. It has more HP and torque than the 5.0 V-8. I'd recommend you look for one with at least 3.55 gears, if not 3.73. Max tow package would be a plus. Note that when towing heavy, Ford recommends premium fuel.

 

Intersting, I've never heard of Ford recomending Premium fuel for towing. I Tow the same weight with my 2012 5.0 Supercrew with no issues. Im wondeing how better it will do with Premium fuel?

 

The premium fuel recommendation is only for the EcoBoost when towing. The 5.0 engine is 87 octane all day, every day.

 

As an EB owner, the premium fuel requirement is one of those 'easy to forget' things. I fill up my truck, go hook up my trailer, THEN realize I just filled with 87. Good thing I'm a flatlander and not REALLY pulling hard!

I suppose a can of octane booster will suffice in a pinch, but I just tow slower when I've neglected to put in premium. Never had an issue yet.

I second the 3.55 or 3.73 recommendation if towing is more than 10% of your trucks intended purpose. If you tow the trailer to the lake 3 times a year, its not as big of a deal of course.

 

Also, a properly equipped 5.0 should tow 7000# fairly well.

"Properly equipped" also refers to the 3.5 Ecoboost - you want the highest (numerical) axle ratio you can find, and more importantly, the highest rated payload capacity you can find. A 7000# trailer would be pushing close to 1000# on the tongue, and if you have several people in the truck and some stuff in the bed, you will be exceeding truck rated GVWR before you know it.

You don't necessarily need a 8200 GVWR HD Payload truck, but the "max tow" package wouldn't be a bad idea if you can find one.

Here's a chart on Ford's site with payload and towing info:

http://www.ford.com/trucks/f150/specifications/payload/

 

nevermind...irrelevant post...

 

I've not towed with mine yet, but I'm looking forward to doing it!! I've got 500 miles on it now, and it's only a #5000 TT, but I ended up with a MAX TOW Eco with 3.73 gears!

The cool thing about the Eco is it gets it's full torque numbers at 2500 rpm! The 5.0 needs to rev above 5 grand I think it is..

Just running around town and getting into the boost, you can really feel it come on at 2500 rpms.. This thing is going to haul my trailer a lot better than my old 97 with the 5.4 ever could (and it wasn't that bad of a tow with the 97!)

I don't think you can get the MAX TOW without the Eco, but maybe that was only with the 2013's? I saw a 2014 with the 6.2l in it and it wasn't a Lariat or a Platinum either, so maybe Ford has changed their engine choices now??

Anyway, good luck with the search! I found mine pretty quick and it had everything I wanted and it was still new and at a decent price...

Mitch

 

Check out the link I posted - it shows all the available payload and towing specs.

The 6.2 is showing a 11k towing package available.

 

Thanks for all the info. I am going to look at the 2013 as well as the 2014 starting to look tomorrow. I don't tow very often 10-15 times a year and usually under 300 miles round trip but I know my old 97 4.6 was a dog at interstate speeds(if I could get it up that fast) so I was worried about the 3.7. Sounds like if I get the right gear ratio it should handle anything I currently own without any problems. I'm going to send that chart to my phone so I can reference it while I am looking.

 

Went with the 5.0L. I couldn't find any 3.5L with anything but the 3.31 gears. Probably would have been fine but I got allot more truck,options wise, for the same money by going with the 5.0L. Thanks for all the information it was a great help.

 

U will love the 5.0 I have a 13 lariat and love the truck great power and very smooth

 

What gears, what tow rating, and what payload rating?

 

Gears 1.55
GVWR - 7350
gcwr - 13500
payload - 1700

When I pull the camper other than people there is the dog and 1 row of firewood in the truck everything else goes in the camper. I went back and checked my weigh in numbers and it was fully loaded 4450 lb not the 5000 I remembered. So by my numbers I am still a good ton under the combined vehicle weight. Hope I figured it correctly.

If anybody is interested, heard it mentioned that ford is coming out with a 2.x eco-boost in the coming years.

 

For what it is worth I believe both trucks I drove both the eco and the 5L would have fit my needs and pulled anything I wanted them to. But the 5L was less money about $1000 and I got leather,captains chairs, the tailgate step, rear camera, and HID headlights. Those are all options that I will enjoy on a day to day basis which made my decision fairly easy.

There wasn't a max tow f-150 in the XLT package that I could afford at any of my local ford dealers. All of there max tow packages were in the models above the xlt.

Thanks again for all the comments, I love this forum everybody is so helpful.