I know that the Ford Expedititon is one mean tower with the 5.4L but the 4.6L is a good deal cheaper but towing with a boat that weighs in at 6900 lbs it is not much more than a Beetle Bugs acceleration which is what it feels like. I am here to tell every body who is considering a 4.6L as a tower! Buyer Beware!!!!!!


F350 555( Find me on the Excursion Fourum! )

 

Yeah I know. Found out hard way.

Good luck...OT

 

4.6 tows quite nicely if you stay in your limits, of course an expedition is a pretty heavy truck and Ford doesn't expect you to tow 3 tons with a 4.6 in an expedition, I tow just under 3 tons and not a problem of course I set my truck up to handle the task!

 

The 5.4L costs about $600 more than the 4.6L and doesn't cost much in fuel economy (1mpg penalty), especially towing. The 4.6L is a goo motor, especially for 2wd pickups that weight less and have a little less drivetrain loss.

 

Little boats are just fine--mine goes 1500 total, that with a full load of camping gear in the bed of my 150 is no problem for my 4.6. Granted I had that in mind when I opted for a 4.6

 

Mine with 285s, 3" body lift, and 3.55 did OK pulling about 6000lbs. It took me 1-2 miles to get up to speed and hills were not good, but once I could get rolling it wasn't too bad. With stock tires and 3.73 gears I could see it being a little better, but by no means spectacular. That is the reason that I traded off my F150 for the F250. The 4.6L can't ever pull like a PSD. Worst part about the 4.6L was 8-9mpg while towing, especially at almost $2/gal. Though my PSD is only getting about 13mpg towing the same load as rough calculations.

 

I tow a 19' sterndrive boat on a heavy tandem axle. With fuel, toys, etc, my towed weight is 4000-4500. My 4.6, SCab, Lariat, Auto, 3.55ls handles it well, but doesn't have great acceleration on the interstate. All-in-all, it does what I need it to do and does it well. Maybe my next one will be a 5.4, but who knows.

 

I've owned a '97 4.6, a '99 5.4 (PI) and now a '02 4.6, so I think I've tried most everything. (By the way, all of them were regular cab, short box, 3.55 LS, with automatics and trailer and ORP packages.) Yes, the 5.4 tows a ton better, but the 2 MPG penalty during everyday driving adds up at my 25,000 miles a year. And I don't care how much you tow, almost nobody tows more than 5% of the time.

My point? I tow reasonably often with my 4.6 and it's decent. (I tow between 2,500 and 6,000 lbs. The 4.6 is not great, but it's decent. Want to go faster? Press the right pedal harder. Does it go as fast as a 5.4? No, but I can live with it. In fact, I've learned that if you get the 4.6 up over 3,000 RPM's, it really wakes up. I would suggest that you need to decide where your trade off is going to be. Is it worse gas mileage all the time, or worse acceleration some of the time? The answer will be different for everybody.

By the way, I've also towed with a company owned '03 F-350 with the new Powerstroke. It tows 12,000 lbs like a dream. Of course for 45 grand, it should.

 

I tow a 24' enclosed racecar trailer with our '02 4.6 2wd. The trailer weighs appx. 7500# with the racecar in it, along with a full toolbox, generator, compressor, EZ-up and all the crap that goes along.

Aside from steep hills, it tows just fine. I think it would do a TON better with 3.73's (currently 3.31), but I haven't convinced the boss of that just yet...and she drives it to work every day.

Mileage while towing isn't all that bad. We did LA to phoenix and back (800+ miles) on three tanks (65-70 gallons)...which is better than my friend's V10 and better than most of the PS diesels I've towed with.

We're going to Houston and Dallas in a few weeks...that'll be a good test.

 

I agree with "2stroked". Its no super duty but it gets the job done. The only modifications that I have made are getting rid of the factory muffler, I maintained the 2.5" exaust with rear exit, and changed the rear end from the factory 3.55 to a set of Ford Racing 4.10 gears. The exhaust bumped up my economy about 2-3 mpg and the gears knocked me back 1 mpg. The bottom line, the 4.6 with the 4.10 gears tows my TT like a champ. There is a couple of pulls going over Snoqualmi pass in the Cascade mts when I'm slowed to 45, so I pull to the right and ride with the big rigs.

 

i have a 4.6 and it pulls my 17ft camper all loaded up just fine after the work that i have put into it. can hardly tell it is back there.

 

dewalt17: I have almost the same setup going, Question?: Did the underdrive pully gain you that much

 

yes it did seem to make a difference to me. i noticed a good amount more get up and go than it did before! i would reccomend this to anyone with a 4.6.

 

Sorry I got off post like that and Thanks Dewalt17,

Towing with a 4.6 Ford F-150:

I tow a 7000lb (dry weight) 25ft 5th wheel with my F-150. And I live at ~7000ft asl and I have to pull over a 10000ft pass to get anywhere. If your truck is not towing the way you expected you might look at how your truck is set up.

Dewalt17 and Myself have set up our trucks in a similar way for a reason. It works! A common misconception of towing is that you need a ton of horsepower, yes that does help however a well balanced (Torque/Horsepower/Braking/Loading package) will always be better.

Granted a F-150 will never tow like a F-350 6L desiel but all things considered it is a very capable tow vehicle.

 

Dewalt17 and Mac_app...What's the height of those tires you run? I'm curious on how the height (diameter) and the 4.56s affect the final drive number of the trans and your fwy cruising speed. I have a 4.6, stock height tires and plan on snowmobile trips with a small 2 place open. As light as that seems, I still have issues with long grades and being left in the dust by my PSD buddies ; )

Recap:
Open up the breathing
Open up the exhaust
Taller tires with taller gearing to compensate

What's been your experience with that Hypertech tuner Dewalt17?