2018 Ford F-150 Diesel First Drive Review: High torque, high mileage
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When it comes to towing it is tough to beat a diesel truck and in the past if you wanted to tow big with a Ford you had to upgrade to a super-duty.
Well, that is not the case any longer.
I've come out here to the beautiful state of Colorado so come along with me as we take a Rocky Mountain ride In the Ford F-150 3 Liter Power Stroke diesel.
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So when it comes to towing there's a lot of factors involved.
Now, Ford says that this new diesel engine can tow a max of 11,400 pounds but That is with a 4x2 with a supercab and a 145" wheel base and a 355 gear ratio in the rear end.
If you bust that up to a 4x4 that's 11,100 pounds of max tow capacity and max payload is just over 2000 pounds.
Now, those are some really really good numbers.
This new V6 Power Stroke diesel is pumping out 255 horse power and 440 pound feet of torque.
And Ford has made a few tweaks to make this more suitable for towing.
So the ten speed automatic transmission has been re-geared to take advantage of all that torque.
And they've had a mechanical fan in place of an electric fan That should push more cool air over the engine, so when you're towing in hot weather, you won't overheat.
Now, here in Colorado it's about 37 degrees, so I can't really test that for you.
But one thing that Ford did not switch up are the brakes.
Now right now I'm towing just over 5,000 pounds behind me with this horse trailer, which is not that much, so I'm okay with these stock brakes.
But If I'm going to tow 11,000 pounds yeah I might want some bigger brakes.
So I'm coming up on a downhill here in Colorado and I'm going to see if this transmission actually does what it says it's going to do.
I want to keep my speed nice and slow so I don't have to use my brakes too much It's keeping me at a good 55, rpms are pretty low, slowing me down.
So, it's really nice I don't have to worry so much about my breaks the transmission does a lot of the slowing down.
But what goes down must come up so right now i am in 8th gear at 55, just went down to 7, so it's really doing it's best to keep me at the speed I want by shifting really quickly and really smoothly.
Sometimes you might think that ten gears is a lot but Ford really knows how to do these multi-gear transmissions like this.
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All right, so what I wanna know, though, is how this baby does off th line.
So I'm coming up to a red line here, slow it all down, it's come to a complete stop And here we go.
Easy on that throttle don't spin out those tires hall.
There we go, pretty strong.
Yeah I could totally merge on the highway with this thing, it's super strong.
That's 40 miles per hour right there, 45.
50, no problem, that's what torque does for you, baby.
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And for those of you who might be a tiny bit nervous about backing up a trailer, well Ford has got a trailer backup assist for you.
And we've got a full separate video on that.
So be sure to check it out.
Now Ford already offers a 3.5 liter V6 Ecoboost engine that puts out more horsepower, more torque, and actually has a better max tow ratings.
So why pay the $4,000 premium for the diesel?
Well it's all about ease of towing and those coveted MPGs.
The Ecoboost is going to get about 25 miles per gallon on the highway, while the diesel is going to get a whopping 30, but that's just for the 4x2 model This switch it up to the four by four, the echo boost gets about twenty three on the highway and the diesel will get twenty five.
And that's pretty much in line of what the ram a fifteen hundred eco diesel will get you.
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.The addition of the diesel engine brings a total power plant option for the Ford f one fifty up to six.
But if you want the diesel, you're going to have to purchase a Lareat trim or above.
Which means that this guy starts at $45,420.
But when you think about how much trucks are going for these days.
It's a pretty good price.
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