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Hey guys, I’m ready for that article a lot of y’all been waiting for. How does this thing tow? I know everyone got a million reasons why they buy a diesel, but that’s probably the number one reason as far as towing power. Nowadays, technology has brought us up to speed on gas powered and diesel as far as they can. Uh, with all the choking the EPA is doing to these manufacturers.
Um, so about this truck, if you’re new to the channel, I just got out of a 24 HO Ford F350, and I liked it very much.
I was pleasantly surprised. My kids been doing a bad job exercising them little pups, taking them to the shop, letting them uh wander around for a little bit, get their energy out for the curious ones. Why am I towing with two in the bed of the truck about this article ? So, I only got give or take 4,000 mi, but in the last few days, I had the opportunity to uh to to do uh different kinds of towing.
I mean, I did fairly heavy towing, probably about 23 24,000 lbs behind this truck. I need to post that article . I’ve done about 175 on the dot. Need to post that article . Um I’ve I’ve put really small pallets in the bed of this truck.
So, I got an allaround good uh good uh idea how this truck behaves and everything. So, in this article , I will talk about fuel mileage. I will talk about something that a lot of people don’t.
Uh a fellow YouTuber talks about first gear lockup. Let me show you guys something.
A lot of people, well, majority of people don’t tow heavy that they need first gear lockup. But let me show you something. So, this is the horsepower retarding horsepower, right? That’s the exhaust brake. You see that exhaust brake?
Same thing, right? So, I’m going put it in first gear. So, that’s my first gear limiting factor. It’s not a lock up, it’s a limiting factor. I want to show you guys that if you were to use this truck heavily, right?
Off the brakes. Would y’all look at that? Oh, it’s beautiful. Guys, we need to talk about an exhaust brake in a different article , but I’mma spill the beans. So, this thing, phenomenal exhaust brake on the surface, it’s very chill.
It’s very easy, but when it needs it, it reels it in. So, we’ll talk about that another time. Oh, I forgot to say mention this manual. So, when I get off the throttle, like now, it’ll it’s going to kick on the exhaust brake and it slows it down quite a for the curious ones. All the way to 9 miles an hour on the second gear.
Well, so yes, it does lock up first gear when you’re going down a hill. I’m going to try to simulate uphill, but the computer might interfere with it. So, what I’m going to do is apply a little bit of brakes and then throttle and see see if the computer’s going to let it lock up. No, it doesn’t lock up first gear. I’m going to try to do it this way.
So, keep it at 2,000 and give it 30% throttle. No, it does not lock up first gear. At least the computer doesn’t seem to uh lock up on the XL.
On the DEL, it does lock up first gear and exhaust brakes. It is beautiful.
You guys see it? It locks it up and brings it down. Phenomenal. So, we got that out of the way. You are going to tow heavy.
If you are going to tow heavy, phenomenal, right? Next thing, you got the exhaust brake. Super important. Actually, I do appreciate uh the guy stressing it, right? He might overdo other areas, but that area is super important when you’re going down a hill.
Believe me, I I know what you talking, brother. It is stressful when you’re riding them gear them uh you know, you’re in first or second gear and you’re riding them brakes because the exhaust brake isn’t kicking off. This exhaust brakes out of the question. This exhaust brake blows the Ford out of the water on the on the manual part of it. Well, I’ I’ve beat that topic to death, but also on the electrical, meaning you got your set cruise control and you’re going down a hill.
Um, so yeah, I’m going to spill the beans. My brakes weren’t that greatest with the 23 24 if anything.
They’re really on the weak side. And this exhaust brake just manhandled that load. And I was impressed.
I didn’t realize it how much power this thing has because this exhaust brake is so phenomenal. Um, you know, I got in, got the thing loaded, took off, and I’m just like, you know, it just seems like on low speeds I’m applying a lot of brake pressure. So, I shut down the gain completely and I applied it and the difference wasn’t that great. So, if you tow heavy, this is a whole different level of comfort. My regular guys know this thing acts like a mini semi-truck.
I said it when it was in the production, when they announced this engine. I very much like this engine. Oh, first impression I got and my friend as well could uh testify to that, Caleb. Uh first impression of this truck, miniature tractor, that’s the it’s just it’s tight.
It’s put together.
Tight meaning snug the suspension. Um it it doesn’t have like those power, but it has very uh narrow and linear power as far as uh applying it going forward. Um so like the Ford, it’s, you know, 30% of throttle really chill past that. It’s rocking. It’s hot rodding.
This thing is just it’s working. That’s all it is. It’s linear. It goes up to a certain extent and that’s it. It will not give you boastful.
It won’t it won’t just blow up on you and take off. Uh it’s very controlled power. Now when this thing feels resistance, let me tell you when this thing feels resistance, the torque management is very aggressive. It’s very phenomenal. I have to give it more throttle input empty than I have to go load it.
And that is freaking awesome. It shine like that. Like it was it shine bright like a star. You know what I mean? When you hook up when you when I hooked up that 23 24 behind this thing, this thing was a rock star.
It just freaking took off. does not have the top end power of the Ford Ho, but it so when it comes to towing, let let me cut down to the chase. When it comes to towing, much rather tow this thing. Very relaxed experience, very nimble, very put together. Um, when you’re trying to hot rod it up a hill and and be play king of the hill, just doesn’t have the the the deep power, the a lot of power, right?
Like I did a test one to one get ratio going up the hill. Ford just had more power period.
Same load, same transmission or excuse me, same transmission, same load, uh same trailer, same uh speed. Everything’s the same. The only variable was the truck itself.
And I was not able to pull it out 1:1 ratio. You’re going to scream, “Well, you have 342s and your Ford had 355s.” Yeah, but my Ford had 35s and this thing has 33 and a halfs right now. So, it’s a wash. Does not have the the bobstrous power of the Ford that.
Outside of that, this thing hands down is the truck to go. I’m not a hot rodder when it comes to towing. And back to the Ford. That’s the main reason I don’t buy it for the fleet. It’s just too absurd, right?
It won’t hurt itself. Later tests, which I never recorded. I should have recorded. I try to give it a throttle like I feel like some of my drivers drive full on or full off, you know. Um, and you know, just nothing more, you know.
It did not hurt itself. It didn’t it didn’t stress itself to the moon. It didn’t do a whole lot more than what I was already dealing with it, you know, what I was working with. So, the whole torque management is quite the programming they have implemented in these new trucks. So, back to this truck.
I would rather tow with this truck. hands down. Um, at 24,000 lbs behind it, I had to go into fifth gear instead of keeping sixth with with this truck.
Sixth gears, it’s one to one. Um, you still still rock it out of there.
It’s still moving. Something something tells me here in about 6 months they’re going to update the ECU and the TCM on these things uh to perfect it and they will push more power out of these things. And here’s why. This thing has so much uh ability to cool off. It just toys with it.
The only time I see it go deep into the cooling off ability is when I was towing the, you know, low to mid 20s behind the truck. When I say 24,000 lbs behind this truck, I’m talking about trailer load everything behind everything that’s hooked to it. Um, not the truck itself. You still got to add the truck, right? 24 + 8 that puts you at 32 g on this thing.
It handled it handled it just fine. Now, let’s talk about fuel mileage. The fuel mileage, um, you know, when they were announcing better efficiency, you know, power, fuel, I mean, obviously they’re marketing, you know, what are they going to tell you? Oh, it went worse. No, but let me tell you, the fuel mileage is better.
If you drive a 24 and a 25, the the fuel mileage is going to be significantly better in percentage. you know, on the surface, you know, one or two miles to the gallon is not a big deal, but when you do your math anyways, so this thing, guys, towing is all over the board. Don’t don’t run with it, right? Every trailer, every load, it varies. But generally speaking, I average 135 with this empty trailer.
It’s a 5,000lb trailer. Nothing special about it. And let me tell you, this thing brings in 1445 all day. I feel like it would have gone a little better if I would idle it so much, but that’s just part of the use, right? Typically how I use my trucks.
You know, every 3 hours I take a a 10-minute break. Um, you know, if I’m driving all day, the end of the day I’ll take lunch and flip around, right? So, you got to be smart with yourself. You can’t push yourself till you crash.
If you want to go long, you have a steady pace that you’re comfortable with, you take breaks.
So, one of my brakes was supposed to be a 20 to 30 minute break and it turned out to like a 4550 minute brakes and the truck ended up idling there because I don’t shut off my truck once I get out of it. Like I say, you know, let it run for 10 minutes before you shut it down. And I was towing 125 on the on this trailer actually in 5,000. So, 175 behind this truck. So, 10 minute break uh 15 minute break, 10 minute I don’t know big deal.
I’m not going to walk back and forth to shut it down in five minutes. So, I figured I’d be okay. Nope. Panera Bread decided to fall asleep on me. Drafter wasn’t that busy.
I was the only customer inside and they took 45 to 50 minutes, which is kind of ridiculous. Um, so ended up idling that much and knocked down with fuel mileage. Uh, oh, I talked from loaded to empty. Okay, so let’s finish the conversation. If we’re empty, I could bring in 14 145 all day.
When I was when I started talking about the Panera thing, I was bringing in 126.
If my memory serves me right, I brought in 126 to that parking lot, but once I left, I was high 11s and by the time I delivered and I arrived to my destination, I was, I think, dead smack at 12. To me, that’s phenomenal. You know, 175 behind the truck and 12. Uh, that would be a 10 mile to the gallon deal on the Ford all day.
Oh, let’s finish up this mileage. Um, guys, clearly this thing does not have a lot of miles.
It hasn’t even, you know, broke the 4,000, but I’m just calling it 4,000 for simplicity reasons. At 4,000 miles, right? Well, it was more like 2200 miles at the time.
Excuse me. I was doing the 24,000 lb behind this truck. Uh, it was somewhere between 23 and 24. I’ll just call it 235. Uh that load yielded on the Ford.
First trip my merry serves me right. It was bringing in 75 to eight bracket and then on the second trip I caught 8.5. Same trip uh same load, same trailer but two different trips. Uh this thing brought in just crested 10 miles to the gallon and that is phenomenal guys.
I absolutely love it.
Uh it’s a very relaxed truck. It it it just kind of one of the things they need to refine is this this whole cruise control thing, right? It’s a mile behind, but all of a sudden it’s dropping two gear or a gear or two and it’s trying to aggressively catch up. That’s stupid.
Uh Ram needs, but that’s all in the making, right? It’s first release year. Um this truck’s very relaxed. It’s no it’s in no hurry to rip itself a new one uh once it gets going.
Not the initial entry point with the cruise control.
Um, I don’t know why it does this. I feel like it needs to hold out seventh gear a little bit longer. It’s eager to go into eighth gear. Eighth gear. You guys see that right there?
Right. Uh, 62 mph. What is that? 14 145 on the RPM. I plugged into the OBD2 because you see that hockey puck or hockey stick looking thing.
The RPM is actually the blue area, not the white. I mean, if you want to get nitty-gritty. So, it’s not on the front. that’s on the back of the white is we’re as accurate as it gets. So that’s 1400450 on the RPM right now according to my So here, let me let me show you.
Let me put the boost on. Right, we got a little hill to climb. I’ll show you guys what I mean. Most likely it’s going to drop it into seventh. Um, it just idles along in eighth.
It doesn’t take on a lot of load in eighth gear.
It it it downshifts. It gets out of eighth pretty quick, but it sticks to seventh pretty hard. Like, it moves on seventh gear. Um, so there you have it.
I know this article is allaround experience, but as I said, million reasons to buy a diesel, but that’s probably number one. So, that’s what this ve uh this article is about, about this vehicle towing experience. Um, the the jumping back and forth between seven and eighth. Um, I think what they’re gonna do is they’ll just turn up a little bit on the eighth, but I definitely understand what they did. It finally dawned on me.
So, this is how they get their fuel mileage. Oh, jeez. Stater decided to check me out here. Well, it is what it is. Well, guys, I think this guy might be pulling me out, so hang tight.
Well, guys, the guy decided to pull up next to me, check out my truck, and uh do those things. So, anyways, so that’s how they get their fuel mileage.
This thing really works first through seventh gear, but eighth grade, it doesn’t it doesn’t uh get out of it to the reason, I honestly believe is they don’t want to put much load uh they don’t want to put a high straight on the motor at lower PM. This thing will really work itself even in eighth gear after 1700. Man, what is going on?
Excuse me, guys. I uh So, with that being said, I don’t want to talk much about the negatives. It It’s just not the article about it. This thing has plenty of issues. It has not left me high and dry, but there’s few few concerning videos.
Watch out. I’ll release a article here in the next few days. Um, it’s, you know, it starts with all of a sudden triggering my tailgates open. I’ve taken two right hand turns and it triggers the DF. It literally did it about an hour ago.
It just shows you zero DF. Says they’re going to be in limp mode in 200 miles uh to a limit of 5 miles an hour and then for the next two hours it slowly grows on you.
If you look at it, it’s dead middle, right? What is that? 30% here.
Hopefully by the end of this article I could I could report to you it’s going to slowly grow because the fuel or the DF tank is about 3/4 full. Not a whole lot to go, but you’ll definitely see it move. So, this thing has plenty of issues. But as far as towing goes, all around experience, I absolutely love this truck. Um, I had an issue with the fuel pump on it and they fixed it really quick.
So, with that kind of attitude and that kind of pace, I think they uh I feel comfortable that they’ll they’ll get the nitty-gritty figured out here in the next little bit because the DF thing is I don’t think they’ll drag their feet on it. It’s definitely hard to chase down cuz it happened twice in 4,000 mi, but it it’s there and you could uh both times it happened after taking a righthand turn. So, I was just like taking a righthand turn as a and as I’m coming out of it, it’s like ding, you’re out of dev. All right, I know I’m not. First time I was a full tank and this time was 3/4 of a tank.
So, it’s definitely doing its thing. I’ll get under there one of these days and check the connectors.
But overall, let’s let’s talk about uh ride quality, specifically control. This is something that this thing uh this truck really stood out to me. The steering components are are more honed in than the Ford.
Ford has this floaty feeling, especially with the stock tires. The over uh the offset and a little bit bigger tires definitely uh aided the issue quite a bit, but it didn’t get rid of. This thing is like a it’s like has a heavy motor or heavier motor. Not that much heavier than the Fords, but it’s planted. It’s it acts The body of the truck doesn’t push it around like the it’s in control.
It’s it’s well it’s well planted. That’s the best way I can say. The Ford kind of is floaty, but this one’s less planted uh firmly planted. The front end got fixed with uh the the way the front end handles and and the suspension with the springs I put in here, the leveling springs, and it gave the suspension more travel and phenomenal. But the rear end is still a one ton.
It looks pretty hard when it’s empty.
It’s not unbearable, but it’s it’s noticeable. You know, the front end’s like and the back end’s bing. The best way I can explain it. Uh front end eats up the potholes and the back end bucks you.
That’s just the best way I could say. Um so that’s the ride quality. Quiet. I think it’s a wash. It’s very these these vehicles are very quiet.
Uh they’re just couldn’t be happier. Yeah. You know, sometimes I wish I had a 8ft bed. I had to haul a couple pallets and I had to stack them. Luckily, they’re really small pallets, but if the pallets were any any of size, I’d probably end up hauling a trailer.
But I was able to stack them. Anyways, so with that being said, why I love this truck so much is because it gives me the edge and fuel mileage.
It gives me the confidence when I’m towing. Um, I’m not going to say that the Ford was bad or anything. It just I think the mechanical uh exhaust brake and the depth of this exhaust brake is pretty pretty strong.
I think that’s what I enjoy a lot. When I get off the throttle, it’s giving me a it’s giving me something I could count on. I think that’s the best way I could put it. And then when it feels pushed, it freaking kicks in. And the best way I could explain it here, let me show you.
So I’ll all I have boost and exhaust brake.
Well, about to have exhaust brakes, right? So that’s exhaust brake. And you got couple PSI. That’s just normal state.
Let’s call it stage one. When this thing feels pushed and it’s trying to work it, man, this thing starts boosting like 10 11 PSI and you feel it. It it’s not a matter of is it doing this or is it that. No, it it really starts working. So it it it does it in the background.
There’s nothing you could do to select first or second stage. You have your settings, you have your manual, you have your auto. I’m not talking about that. I’m specifically talking it’s like torque management but in its own way. It’s phenomenal.
I absolutely love it. So um I think that’s the it’s the it’s the steady power and the exhaust brake. I feel a lot comfortable with it. It makes a world of difference, guys. The truckers know exactly what I’m talking about.
What good are your Jake brakes for them to kick on when they feel like they need a kick on? That’s trash.
That ain’t no semi-truck. That’s a joke. A a a trucker wants his Jake’s on when he wants his Jake’s on, then off when they want them off, right?
So, I I can’t stress that enough. When you’re tow heavy, how big of a deal it is. But, you know, the service brakes are stronger on the Ford, so they’re compensating that way. And when you’re on when you are on the brakes pretty hard, that exhaust brake does kick in 80% of the time pretty good. So, I I’d want to I would want to avoid that, you know?
I don’t want my brakes piping hot in the I don’t want the exhaust brakeing my brakes. I want my brakes aiding my exhaust brake.
That’s the best way I could put it. Stay off that brake pedal as much as I can. That’s a huge deal for me.
Anyways, fellas here. um just the allaround experience. It’s not just the the exhaust brake and it’s a huge deal to have the exhaust brake when you need it. Um the fuel mileage is you know has the edge and this transmission the way it translates the power in a relaxed state. So let’s just say the first 30%.
Uh it’s very efficient. When you go past 30% it starts wrapping out the gears pretty well past 25% throttle starts wrapping out the gears pretty high. Um, but yeah, I need to release the Ford article , guys. That’s all I’m going to say. I need to make another Ford.
We have another Ford on order. And uh I need to share that article with you guys. Been beating around the bush for a while now. That Ford’s been on order since late January, if that tells you anything. It’s been a long time coming, but um stick around on this channel.
I’ll uh hopefully soon we’ll have some good Ford content.
Anyways, as always, may the good Lord bless you. May you almighty fine day and uh let me know in the comment section what other topics you guys want to hear me talk about on this trip. Ciao. Bye
