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Best Half-Ton Truck For 2018 Test


RyanB

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1 hour ago, oldjeep said:

And do they find that this is with stock sized tires, or is the breakage mainly in the axles where they have taller, heavier tires with no regearing that put more of a strain on the gearset and shafts?

Always funny to see someone stick a set of 37's on a truck with 3.21 gears in it.

I’m honestly not sure. 

I’m gonna say probably not because I was told they add air bags and other towing enhancements, that still lead to the weakest link over time. 

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2 minutes ago, Cole2001 said:

I’m honestly not sure. 

I’m gonna say probably not because I was told they add air bags and other towing enhancements, that still lead to the weakest link over time. 

If you are adding air bags to a modern 1/2 ton then you either levelled it or are over loading.  Any of the big 3 can handle a bunch of tongue weight without needing any help. 

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Interesting read.  For what it is worth, the commentary on the F150 pretty much matches my experience with my 2018 XLT... 

  • Love the 10 speed tranny.   Tows up steep grades to the lake easily. 
  • GREAT mileage for a truck around town when not towing.   Mixed Im getting >20 mpg calculated (not computer).   Totally crappy mileage towing, but I expected that. 
  • Tows OK... I have had a couple of experiences where it swayed a little more than I would like, more than my old 3/4 ton Chevy (I dont think it ever swayed on the 2500)
  • I have max tow, no concerns whatsoever about pulling the BU with it

I have just over 10K on it now, not a ton of towing miiles.   No material issues with it.   I also do not have any issue with seat comfort, but I havent driven it cross country yet either.

 

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7 hours ago, UWSkier said:

In my 06 Titan, the difference in MPG was about 12 for E85 and 16 for 87 octane.  Would be interesting to know if the discrepancy is still that high as compression ratios have increased and engine management logic has gotten better.  E85 used to need to be at least $0.60/gal cheaper to break even on my old truck.

I think the mileage also depends on the amount of Ethanol in the fuel.  Unless you are measuring it at each fill up, you may not get consistent results.  It can be anywhere from 51% - 85% here.  The less Ethanol, the better the mileage.

7 hours ago, UWSkier said:

Can you still find cheap E85 by you?  For a few years in Wisconsin, there were some stations that would sell it for about $1 less per gallon, which when regular 87 was hovering around the $4 mark was a great buy.  Those all went out of business.  I haven't seen E85 once in the year I've been in Arizona.

E85 is easy to get here.  I pass by multiple stations with it daily.  Typically $.80 or a little more cheaper than premium.  I've considered converting my BMW to E85, but fear expensive injector damage (to the tune of $1200 in parts, and that's price shopping) and this car has pretty fragile injectors.  Also fear my high pressure fuel pump won't keep up on straight E85.  Otherwise it is a quick DME flash and a $300 low pressure fuel pump upgrade.  I would save money in overall fuel costs and make another 30-40RWHP but haven't been willing to pull the trigger on the conversion.  The GM stuff just requires a readily available harness, GM flex fuel sensor and a re-flash.

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19 hours ago, JeffC said:

Interesting read.  For what it is worth, the commentary on the F150 pretty much matches my experience with my 2018 XLT... 

  • Love the 10 speed tranny.   Tows up steep grades to the lake easily. 
  • GREAT mileage for a truck around town when not towing.   Mixed Im getting >20 mpg calculated (not computer).   Totally crappy mileage towing, but I expected that. 
  • Tows OK... I have had a couple of experiences where it swayed a little more than I would like, more than my old 3/4 ton Chevy (I dont think it ever swayed on the 2500)
  • I have max tow, no concerns whatsoever about pulling the BU with it

I have just over 10K on it now, not a ton of towing miiles.   No material issues with it.   I also do not have any issue with seat comfort, but I havent driven it cross country yet either.

 

This is similar to my experience.  I've had 4 ecoboost F-150's since 2011.  My 2018 is by far my favorite and I too love the 10 speed.  Sometimes, I wish I'd gotten the 2.7 vs the 3.5 for economy purposes but I'm completely happy with it.  I've not towed a ton with it and the largest load towed thus far was 6,000# and the truck performed very well.  However, I don't have the max tow package.  My 2011 had the max tow package and I tugged just north of 10,000# with it a couple times.  It swayed a little more than I would have liked, and didn't stop as well as I would have liked, but it pulled the load without any trouble. 

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On 11/14/2018 at 5:23 PM, Nitrousbird said:

I think the mileage also depends on the amount of Ethanol in the fuel.  Unless you are measuring it at each fill up, you may not get consistent results.  It can be anywhere from 51% - 85% here.  The less Ethanol, the better the mileage.

E85 is easy to get here.  I pass by multiple stations with it daily.  Typically $.80 or a little more cheaper than premium.  I've considered converting my BMW to E85, but fear expensive injector damage (to the tune of $1200 in parts, and that's price shopping) and this car has pretty fragile injectors.  Also fear my high pressure fuel pump won't keep up on straight E85.  Otherwise it is a quick DME flash and a $300 low pressure fuel pump upgrade.  I would save money in overall fuel costs and make another 30-40RWHP but haven't been willing to pull the trigger on the conversion.  The GM stuff just requires a readily available harness, GM flex fuel sensor and a re-flash.

Is your Bimmer turbocharged? That is where E85 shines. It allows you to run more boost without detonation.  If you take a regular motor and just run E85 in it, you will get crappy mpg as stated previously. You will have to do the math to see if there are any savings to running E85. I would think minuscule if any.  The refineries have done the math with their pricing models.

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21 hours ago, carguy79ta said:

Is your Bimmer turbocharged? That is where E85 shines. It allows you to run more boost without detonation.  If you take a regular motor and just run E85 in it, you will get crappy mpg as stated previously. You will have to do the math to see if there are any savings to running E85. I would think minuscule if any.  The refineries have done the math with their pricing models.

Yes, twin turbo, 3.0L inline 6, direct injected N54.  Targetting 2x stock boost on factory turbos  There are naturally aspirated motors that also take advantage of the E85 octane as well.

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11 hours ago, Nitrousbird said:

Yes, twin turbo, 3.0L inline 6, direct injected N54.  Targetting 2x stock boost on factory turbos  There are naturally aspirated motors that also take advantage of the E85 octane as well.

Yep that will be awesome.  Also the E85 runs cooler.

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