5000 miles - No Flames, No Problems - Diesel Forum

Cram · 03-24-2007, 02:31 AM

I just made another trip from Sierra Vista Arizona to Durango Colorado (1200 miles) pulling a 7000 pound camp trailer. So far, cross my fingers, no problems. I really had a good laugh at the fire out the exhaust video. I believe, as stated in another post, that it is a very rare problem with the injectors and turbo. But Ford has to recall them all because of liability issues. If you were to roast some guy on a motorcycle Ford could get sued for big bucks.

I actually watched my truck start getting better miles per gallon at about 3500 miles on the way to Durango. My milage meter began to creep up. Anyhow I unhooked the trailer at the San Juan River in New Mexico and made a 160 mile round trip from Aztec New Mexico to Silverton Colorado empty. I filled the tank untill I could see the fuel in Aztec and did the same on the return. I calculated the MPG by hand and came up with 13.6 mpg as compared to an original of 11.5 mpg when I first got the truck. The meter in the truck said 15.2 by the way, so it was wrong. I can see the truck actually getting about 14 mpg during normal driving. From Aztec at 5600 foot elevation to Silverton at 9300 foot elevation you have to go over two mountain passes greater than 10,000 feet. Keep in mind that this is an F450 with low 4.88 gears. A truck with 3.73's should come close to 17-18 mpg.

Yes, I am a little worried about the recall. But what the heck I am all the way in now 60K worth and there is no looking back. My neighbor has an early 03 6.0 liter sitting in his garage with 60,000 miles on it with 2 reflashes done and it still runs great. He uses it mostly for towing from Arizona to Wisconsin.

jhughd · 03-24-2007, 09:42 AM

Good to hear that Cram. I have been waiting for reports about how they pulled a load. That is nice country around Durango. Have fun.

JD

560TURBO · 03-24-2007, 09:50 AM

cram, whereabouts in wisconsin. I know somehere that does the same thing, makes about 6 trips/year to arizona and back. Congrats on the new truck. Hope it works for ya.

CaptSkup · 03-24-2007, 10:24 AM

Good to hear that the truck is doing great for you. And that mileage is not bad at all. Especially considering our 3:73 Jeep Unlimited with a 190hp six cylinder 6-speed only got maybe 17mpg at 60mph towing nothing. Our 450 (4:88's) will also be my wife's get around town car for a few months. I am still waiting patiently, on order for 4 weeks now without a build date. I want to be towing our Teton this summer heading out west.

BoulderGT3 · 03-24-2007, 10:28 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I just made another trip from Sierra Vista Arizona to Durango Colorado (1200 miles) pulling a 7000 pound camp trailer. So far, cross my fingers, no problems. I really had a good laugh at the fire out the exhaust video. I believe, as stated in another post, that it is a very rare problem with the injectors and turbo. But Ford has to recall them all because of liability issues. If you were to roast some guy on a motorcycle Ford could get sued for big bucks.

I actually watched my truck start getting better miles per gallon at about 3500 miles on the way to Durango. My milage meter began to creep up. Anyhow I unhooked the trailer at the San Juan River in New Mexico and made a 160 mile round trip from Aztec New Mexico to Silverton Colorado empty. I filled the tank untill I could see the fuel in Aztec and did the same on the return. I calculated the MPG by hand and came up with 13.6 mpg as compared to an original of 11.5 mpg when I first got the truck. The meter in the truck said 15.2 by the way, so it was wrong. I can see the truck actually getting about 14 mpg during normal driving. From Aztec at 5600 foot elevation to Silverton at 9300 foot elevation you have to go over two mountain passes greater than 10,000 feet. Keep in mind that this is an F450 with low 4.88 gears. A truck with 3.73's should come close to 17-18 mpg.

Yes, I am a little worried about the recall. But what the heck I am all the way in now 60K worth and there is no looking back. My neighbor has an early 03 6.0 liter sitting in his garage with 60,000 miles on it with 2 reflashes done and it still runs great. He uses it mostly for towing from Arizona to Wisconsin.

[/ QUOTE ]

Glad you like the truck. I love mine more everytime I drive it. I am getting about the same mileage with a 8K enclosed car hauler. Zero smell, the re-gen is barely noticable and greatly reduced noise.

Interesting that there is so much talk of problems on the forum from non-owners. With thousands of trucks out there it seems like we should be hearing problems from actual owners instead of the "I know somebody at FMC or my barber's aunts accountant had a 6.4 with an injector issue".

CaptSkup · 03-24-2007, 10:43 AM

Boulder, it is the same as for the 6.0. Most of the talk is from people that do not own/cannot afford to own, guys with 7.3's that can't/aren't ready to move up, guys that do not even have a truck, owners of other brands of trucks. Where I work we must have at least 1,000 SuperDuty trucks, from 5.4's thru 6.0PSD, F-150 thru F-550. Very rarely are there any problems with them, these are hard worked trucks, but the secret is they are completely stock. I think about 95% of what they type is complete BS. I still do not understand why owners of other brands of trucks(especially Dodge) find the need to come on a site dedicated to Ford trucks and International engines and badmouth the product. Do Ford truck owners do the same on their sites. What is it with Dodge truck owners, inferiority complex? Because if you notice, they only have one thing to fall back on. The Cummins diesel engine, without that, Dodge sales would even be smaller than it is now.

BoulderGT3 · 03-24-2007, 11:12 AM

[ QUOTE ]
Boulder, it is the same as for the 6.0. Most of the talk is from people that do not own/cannot afford to own, guys with 7.3's that can't/aren't ready to move up, guys that do not even have a truck, owners of other brands of trucks. Where I work we must have at least 1,000 SuperDuty trucks, from 5.4's thru 6.0PSD, F-150 thru F-550. Very rarely are there any problems with them, these are hard worked trucks, but the secret is they are completely stock. I think about 95% of what they type is complete BS. I still do not understand why owners of other brands of trucks(especially Dodge) find the need to come on a site dedicated to Ford trucks and International engines and badmouth the product. Do Ford truck owners do the same on their sites. What is it with Dodge truck owners, inferiority complex? Because if you notice, they only have one thing to fall back on. The Cummins diesel engine, without that, Dodge sales would even be smaller than it is now.

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To your point. There are a lot of regulars on this site that feel the need to denegrate what they don't or can't have and yet they contribute little to productive discussion of how to solve something. It probably mirrors their personality. Oh well.

I know lots of great guys that drive Dodges that can buy whatever they want. They just don't yap like dumbasses on a ford forum

I hope that 6.4 discussions will start to seperate fact from fiction as opposed to the idiocy that now dominates. There will be problems to be sure and it would be nice if there was a community forum that could be referenced to fast forward through the problems.

Right now, there is so much 6.4 conjecture and BS from non-owners (it's the telephone game in cyperspace) that there's not much value.

GShelton · 03-24-2007, 12:08 PM

I am at about 1050 miles with mine and averaging 9.8 miles to the gallon according to the computer. But in all fairness, the first tank of fuel I drove it like a race car. And most of the miles have been city driving. I have not yet had a chance to really get out on the highway.

But for what it is worth, I LOVE MY TRUCK! (Recall or not!) I get excited every time I have a reason to drive it somewhere. I love the attention that it gets. (It is currently the only known 450 in this area.)

It is built well, it drives fantastic (other than a little wheel shimmy, but there is a service bulletin for that.)

To all the ney sayers... Go back to where you came from. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Cram · 03-24-2007, 12:30 PM

560Turbo,
The guy that goes to Wisconsin name is Dan and lives in Sierra Vista, AZ. He mostly goes that way to visit his elderly parents. I do not know where in Wisconsin.

Everyone Else,
This is by far the nicest truck I have ever owned and I have owned 2 7.3's and 3 6.0L's. Everywhere I go, if I stop somewhere, I can count on having at least a couple minute conversation with some good ole boy that has just got to have a closer look. Farmington New Mexico's primary source of revenue comes from the oil and gas industry and there are guys driving 7.3L and 6.0L everywhere up there. I think there are more diesel Fords there than any other kind of vehicle. I had guys that would pull up in the lane next to me to get a better look, guys almost drive into me because they were looking at the truck. I parked the truck at Walmart and had 3 guys looking at it when I come out of the store. All the attention is kind of cool, but that is not what makes the truck so nice, Ford did alot of attention to detail, the new trucks are flat out gorgeous. As for the engine thing only time will tell, but very soon there will be 30,000 plus guys driving them around. I met multiple guys in Farmington that had them on order.

Thanks,
Marc

Cram · 03-24-2007, 12:53 PM

[ QUOTE ]
It drives fantastic (other than a little wheel shimmy, but there is a service bulletin for that.)

To all the ney sayers... Go back to where you came from. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

GShelton,
Mine also seems to do the wheel shimmy thing rarely. It was much more noticable when I first got the truck. It used to try to track on any low spot in the road. Please let me know if you take your truck in to have it fixed and it makes a big improvement. I'm one of these guys that it is hard for Ford to get me in for a service bulletin. Ford will have a hard time getting me in for the fire breathing exhaust thing, and of course I will have to call the General Manager at my local Ford dealer and convince him I roasted some motorcycle rider and his lawyers have been pestering me. All in good fun of course.

I'm doing my first oil change today. For some strange reason I enjoy doing the first change on a new vehicle. Usually I would change the oil on a new Ford diesel at 2000 miles, but this one I decided to let it go to 5000 hoping it would give the engine a better chance to break in.

I too, LOVE MY TRUCK. I drove 12 wonderful hours yesterday. By the way for anyone who has not purchased your truck yet, if you can afford it get the Navigation System with the Sirius radio. It really makes the trip alot more entertaining and enjoyable. Even if you know where your going the NAV system will teach you alot of side road names that you did not know where there. It also kicks butt on reminding you when it is time to turn. It is making me a lazy driver. I often use it to find new routes that I have not taken before. If you take the time to do waypoints mixed with routes I believe you can compare route milages.
Thanks,
Marc

jesshwarren · 03-24-2007, 04:14 PM

My Dads 99 7.3L F450 with 488's gets 10MPG on it's best day empty. The 6.4L seems to get impressive fuel economy.

Dieselgem · 03-24-2007, 05:43 PM

Sounds like you are having a lot of fun. Can't wait for mine to come in. Just in case your truck does start throwing flames becareful of the guys on the motorcyces. It could be me! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

mbcolorado · 03-24-2007, 06:35 PM

Interesting that there is so much talk of problems on the forum from non-owners. With thousands of trucks out there it seems like we should be hearing problems from actual owners instead of the "I know somebody at FMC or my barber's aunts accountant had a 6.4 with an injector issue".

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Could't agree with you more. I own a 2002 7.3 with 60,000 and will keep it for a long time to come.

I enjoy reading the NEW OWNERS post good or bad. Hopefully once more trucks are on the road this site will turn into more information and less negative criticism by anyone that can type.

RoyalSox · 03-24-2007, 10:21 PM

Hi Im new. I have a 6.4 F450 with about 800 miles on it. When I first got it home it had a bad oil leak but the Dealership promptly found the leak and fixed it.It was a seal of some kind. I had a 2004 6.0 that left me stranded more than I ever want to think about.
I love my F450. I really like the turn radius.... WOW! I will be towing my LQ horse trailer later this weekend. I will report back on that. I bought the green with the light tan interior.

Lisa

larryhutto · 03-25-2007, 12:02 AM

Loved your post. My truck was forn on 3/20 eta at dealer 4/9. same truck. However, I will be pulling 19000 lbs. I see Capt will be pulling 22K so more stuff of interest. I will let all knowhow that works out. You didn't mention what kind of speed you were going on your trip. Now is my 99.5 550 4.88 speed makes a huge difference on mpg because of the low gears. for example, on a flat interstate at 50 I get about 18 mph, by the time I am going 70 that reduces to about 12.0 You did a lot of going up and down on your trip, and I imagine your speed varied quite a bit, but it would still be nice to know what you feel you were doing. Also, with that power and no load, I would guess younever dropped out of overdrive on your trip. Would sure appreciate a little more detail.

Thanks, and have a nice day.