Tow Vehicle F150

H

hank schneider

New member
Hi Folks
I got a CC 23 in may and have been hauling it around with a Toyota 2wd 4-Runner - which was a little testy. Bought a low mileage 2001 150 4X4 with the 5.7 engine, reg cab & bed, factory tow package (cheap). This should haul better compared to the 3.4 toyota. Any advice about things I might do to improve performance and safety. Any Idea about gas mileage around town, on the highway and with the 4500 load? Have not had a Ford since 1964, having lost my virginity in the back seat - hope I don't get S______
again.
Hank
 
That truck should do very well for you. I assume that you have dual axles and disc brakes on both axles. Electric over hyraulic is a good choice for the brakes if you do a lot of mountain driving. Also a transmission temp guage is another good addition if you are doing a lot of mountain driving.

One thing which could give better mileage (but not sure it is worth the cost) is a gear vender two speed transmission add on (like a two speed axle)--set up in an over drive configuration. Give a higher gear ratio when running light, and better gearing when loaded. I have had these on RV's and there they were worth the cost.

Also consider a fuel flow meter for the truck--to see how much fuel you are using at any one time. you may modify your driving habits and get much better mileage.
 
We have a 2001 F150 4X4 that we tow our CD22 with. Very little experience towing the new 2008 CD22, but we did travel 8 hours to pickup the boat for the dealer. We had no problems at all with towing the boat -- hardly can tell it is behind you.

We have the 5.4L engine and got probably around 12mpg with the CD22 behind us -- not exactly sure but somewhere in that range. The truck would down shift from time to time on hills, but for the most part we towed it in OverDrive and it was smooth.

We have 200k on our 2001 F150 and have not had any problems -- until last Friday when it "spit out a spark plug". Apparently they have problems with the 4.6 and the 5.4 blowing out plugs. The Aluminum heads don't allow for strong enough threads to hold the plugs -- google "F150 blow out spark plugs" and you'll see all kinds of info.

The good news is that we had 200k before a problem and they make a special insert to fix the problem -- truck was fixed a day later.

We have loved our 2001 F150 and it tows great.
 
Hello Hank,

I tow the same boat with a 1500 Suburban 4 x 4. It has the standard engine, 5.3 5.4 L, I think. It tows the boat fine without any problems. Dr. Bob, as usual, offers excellent advice. I can especially see the merits of electric over hydraulic brakes if you tow much.

In short, I can't imagine your Ford F150 would have any difficulty with towing the CC23.

Let us know how it works out.

/david
 
Hank,
I don't think there is anything you really have to do at all, but there are tons of cool things you can do if you want. There are some good Ford 150 owners forums on the net that can provide all the info you could want to tweek yours. Any search engine will direct you to them.
 
thataway":br4qahnu said:
That truck should do very well for you. I assume that you have dual axles and disc brakes on both axles. Electric over hyraulic is a good choice for the brakes if you do a lot of mountain driving. Also a transmission temp guage is another good addition if you are doing a lot of mountain driving.

One thing which could give better mileage (but not sure it is worth the cost) is a gear vender two speed transmission add on (like a two speed axle)--set up in an over drive configuration. Give a higher gear ratio when running light, and better gearing when loaded. I have had these on RV's and there they were worth the cost.

Also consider a fuel flow meter for the truck--to see how much fuel you are using at any one time. you may modify your driving habits and get much better mileage.
Click to expand...

Bob,

A temp guage on the trans is always solid advice, as are the brakes.

But, being that it is a 4x4, and one with an automatic tranny and a chain driven t-case, it is likely that it would cost more to put your Milemarker overdrive kit in it for less than he paid for the truck. Besides, that truck has 3:50 gearing and overdrive already. I can't imagine it turns very many rpms at all down the highway.

I'm not sure about the fuel flow meter for the truck. I'm not arguing it could be done, but how would it work? Ford fuel injected vehicles (along with most others) have a main line and a return line. The fuel pump returns the fuel from the injector ram back to the tank almost constantly. The only true fuel meter I have ever put in an EFI vehicle was on a buddy's drag car years ago and it was like 1200 bucks. But, it did the job. Nothing like 10+ gallons of racing fuel for a 1/4 mile run.

Now, you can measure fuel flow rather cheaply on EFI auto and truck applications by measuring the injector pulse width. They are fairly accurate, but not a direct measurement by any means. They are more like a proportional model based upon how much fuel an injector will flow over a given amount of time. They do come close though. Is this the one you are talking about?

Like I said, not arguing, just a nuts and bolts kinda guy and curious.


Tim
 
Wow - that's more info than I expected - I'll be trying the truck as a tow in a few weeks if we thaw out - I'll see what it feels like - the trailer has power assist on both axles and did OK with the 4Runner but I drive scared and didn't have any crisis situations. I'd be happy with 12 mpg with the boat - I don't think the Toyota did any better than that.
Thanks
Hank
 
HI Hank we have a cc-23 also i've been towing with a Honda Pilot just a few times usually down to the ramp about 2miles then the boat stays in the water . How did you come up with the weight of the boat ,trailer and eng is that a guess or did you weigh it? I've been thinking about going to the chesapeake gathering in june 09 but also thinking about upgrading to a bigger vehicle . What I have done is taken the weights off the brochures cc-23 2900lb eng f-115 400lb trailer 1000lb come up with 4300lb then add at least 200lb of stuff now come the fuel usually tow with less then 10 gallons no water. So this gives us a little over the 4500lb
The Honda give you a 4500lb tow rating plus 660 lb in the truck . I've been looking at buying Used let me know how the f150 tows
 
Well, I went to this site Ford Blown Spark Plugs and lo and behold, there must be 200 postings of Ford owners who have engines with blown spark plugs. Most at ~100K miles. Never heard of this before though I've never been interested before.

Now, I own one of those 5.4 V-8s, albeit a 2006 model. Can hardly wait. Does anybody else have a thought on this? When (if ever) did they fix this? This must go along with the burned out 5 speed auto, which I also have. Oh well. flatheads forever, the last good engine.

Boris
 
I know more about the "Ford Blown Spark Plugs" than I ever wanted to know about it.

I'm pretty sure by 2006 the problem had been corrected -- I found this on one site:

"Engine years and types I was told were 97-02 5.4L and 4.6L "

I also read that they fixed the problem with the spitting out but then created a problem with spark plugs getting stuck and breaking off when changing the plugs -- 2006 might be safe of that also.

Here is a kit that you can use to fix any blowouts:

http://www.timesert.com/html/triton_repair2.html

Even though I have 200k on the truck, I'm thinking of buying the kit and doing all the cylinders/plugs before I have a problem again. The truck still runs great and outside of the "spit out plug", we have not had ANY problems. It cost us $650 to have the shop fix the one that blew out the other day -- to me, it is not the money -- it is the "reliability factor".

Do some Google searching on "F150 5.4 Sparkplug blowout prevention". There are some specific torque requirements when replacing the plugs.
 
If you drive a Ford truck of any model/any year then this site is for you. This site rivals only the Brat site for product information. You can find catagories on model years, specific engines, towing, electrical, transmissions and the list goes on. Just on my 96 F150 there are over 350,000 posts. Well over a million posts total. You can spend some time reading here. Both plug problems: Blow out and to tight to get out are covered in detail. Overall I am sure the F150 will serve you well.

Your F150 may already have a trans cooler that is adequate. Or perhaps a bigger cooler or an electric fan or both may be a good cheap addition. All the answers can be found at The Ford Truck enthusiast web site.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/

The one thing I'll add for any automatic trans truck is: I believe Summit racing is one, I am sure there are others but a transmission oil pan with a built in drain plug. (Make sure your truck doesn't have one, most don't)This allows easy, quick change of inexpensive transmission fluid. The best assurance against transmission meltdown. I think they make one that has a mount as well for the transmission temperature gauge sensor to mount. Larger than stock fluid capacity pan with cooling fins are more features to look for.

Happy towing!
 
journey on":p6cb94gq said:
Well, I went to this site Ford Blown Spark Plugs and lo and behold, there must be 200 postings of Ford owners who have engines with blown spark plugs. Most at ~100K miles. Never heard of this before though I've never been interested before.

Now, I own one of those 5.4 V-8s, albeit a 2006 model. Can hardly wait. Does anybody else have a thought on this? When (if ever) did they fix this? This must go along with the burned out 5 speed auto, which I also have. Oh well. flatheads forever, the last good engine.

Boris
Click to expand...

Boris,

How many of those old flatheads went 200,000 miles again? A rare few I am sure. But, there are hundreds of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands v-8s running around with 200,000 or more on them. The EFI 460 that I pulled out of 92 F-350 had 270,000 miles on it and it still ran fine. I did rebuild it myself and you could tell it was well cared for. As far as the 5 speed tranny, well that is made in Japan.......isn't ironic?
 
T. E. Bauer, et. al.

Well, we're going to bail out whose auto industry? GM is taking our money and sending it to Korea for the batteries for their new car, ignoring those made in the US. And now, I've got a Japanese transmission in the d__n Ford? Do you know who makes it?

Went to buy a Saturn, you know the US wonder kar, VUE. Design from Germany, engine (Honda) from Japan, and the transmission was listed from Japan, but they couldn't tell me who made it. Tried the Chevvy, engine from China. From a GM plant. I don't believe anyone outside of China owns a plant in China. They're too smart for that.

Bought a Toyota. They're not asking for money and have the greatest percentage made in the US.

As an engineer, I get upset at how fast we've moved our manufacturing capability overseas. I believe we're near rock bottom. All we do here is shuffle money, and it's caught up with us.

Boris
 
Tim,
I certainly agree on the impracticality of putting on an over/under drive on a 4 x 4.

There was an option of the "computer" which gave miles per gallon. This was the "overhead trip computer option" on the 2001 F 150. We have a slightly newer vehicle with the same engine which has this computer--and gives miles per gallon ( using the speedometer) as well as miles to go, fuel used and fuel left. There are several threads on the internet about picking these units up at junk yards or E bay, and installing them on trucks. One fellow did the conversion for $260 using used parts (new parts would indeed be over $1300).

There are mechanical flow meters which will measure the direct flow and return flow to the tank for an injected engine. By subtraction they give amount used. These are far more expensive than the direct reading flow meter which is inserted into the pickup line (such as the Navman).

Again, I agree probably not entirely practical--but if he wants to directly measure the fuel consumption it can be done. But finding a used trip computer would be much better.
 
journey on":29tptzud said:
T. E. Bauer, et. al.

Well, we're going to bail out whose auto industry? GM is taking our money and sending it to Korea for the batteries for their new car, ignoring those made in the US. And now, I've got a Japanese transmission in the d__n Ford? Do you know who makes it?

Went to buy a Saturn, you know the US wonder kar, VUE. Design from Germany, engine (Honda) from Japan, and the transmission was listed from Japan, but they couldn't tell me who made it. Tried the Chevvy, engine from China. From a GM plant. I don't believe anyone outside of China owns a plant in China. They're too smart for that.

Bought a Toyota. They're not asking for money and have the greatest percentage made in the US.

As an engineer, I get upset at how fast we've moved our manufacturing capability overseas. I believe we're near rock bottom. All we do here is shuffle money, and it's caught up with us.

Boris
Click to expand...

Boris,

I hear you.....man do I hear you. Our agreement that we'd allow everyone to trade here for "free" while our exported products are marked up due to import taxes or not even allowed in the country is a very questionable trade strategy. But, whatever, we are there now. If this were a country that charged huge tariffs, your Toyota would cost so much that you wouldn't even consider it. Surely, that is a big part or our country's trade problems and a huge problem in the automotive industry as well. Who makes your transmission? Beats me. However, Mazda makes tons of stuff for Ford. It is hard to tell.

Tim
 
thataway":1awi6zra said:
Tim,
I certainly agree on the impracticality of putting on an over/under drive on a 4 x 4.

There was an option of the "computer" which gave miles per gallon. This was the "overhead trip computer option" on the 2001 F 150. We have a slightly newer vehicle with the same engine which has this computer--and gives miles per gallon ( using the speedometer) as well as miles to go, fuel used and fuel left. There are several threads on the internet about picking these units up at junk yards or E bay, and installing them on trucks. One fellow did the conversion for $260 using used parts (new parts would indeed be over $1300).

There are mechanical flow meters which will measure the direct flow and return flow to the tank for an injected engine. By subtraction they give amount used. These are far more expensive than the direct reading flow meter which is inserted into the pickup line (such as the Navman).

Again, I agree probably not entirely practical--but if he wants to directly measure the fuel consumption it can be done. But finding a used trip computer would be much better.
Click to expand...

Bob,

I'd just bust out the calculator. How about you? It is so much easier than all that stuff.

Tim
 
I don't know the answer to this question--but how much of the Toyota is built in the US? My understanding is that many of their cars and trucks are currently built here--as are many Honda automobiles.

How many of our outboards are built in the US? Merc builds many in foreign countries. Certainly Yahama, Suzuki, and Honda are Japanese. Evinrude is owned by a Canadian company.

We have to accept that we live in a global world economy, but not loose sight that we still do/did have a significant manufacturing base. This base has to be competitive in the world economy.
 
Hank,

I don't have one yet, but here is a tool (Scan Gauge ll) that works with any 1996 vehicle and newer with OBD ll. The tool simple plugs into the OBD ll data port and monitors the vehicle computer. It can help you to drive the vehicle at the most efficient manner and monitor just about any sensor on the vehicle. It monitors the injector firing to calculate fuel burn. Since it knows vehicle speed it tells air fuel ratio/MPG and distance to empty tank. It resets the check engine light, reads all codes stored and gives the operating condition that caused the code to set even when the check light does not come on. They are working on getting it to monitor auto transmission temperature as well. They seem to run about $160 or a little less. Check out all the features. Pretty impressive.

http://pureenergysystems.com/store/ScanGauge/
 
thataway":3fdxkv5e said:
I don't know the answer to this question--but how much of the Toyota is built in the US? My understanding is that many of their cars and trucks are currently built here--as are many Honda automobiles.

<some edited>
Click to expand...

Bob-

just for informational purposes, I can at least partially answer the first question.

The former GM plant in Fremont, California, where I taught for 35 years, reopened in the 1980's after shutting down it's GM auto production in the 1970's.

The engines, transmissions, rear ends, wiring harnesses, dash assemblies, and most sophisticated electrical components were shipped in from Japan and combined with locally produced body assemblies, seats, upholstery, headliners, carpets, exhaust assemblies, and so forth.

The bodies were built and painted right there in Fremont; the upholstery and some other components constructed as far away as Reno.

As you can tell, the more difficult and precise components that required special high cost machinery and/or skill in building were built back in Japan where they had the equipment and skilled workers.

They adapted and employed as many of the Japaneese assembly line methods and psychology as they could to improve the quality of the product.

To my knowledge, the plant is still producing Toyotas today.

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
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