Scotty, I am part of a rural volunteer FD here in NW Florida. We are looking at getting 2 new Ford F-150 XL 4x4 pickup trucks for the chief officers. The chief officers run hundreds of calls a year and spend hours on some calls idling with lights and equipment on. The chief officers might have to tow a 5500lbs air trailer to some scenes. Within our scope for the purchase consideration, we have the choice of the following engines: 3.3L V6, 2.7L Ecoboost V6, 5.0L V8 or the 3.5L Ecoboost V6. Based upon the needs mentioned, what do you believe is the best engine for this application? Thanks!
Also adding @USAFdozerpilot to the discussion
Get the V8 if you want it to last
Not the Gen 3 5.0L V8 introduced in 2018 model year. And the ones in 2021 now have cylinder deactivation. But if it’s model year 2017 or earlier with the 1st/2nd Gen 5.0L - then I would say Yes.
The 3.3L V6 is the only good one. The Gen 3 5.0L V8's are plagued with issues, particularly oil consumption. And I'm not a fan of EcoBoost motors, especially when you are talking about putting them through extreme conditions.
That's a tough one....normally I'd say just say, get the V8...but the newer 5.0 coyote engines have those crappy plasma etched cylinder liners. I know there have been issues with these engines for that reason. If the 5.0 still is having issues, maybe the 3.3 non turbo V6? I have not been keeping up on updates of 5.0, maybe @mod_man has more current info on the Ford engines.
If you’re going the Ford route don’t get a 1/2 ton. Get the 6.2 or 7.3 super duty. If you look across the board. Not just Ford the 1/2 ton truck market is weak overall. It’s more about pavement queens than true blue collar work trucks like they were originally built for. If you’re towing those 5500 lb trailers enough those superdutys will treat you way better than a 1/2 ton will.
All the 1/2 ton pickups (Ford, Chevy, Dodge) are nothing more than 1960s Mommy station wagons masquerading as trucks. They are poorly made, under powered and way over priced. I would recommend the F250 with the 6.2L and six speed auto trans. This is a real truck, not an imposter.
The F-250 adds about 2 grand to even the lowest appropriate model we could get on cooperative purchasing. Plus, we have lots of high speed highways and curves which makes the better handling of an F-150 coupled with the smaller size a need. The Ranger is a bit smallish for our needs but we did think of that. Believe it or not, the Ranger is barely $1000 less than the F-150 in our area of purchasing. Also, we are working chief officers so getting out of the SUV mindset is important for our gear which needs to be in a separate air space from the passenger (we looked at the Explorer also).
To add to the discussion, the trailer towing will not be often as it is a regional asset but gets used only a few times a year. The biggest enemy of our use is quick cold crank to high load emergency response (going highway within 30 seconds of starting after sitting for many hours), lots of idle time and lots of heavy acceleration and hard stopping on surprisingly hilly roads. One thing we are considering is the F-150 SSV which adds the 5.0L V8 but importantly a 240 amp alternator. However, the SSV is more expensive than a Supercab and may be above our budget. Thus, the question concerning the engine choices for the Supercab unit remains.
Thanks for the input! Keep it coming.