Hey all, I just purchased a 2019 F250 in the gasser flavor. I thought I'd jot down some info since it was difficult to find a lot of this info without searching a billion different forum posts all over the interwebz when I was researching. Hopefully this will help somebody that is deciding gas vs. diesel....
First, the why: Long story short, I'm tired of my older trucks nickel and diming me to death, haha.
My price range was $40k-ish and I was first looking at the ford 6.7 Diesels in that range which were the pre-2017 body style, with 70-100k miles. While researching, I decided to look into the stats on the 6.2 v8 gas engine which initially looked good at a 12,000 lb towing capacity. My 28' bumper pull toy hauler loaded down is 10k+ lbs. so I figured it could work. I was still super hesitant but decided to research the 6.2 further (which was much more difficult to find specific answers to questions than the diesels) and found that with the 4.30 gearing, it's rated to tow 15,000 lbs, and starting in 2017, Ford installed the new Torqueshift-G tranny which was specifically designed and tuned for the 6.2 gasser. This got put into the 2017+ F250's. Previous to that and with the newer F350's, Ford put the same trannies in the gas and diesel motors which work fine, but the diesel tranny was slightly overkill for the gasser, and tuned to the diesel's torque curve. The newer design is slightly lighter weight and tuned for the 6.2, saving (slightly) fuel consumption, and some "dead shift spots" that the other tranny had when paired with the gas motor. After reading all of these positives about the gasser, I looked into pricing and found that the brand new gassers were right in my price range. I LOVE the newer body style, so this made me super happy. Plus, the new or slightly used gasser would have more miles left under Ford's warranty. I looked all over and could not find a slightly used or even new 2018 gasser with the 4.30 gearing. Even the 3.73 geared gassers with 20-40k miles were priced only a few thousand under the brand new ones. So, I went to Ken Garff in AF and asked them to see one with the 4.30 gearing. My must-haves were only a few things: 4.30's, crew cab, backup camera, 6.5' bed. That's it. Any truck with those things would work. It turns out that the 4.30 gearing was an option but didn't get put into any "stock" trucks sent to the dealers to sell. They found only one, 300 miles away that had those things, plus a few other add-ons, so I bought it. Being Friday afternoon and the last day of the month, which wasn't planned, they gave me a great deal if I'd sign papers that day.
When I received it, I was pleased to find that whoever custom ordered it started with the base (XL) model and then added the STX appearance package, the FX4 off-road package, and every option available to improving its towing capabilities including 360* camera system. It's pretty much exactly how I would order it, so that's a bonus.
So, I have about 700 miles on it now. It had 19 miles when I drove away with it. I've added floor mats (even thought it has vinyl flooring), running boards, and a few other minor things. I drove up to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho (empty with the family) last week (Pocatello first to see my brother) to pick our camp trailer up from our property and bring it back. Here are my performance and MPG impressions from empty and towing: (These stats should be the same for the 2017 and 2018 models as well.
Empty:
-Around town it does great. Better than I expected. I'd say it has about as much (almost) get-up-and-go as my 2014 6.7 diesel that I had a few years ago. I drive like a granny anyways, so it's more than enough. I'm sure the 4.30's help with the peppiness. It gets about 13-14+ mpg's when driving like a granny around town like I normally do or 11-12 when I'm not paying attention.
-I was worried that the 4.30's would suck on the freeway, revving high at speed but it cruises smoothly and quietly at 80mph @ just over 2500 RPM's. On the way up to Idaho last week (empty), I got about 15.2 mpg's between Lehi and Ogden which is basically flat. There was a little traffic, so we averaged 65-70 mph.
-Between Ogden and Pocatello I put the cruise control at 78 mph and got avg. 13.6 mpg's through the hilly S. Idaho terrain.
-Keeping speed or Accelerating on hills is no problem. It will hold speed on cruise control up all but the steepest grades in 6th gear without flinching. (mpg drops on hills, obviously)
Towing: (I should mention that for pretty much the whole trip back towing, there was basically zero wind)
On the way back into town, we had our 28' camper w/ our sxs and gear inside (10k+ lbs). I forgot to bring my equalizer hitch, so it would get a little squirrely when I got over 70 mph when I passed or got passed by a semi. I kept it around 65 mph for this reason but I don't think it would have had a problem doing 75 mph the whole way (minus the bigger hills) Note: None of the towing was using cruise control. I like to adjust throttle manually for best performance.
-Downy, ID (30 min S of Pocatello) to Ogden got avg. 7.1 mpg cruising at about 65-70 mph (slower on the bigger hills) (see speed info below)
-Ogden to Lehi went up to 7.8 mpg on the flatter terrain. With traffic, we were averaging about 55-60 mph.
I'm happy with this, as my 2014 6.7 diesel (on 37's) only got about 9 mpg's towing the same stretch of road.
While researching, I couldn't find much detailed info at all about the actual towing capabilities and performance over different terrains, so here is my assessment:
(with my 10k+ lbs, 28' long, kite of a toy hauler (fully loaded), without the equalizer hitch)
-It kept 65-70mph in 6th gear on the flat terrain or slight uphill grades without any problems, even speeding back up slowly after getting stuck behind a slower truck. With the equalizer hitch, I don't doubt it would have held 75+ in 6th. I was very happy with this. I read that with the 3.73 gearing, you basically lose 6th gear when towing unless you're down hill. I was definitely in 6th for most of the trip.
-On small hills, it would still keep speed but shift into 5th (3300-ish RPM's) to maintain. I was very happy with this.
-On medium hills, It would hold 60mph in 4th, still in a super comfortable RPM range, and even accelerate if I wanted to push it.
-On steep hills (the back side of the Malad pass was the only place this was used) it would chug up the hill, holding 55 mph in 3rd gear, still in a (slightly higher, but) comfortable RPM range. I believe about 3800 RPM's with plenty of room to push it if I wanted to.
-FYI, I try to drive with vehicle longevity in mind, so I wasn't "pushing" the truck by any means.
There were never any back-and-forth gear shifting moments trying to figure out which gear was most happy, and a few times when I was in 5th or 6th, wanting to speed up on a hill, I would give more throttle, expecting to downshift, but instead, it just accelerated in the same gear, which was great.
All this without using a drop of DEF.
Again, this was all with basically zero wind. Figure it will do slightly better or worse with a tail or head wind.
I had never towed my trailer with a gasser before and I was nervous, but the 6.2 w/ the newer torqueshift-G tranny performed without a hiccup. I am extremely pleased with the truck and transmission.
So far, I've had the stock tires on the truck which are 275/70r18's (33x11r18). I just bought some wheels/ tires that are 295/65r20's (35x11.5r20) that I'll be installing this week. We'll see what they'll do to the performance......
Let me know if you have any questions about the truck and I'll add more details to this post if I can.
First, the why: Long story short, I'm tired of my older trucks nickel and diming me to death, haha.
My price range was $40k-ish and I was first looking at the ford 6.7 Diesels in that range which were the pre-2017 body style, with 70-100k miles. While researching, I decided to look into the stats on the 6.2 v8 gas engine which initially looked good at a 12,000 lb towing capacity. My 28' bumper pull toy hauler loaded down is 10k+ lbs. so I figured it could work. I was still super hesitant but decided to research the 6.2 further (which was much more difficult to find specific answers to questions than the diesels) and found that with the 4.30 gearing, it's rated to tow 15,000 lbs, and starting in 2017, Ford installed the new Torqueshift-G tranny which was specifically designed and tuned for the 6.2 gasser. This got put into the 2017+ F250's. Previous to that and with the newer F350's, Ford put the same trannies in the gas and diesel motors which work fine, but the diesel tranny was slightly overkill for the gasser, and tuned to the diesel's torque curve. The newer design is slightly lighter weight and tuned for the 6.2, saving (slightly) fuel consumption, and some "dead shift spots" that the other tranny had when paired with the gas motor. After reading all of these positives about the gasser, I looked into pricing and found that the brand new gassers were right in my price range. I LOVE the newer body style, so this made me super happy. Plus, the new or slightly used gasser would have more miles left under Ford's warranty. I looked all over and could not find a slightly used or even new 2018 gasser with the 4.30 gearing. Even the 3.73 geared gassers with 20-40k miles were priced only a few thousand under the brand new ones. So, I went to Ken Garff in AF and asked them to see one with the 4.30 gearing. My must-haves were only a few things: 4.30's, crew cab, backup camera, 6.5' bed. That's it. Any truck with those things would work. It turns out that the 4.30 gearing was an option but didn't get put into any "stock" trucks sent to the dealers to sell. They found only one, 300 miles away that had those things, plus a few other add-ons, so I bought it. Being Friday afternoon and the last day of the month, which wasn't planned, they gave me a great deal if I'd sign papers that day.
When I received it, I was pleased to find that whoever custom ordered it started with the base (XL) model and then added the STX appearance package, the FX4 off-road package, and every option available to improving its towing capabilities including 360* camera system. It's pretty much exactly how I would order it, so that's a bonus.
So, I have about 700 miles on it now. It had 19 miles when I drove away with it. I've added floor mats (even thought it has vinyl flooring), running boards, and a few other minor things. I drove up to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho (empty with the family) last week (Pocatello first to see my brother) to pick our camp trailer up from our property and bring it back. Here are my performance and MPG impressions from empty and towing: (These stats should be the same for the 2017 and 2018 models as well.
Empty:
-Around town it does great. Better than I expected. I'd say it has about as much (almost) get-up-and-go as my 2014 6.7 diesel that I had a few years ago. I drive like a granny anyways, so it's more than enough. I'm sure the 4.30's help with the peppiness. It gets about 13-14+ mpg's when driving like a granny around town like I normally do or 11-12 when I'm not paying attention.
-I was worried that the 4.30's would suck on the freeway, revving high at speed but it cruises smoothly and quietly at 80mph @ just over 2500 RPM's. On the way up to Idaho last week (empty), I got about 15.2 mpg's between Lehi and Ogden which is basically flat. There was a little traffic, so we averaged 65-70 mph.
-Between Ogden and Pocatello I put the cruise control at 78 mph and got avg. 13.6 mpg's through the hilly S. Idaho terrain.
-Keeping speed or Accelerating on hills is no problem. It will hold speed on cruise control up all but the steepest grades in 6th gear without flinching. (mpg drops on hills, obviously)
Towing: (I should mention that for pretty much the whole trip back towing, there was basically zero wind)
On the way back into town, we had our 28' camper w/ our sxs and gear inside (10k+ lbs). I forgot to bring my equalizer hitch, so it would get a little squirrely when I got over 70 mph when I passed or got passed by a semi. I kept it around 65 mph for this reason but I don't think it would have had a problem doing 75 mph the whole way (minus the bigger hills) Note: None of the towing was using cruise control. I like to adjust throttle manually for best performance.
-Downy, ID (30 min S of Pocatello) to Ogden got avg. 7.1 mpg cruising at about 65-70 mph (slower on the bigger hills) (see speed info below)
-Ogden to Lehi went up to 7.8 mpg on the flatter terrain. With traffic, we were averaging about 55-60 mph.
I'm happy with this, as my 2014 6.7 diesel (on 37's) only got about 9 mpg's towing the same stretch of road.
While researching, I couldn't find much detailed info at all about the actual towing capabilities and performance over different terrains, so here is my assessment:
(with my 10k+ lbs, 28' long, kite of a toy hauler (fully loaded), without the equalizer hitch)
-It kept 65-70mph in 6th gear on the flat terrain or slight uphill grades without any problems, even speeding back up slowly after getting stuck behind a slower truck. With the equalizer hitch, I don't doubt it would have held 75+ in 6th. I was very happy with this. I read that with the 3.73 gearing, you basically lose 6th gear when towing unless you're down hill. I was definitely in 6th for most of the trip.
-On small hills, it would still keep speed but shift into 5th (3300-ish RPM's) to maintain. I was very happy with this.
-On medium hills, It would hold 60mph in 4th, still in a super comfortable RPM range, and even accelerate if I wanted to push it.
-On steep hills (the back side of the Malad pass was the only place this was used) it would chug up the hill, holding 55 mph in 3rd gear, still in a (slightly higher, but) comfortable RPM range. I believe about 3800 RPM's with plenty of room to push it if I wanted to.
-FYI, I try to drive with vehicle longevity in mind, so I wasn't "pushing" the truck by any means.
There were never any back-and-forth gear shifting moments trying to figure out which gear was most happy, and a few times when I was in 5th or 6th, wanting to speed up on a hill, I would give more throttle, expecting to downshift, but instead, it just accelerated in the same gear, which was great.
All this without using a drop of DEF.
Again, this was all with basically zero wind. Figure it will do slightly better or worse with a tail or head wind.
I had never towed my trailer with a gasser before and I was nervous, but the 6.2 w/ the newer torqueshift-G tranny performed without a hiccup. I am extremely pleased with the truck and transmission.
So far, I've had the stock tires on the truck which are 275/70r18's (33x11r18). I just bought some wheels/ tires that are 295/65r20's (35x11.5r20) that I'll be installing this week. We'll see what they'll do to the performance......
Let me know if you have any questions about the truck and I'll add more details to this post if I can.
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