Posted this at another forum and wanted to share it here. These new generation 5.0L V8s pull great!

" I just can't believe how good this pulled. It pulled much better than my previous 2010 5.4L at all speeds.

It was most noticable how the truck wanted to speed away from a stop with the trailer. It pulled it so effortlessly, it actually suprised me. Down the road, there was always more than enough power and we were driving in a rain storm with wind and medium gusts. Not a lot of downshifting at all, held the gear. It also did go back and forth from 6 to 5 depending on where I was driving. At 55 mph it was in 6th but went to 5th almost immediately when I hit 60 mph, several different times. Seems to be a logic shift in the Tow/haul mode.

Overall, I just can't believe how well this towed, bettering my 5.4L in the same generation F150 but from 2010. Both had the same transmissions but the new 2012 5.0L had the 3.73 axle while the older 5.4L had the 3.55. Figured that would equal them out since the 5.4L supposedly had more torque in the lower rpms. Obviously that didn't hold true as the 5.0L 2012 pulled much stronger down low.

Don't get me wrong, the 5.4L pulled great with more than enough power but the 5.0L is just mind boggling as it was that much stronger.

It pulled so easy I had to hit the brakes a few times as I was just speeding away from a stop. Guess I was just use to giving the older 5.4L more gas to get going and I instinctively did the same with the new truck.

Guess Pickuptrucks.com was right when they said this was a hek of a truck for towing. "

I also wanted to add I did a second trip about 5.5 hours each way. Trip there was windy and had a lot of hills. On the way there I got ~11.0 mpg and on the trip back got about 10.5 mpg. The transmission downshifted very smartly on hills. It downshifted to 2nd to keep my speed reasonable while going down hill. I never needed to use the breaks.

The 5.0L got the same mileage towing my 29' tall and wide Jayco Jay Flight 26BH as did my previous 2010 F150 configured nearly the same but with a 5.4L 3 valve and 3.55 axle.

Great drivetrain!! Great power towing, Great mileage, and great engine breaking!

I had my camper loaded with a lot of gear, food, clothes, and 90 gallons of fresh water (@ 8.3lbs/gallon = 747 lbs).

 

Interesting to hear your experience. Think I missed it ...what did you pull? Trailer, boat? Weight? Terrain? Distance?

 

Its in his sig.

 

Yep, the trailer is in my signature. It's a 2012 Jayco Jay Flight 26BH full size, full weight travel trailer.

See brochure here.

 

Great to hear, the 5.0 rocks. But is this the same MikeUp that used to be here? The same one that thought the 5.0 was a torqueless, high revving motor???

"Many of us chose not to buy a 5.0l in favor of the torqier 5.4l . When Ford retunes for torque instead of boy racer high reving horses, then I'll consider it. Until then I'll keep my high reving motor in my Mustang GT not my F150."

Just rubbin' ya Mike, glad to hear the 5.0 does so well, not surprised.

 

I thought the same thing haha

 

Yep. This 2012 and the other 2012s I've driven didn't drive like the early 2011 I tested. I remember the 2011 like yesterday and it had power problems. I also ran into a 2013 5.0L that ran the same way but that one had a strong burning smell in the cab. The 2013 was much worse and I believe it had some issues.

The 2011 ran like a bat out of hell from a stop and I commented on it. What it ran poorly on was accelerating from a stable speed.

It could had been a combination of issues but one was the shift strategy. The 2011 was slow to downshift to get into the right gear when accelerating away from a stable speed. Being in the wrong gear did make it feel gutless.

The new 2012 is much busier in the shifting department plus the new 2012 has the 3.73 axle opposed to the 2011 3.55 but that wasn't it at all. When my my 2010 truck was in for transmission work, I had a 2012 Screw 4WD 5.0L 3.55 axle rental truck and I immediately noticed how much more powerful it was than the 2011 I previously test drove. It shifted much more responsively and had gobs of power. The 3.73 axle just adds adds to that. I noticed the rental truck felt quite a bit more powerful than my 2010 which surprised me.

When I test drove a few other 2012 I noticed they were more powerful than my 2010 as well. They all had 3.55 axles as I had to do a dealer search for my 3.73 axle truck. It made it really easy to decide to go with the 5.0L over the Ecoboost, which I really didn't want. The 2013 Screw 4WD 5.0L 3.55 truck was a dog and wasn't in transport mode, but had something definitely wrong with it.

I really had to think that the 2011 had some early transmission programming issues which were definitely worked out in 2012 with a much better and more responsive shift strategy. The transmission can make more of a difference in power output than differences in engines. The used 2008 F150 Screw 4WD 5.4L 3 valve tester made that very apparent next to my previous 2010 Screw 4WD 5.4L 3 valve truck.