Hoping for some insight from someone with more experience than us. We are about 24 hours away from purchasing a new '07 F-150 supercab 4x4 XTR. Can't decide between the 2 powerplants. We tow a 2 horse straight haul trailer about once a week on average. Our '94 F-250 regular cab 4x4 (351 Windsor) tows it with no problems. Of course Ford says the 4.6L is good to 6200 lbs and the trailer loaded with both horses and gear is probably well under 5000 lbs but what is the reality? Will we end up hating it if we go with the 4.6L? It's not a price consideration but more fuel consumption. While we are concerned about having enough ***** to tow the truck will also be my wife's daily driver so we need to consider the difference between the 2 engines under every day conditions. The ratings are (I think) 24 hwy / 17 city for the 4.6L and 23 hwy / 15 city for the 5.4L. Doesn't seem too substantial but again...what's the reality? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Greg and Deb (aka: my wife)

 

I have the 4.6. If you tow regularly get the 5.4.

 

Get the 5.4 for sure. A lot of people complain about the 5.4 not being peppy enough, so a 4.6 could leave you a bit disappointed- especially in a heavy 4x4.

 

Definetely go for the 5.4L. The 4.6L is a good motor if you never do any towing, but for any kind of serious heavy hauling you will be glad you have the grunt of the bigger motor.

 

My .02 on this.

Get the 5.4, better to have more truck but that being said, it depends on a few factors or it doesn't really matter.

For instance. Which rear end are you getting? 3.55, 3.73 or 4.10? 4X4 or 4X2? Crew, SuperCrew etc? All the combos=different tow ratings. Check the Ford site for more details.

These are things you need to think about.

Max payload is with4X2, long bed with 4.10 rear and a 5.4 3v

With 6K lbs you are getting in to the 80% rule of GCVW.

A good combo in my opinion is a 4X2 LS with 3.73 rear end. Highway gas will suffer a tad without towing but your low end torque will be good. Also look at tire size, that also affects your towing ability. Anything with 20's subtract 800 lbs. Doesn't sound like much but it can make a difference.

go here, http://www.fordvehicles.com/help/guides/towingguide/ study it, print it out and take it with you to the dealership and look at the specs on each truck. On the sticker, you want to look at the RIGHT hand side where the specs are.

Good luck

JP

 

RollingRock:

Whether 4.6 or 5.4 it will be a supercab with a 3.73 rear end and 18" wheels. I know 4x2 makes a better tow vehicle but we really need 4x4.

Thanks

 

Not sure where you're getting your fuel mileage ratings from. We just bought an '07 and all the 5.4L truck window stickers claimed 15/19. The 4.6L claimed 15/20.

For us it came down to a couple things. One, the 4.6 just didn't seems like it would have the guts to pull a load. If you tow once a week you want an engine that can handle the load in stride, not one that is going to be working its a#s off just to get the job done.

The second thing was how hard you had to drive the 4.6 on the road to get it up to speed etc. We were afraid that even though the 4.6 gets slightly better gas mileage, in real world driving we would have to drive it harder to get it up to speed and hence loose any advantage. Down here in Dallas (read pretty flat) we can drive the 5.4 all day long below 2000rpms and have no trouble keeping up with traffic and pulling away from stop lights.

Plus, with the 5.4 pulling 5k you can go with the 3.55 rear end vs. the 4.6 and 3.77. The 5.4 w/3.55 will be much more fuel efficient than a 4.6 w/3.77 when not towing. (Kind of funny calling any F150 fuel efficient).

 

Man, is that the numbers that they are posting these days. My '06 Screw 5.4 4x4 with 3.73 gears has never gotten above 16 on it's best day.

If I were you towing on a regular basis, I would opt for the 5.4 for the extra torque, especially if you live in a hilly area.

Robbie

 

The 4.6 will tow it no problem, don't worry there. The difference in mileage is slim at worst. Figure the 5.4 will have more hp's and torque to start meaning it works less. It may use a bit more go juice during the week but will save in towing that trailer. Maybe. Test drive each engine to see for yourself, but either way you can't loose. I would go with the 5.4 for a few reasons myself. I would go for a 10.4L v-8 if there was one, I build the 5.4 for a living so I'm kinda partial and I've only ever driven the 5.4. You guys fit the criteria a 4.6 is based on, so like I said, you can't really loose.

 

There is no reason to not get the 5.4L. The 4.6L is a great motor, but the 5.4L is better in every way and most people report less than 1mpg difference. There are no aftermarket mods that will get you 50hp and 70ft-lb for $600. The only reason to get the 4.6L would be truck availiblity on the lots an you have to get something now

 

If that is the case the 5.4 SupCab, 4x4, 3.73, max tow is 9300lbs with 18" wheels. The 4.6 is 6700lbs

With the 18" wheels, you loose 500lbs on GCVW, that takes it to 14,500lbs.

You need the 5.4.

 

In the real world (where window stickers don't count) you are likely to see no difference in mileage, might actually get better with the 5.4 when towing - it's working a lot less. Add in the added value at resale, and there is no reason ever to buy the small motor.

Having towed many large horse trailers, you'll appreciate the bigger motor every time you tow and you tow a lot (average once a week).

 

From a 4.6L owner, get the 5.4L.

 

Thanks for your feedback everyone. We really appreciate it. Sounds like an overwhelming response for the 5.4L engine.

I should point out that I was a little generous with the fuel consumption numbers. So for you kids out there let this be a lesson to you: Working from memory will get ya nuthin' but trouble. Here's the straight poop:

4.6L = 15 city / 22 hwy

5.4L = 14 city / 19 hwy

These are from Ford Canada's site. Of course they are reported in metric measure which indicates fuel consumption in "litres / 100 kilometres". 37 years since Canada adopted the metric system and I still hate it. You would think that getting in to it at 8 years old would make the transition easy but I still find myself more comfortable with imperial measure. I used an online conversion calculator to change it to imperial measure.

Cheers

 

I bought my truck used over 6 years ago. The lot had 2 F150s'. One with the 5.4 and the other a 4.6. The 4.6 had better wheels (17") and less miles on it..... I got the 5.4...

Take a look at the rear end between the two, and the choice becomes obvious at that point....

When I bought my used 5.4, I had no real intentions of any future towing, but I knew I would be hauling stuff, so that larger rear end alone was my choice (meaning the ring size of the gears... 9.75" compared to a little 8.8"... )

Then, when I got the TT, it was all a good thing!

175,000 miles so far and loving it!!

PS... If you are going to driving a #5000 brick as a daily driver, then MPG's is not really going to make much of a difference..... Mine is a daily driver, and I'm averaging around 15 mpg of commuting.

Mitch