Category Archives: Ford F-250 Super Duty

New Tow Vehicle: 2020 Ford F-250 XL “Godzilla”

Our F-250 in the middle of the desert

This is not a review

A few days ago I wrote about the new Ford F-250 truck we were considering purchasing this summer. Right about this time, Ford, GM, and Chrysler shut down all their U.S. manufacturing plants.

Joyce decided we should go ahead and get a truck now because she felt California would soon issue a “stay-in-place” order. With all these uncertainties, especially a stay-in-place order would probably stop all the sales of new cars and trucks, there is a good chance prices would go up once things settled down – definitely prices are not going to go down in the near future. So we went ahead and bought one last Wednesday, a few hours before the governor announced California would implement a stay-in-place order the following day for at least a month.

Today you cannot buy a new vehicle in the state of California.

During my research there wasn’t any good information on the new Super Duty 7.3L gas engine, especially the miles per gallon when towing a trailer. My plan is to start providing feedback on this metric. But first, we need to accumulate 1,000 miles to break in the engine, before we can tow anything. In this post I’ll share some my first impressions of the truck.

I’ll cut to the chase if you just want to know non-towing mpg so far. At the 386 mile mark on the odometer, with combined city and freeway driving (mostly freeway and remote two lane highways) we averaged 14.9 mpg, verified with the actual number of gallons we used (not the fuel average calculator on the dash). I was hoping for 14-15 mpg. During this driving we kept the truck at the legal speed limit. 65 or 70 mph on freeways, 55 or 65 mph on two lane highways.

This post will not be a review, but some first thoughts.

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How to Choose a New Tow Vehicle

Ford F-250 XL 4X4 is under consideration

We’re thinking about getting a new tow vehicle. There are so many choices and options!!

First is what brand? My last four tow vehicles (1998 Ford Ranger, 2000 Ford Explorer, 2003 Ford Expedition, 2012 Ford Expedition) have obviously all been Ford vehicles. Over the years I have owned many brands of vehicles, so I’m necessarily not a “Ford” guy. I’m a “best value” type of person. But these last four have been incredibly reliable with almost no repairs at all. So, I’ll stick with Ford. But where does one start in the elimination and shopping process. In this post I’ll walk through all the considerations I have explored.

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