Learn Me F150 Ecoboost

I have been looking to upgrade my suburban recently. It's a nice truck but at 26 years old I don't want that to be my main camper pulling vehicle. I towed this year a little over 3k miles. The Suburban did it but it's maxed out and struggles and it takes a toll on me as the driver and the family really. If I remember right it's rated to tow 6,500 lbs and my Camper loaded is just over 5k (I weighed it before a trip). I was going to buy a 2006 c3500 dually from a friend but he didn't get a new truck so I can't buy the old truck. 
 

I would like higher towing capacity, crew cab, 4wd and decent creature comforts. We have a 2020 CRV and now that I am permanently WFH I think I am going to replace the CRV and the Suburban with one truck. I am looking at <$35k purchase price. Oh I would also love that my Ford is a generator deal, that could be nice for camping. 
 

UltraClyde's (RIP) story about going to pick up his boat got me thinking about the Ecoboost and then there was a thread about CarMax last week and I have been in casual search mode. What years are good / bad for these trucks? Are there certain mileage ranges to avoid or features that are good or bad? I appreciate any info you all have on these. 
 

Thanks

NYN

The early 3.5s were problematic. The 2nd generation ones were better but still have water pump / timing chain issues.

The 2.7 is a completely different engine and so far way more reliable.

It looks like the 2.7 can tow ~7,500 and the 3.5 can tow ~11k (different for different configurations). Have you towed much with the 2.7?

The later ones have PFI and DI on them, as well as a 10 speed trans.  Should result in better economy, but I've never really tested them to have a good idea.  Maybe someone has owned one at some point.

2.7 v 3.5- what are you planning on towing?  The 2.7 was the truck that the all aluminum body was put into.  Not sure why that was not actually considered a different truck, but other than the looks, they are not the same- built very differently and with different powertrains.  Marketing is marketing, and hard to argue making people think this is the exact truck that is the best seller....

The thing I tow the most is my camper, I would like to get a bigger camper but I am truck limited right now, because of that I was leaning to the 3.5 on specs alone but I have never driven any of them so I am not firm on anything. I tow a car trailer sometimes but that is light so if it tows the camper it tows the car trailer. 

A large camper will be a bigger limit than most car trailers that this board talks about.  

The aluminum truck is lighter, but I kind of doubt the ride would be that much difference.  Mind you- I've never driven either, maybe get my hands on a 3.5 early in 2022- but it will be very brief.

I can ask Monday if there are any current issues.  

Are you looking new or used?  Not that finding either right now will be easy...

Hmm, this thread interests me as am tempted to replace the Alfa and the F250 with an Ecoboost F150 next year.

My brother bought a nice used f-150 ecoboost 3.5 to tow his largish tow behind camper. Absolutely loves it. His tahoe with the baby LS struggled to tow the camper. 

My friend bought a '17 F150 2.7 EcoBoost. Great truck, he added AirLift airbags and it tows his S550 Mustang GT on a heavy UHaul trailer with ease. A lot of his friends who work for Ford moved from the first gen 3.5 EB to the 2.7 EB. If you're looking for all out towing capability, the 3.5 EB is the better choice.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iQQGYJCG65E

I'm interested in these also. I was watching "I do cars" on YouTube and he mentioned these have a water pump that is 100% inside the engine. When the water pump goes out the coolant leaks into the oil and the engines are rarely saved after that happens. Any truth to that? 

I had a '13 Crew Cab, long bed, 4wd with the Max Tow package...and boy would it tow, literally anything I put behind it. Towing 8k on flat TX roads it got 11 mpg, not towing anything it got 13 in town and 15 on the highway at 75...not much eco but loved the boost.

No issues with repairs but I only put 30k on it...

WillG80 said:

I'm interested in these also. I was watching "I do cars" on YouTube and he mentioned these have a water pump that is 100% inside the engine. When the water pump goes out the coolant leaks into the oil and the engines are rarely saved after that happens. Any truth to that? 

Nope. Not a word. 

I drive a 2012 3.5 EB. 4x4 crew cab. Mine is a platinum. 
 

I drive about 1000 miles a week. I bought the truck with 100K on it. It now has 220K. 
 

I tow a lot. It tows better than any F150 I've ever driven, but it is not an F250. I don't mind towing 10,000 lbs with mine, but I wouldn't want to do it all the time.
 

No major maintenance issues. It's been a good truck. 

Not a f150 but I have a 2015 Expedition with the 3.5 and 4x4. It's faster than it should be, has more than enough power to pull most things. Honestly, you have to learn to keep your foot out of them even when towing. I'd imagine the f150 is even more capable with its slightly longer wheelbase and suspension. I say do it. Try to get a 2015+ if you can. 

Also, don't search power mods and tunes. 

Good luck, truck prices are crazy right now. 

Did you mean <$35k? If so I think you're going to have a hard time getting a 3.5eb for that price unless you go for a super early one. I don't have any experience with the 2.7 but from how the 3.5 tows, the engine isn't really the limiting factor until the trailer gets seriously heavy. The 3.5 is alarmingly fast empty and still surprisingly fast with 7k lb of enclosed trailer and car behind it. The 2.7 would probably be fine for your current trailer but I'd probably be hesitant about it if I knew a bigger trailer was in my future. Likewise you could probably get away without the max tow package but it has some nice stuff that you might regret not having in the future. You'll want airbags or helper springs or similar on the rear, probably even for the current trailer.

You need to visit the tow vehicles topic on IRV2.com and have this conversation.  The group tends to be a little conservative but has a lot of real world experience pulling campers.  With the weight camper you are pulling and what you want in the future a 3/4 ton might be worthy of consideration.  It isn't all about tow capacity, payload for the truck has a lot to do with how the truck does.  My target is 70-80% of tow and payload, and for a dedicated truck heavy rear springs instead of helpers.  Happy camping!

Liking all the f150 love recently, I have a 2018 with a 5.0 10spd. Very capable trucks, on paper the 3.5 and 5.0 are similar and in the 150,000 miles I've had mine it's averaged 18.5 mph. About 17,000 of those miles were towing a trailer. The super crew has the best interior space, really room for five (6 if you don't have the sync console) but it gets you a 5.5' bed which is annoying at times. I wish mine had the bed outlets but it's a stripper.

Turbo chargers in towing applications make me nervous unless the hood has "Kenworth" or at least "F350"  written on it, but I'm old and timid.

I am also concerned that 250 might be the number you want to shop, considering that you are looking at a larger trailer.  That, however, would make you suffer the 335 days you are not towing, instead of the 30 days you are.

I has a customer who really didn't like me very much when I told him that the check engine light (too much ignition retard too long) was due to towing with regular gas, because his 3.5 was magic.  It said so on the internet, they can tow anything anywhere at any speed... He was even more upset a while later when he pulled all the oil out of the pan in about 150 miles towing his too large trailer too quickly.

He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

A lot of good feedback here. I did mean less than $35k (I fixed the original post now). So that eliminates the brand new trucks. Those come out at over $50k no matter what and can sky rocket. 
there was some talk of gen1 vs gen2 and that's where this has me scratching my head. I've done a lot of googling on this and I've seen things like 2013's are great and 2015's are great but 2014's have terrible reliability issues. I can't tease out if that is from node year changes or engine or trans changes or if that's keyboard warriors doing their thing?

If I did this move it would really replace my wife's car and then my truck would have no use so it would go too so moving to a 3/4 ton is probably not my play. We also don't put on a ton of miles so mileage isn't my biggest concern. I am most worried about reliability and capability. My CRV with the turbo 1.5 has only averaged 22.6 mpg during its first 10k miles. I don't think I will be on the high side of mileage estimates for anything. 

In reply to NY Nick :

'14 would have been the original engine- the PF-DI version did't come out until '17 IIRC.  I'll check, but I know it was later in the decade than earlier.  Not sure on the trans, though- the system may have gone from 6 to 8 to 10 speeds.

Streetwiseguy said:

Turbo chargers in towing applications make me nervous unless the hood has "Kenworth" or at least "F350"  written on it, but I'm old and timid.

I am also concerned that 250 might be the number you want to shop, considering that you are looking at a larger trailer.  That, however, would make you suffer the 335 days you are not towing, instead of the 30 days you are.

I has a customer who really didn't like me very much when I told him that the check engine light (too much ignition retard too long) was due to towing with regular gas, because his 3.5 was magic.  It said so on the internet, they can tow anything anywhere at any speed... He was even more upset a while later when he pulled all the oil out of the pan in about 150 miles towing his too large trailer too quickly.

He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

When I first heard of this idea back in 2007, I thought that 90% of our customers were going to be exactly like you.  I was stunned (and am still surprised) that the turbo is more popular than the 5.0l  Which has kind of put the Mustang in a pickle.

$35K is a very reasonable budget for an excellent condition EB. 
 

I bought mine for $17K. 

I have a 2017 4wd in Lariat trim that I bought used about 3 years ago. It's got the later, more powerful 3.5 and 10spd. I tow a 9k lb enclosed trailer about 3k miles per year.

The good:

It tows great, though I get about 7.5mpg at highway speeds. Not towing, I get about 17 in town and 19 on the highway.

The bad:

In my truck at least, the transmission isn't that great. It's programmed for fuel economy and so is always in a really high gear, keeping engine rpm's below 2000. Downshifts are slow, so while the truck can be actually quite fast, it doesn't feel that way around town. It has a sport mode that is better, but does a lot of engine braking, so kind of weird if you're just driving around.

Sunroofs are problematic and cost ~$3k for the dealer to replace the cassette if the tracks break. 

When you're shopping, checking for the options you want can be a bit tedious. Sounds like you want the Max Tow package (which oddly doesn't include tow mirrors). That should get you the big 36 gallon fuel tank and lower rear gear, etc. I think there is an online VIN decoder that can help - dealer descriptions were often incomplete/incorrect when I was looking.

One last thing. I didn't get a truck with the tailgate fold out step, and I do regret that. You can't retrofit the step into a non step tailgate, and used tailgates cost $3-4k.

In reply to sevenracer :

That's odd about your transmission.   Doesn't it have a Tow/haul mode?

Mine does. It's awesome. I find it to be extremely good at allowing the higher revs when needed, and downshifting early on downgrades to enable engine braking. 
 

In fact, it's so good that I sometimes wonder how it knows all that it does!

Is there a T/H button on the left side of your console shifter?

In reply to SV reX :

I've heard the 10spd is a little more undecided with what gear it wants to be in while towing.