Towing with a new truck

[Dusty]

My buddy was planning on driving his new f150 Ecoboost up to the lake this weekend. He is going to tow my 1850 crestliner Sportfish. He only has 600+ miles on his truck. His owners manual says not to tow the first 1000 mi. The trip is 300 mi one way. Should he tow or not?

[RebelSS]

I sure as heck wouldn't!!!! Let that engine break in right...I'm not going to get into the semantics here, because there's a hundred different opinions on this. I've been a wrench since the 70's, and my opinion is Go by the book. I'd also dump that first oil by 1000 miles, too. Read up on the microscopic analysis/metallic fluoroscopy of oil during break in...Just my

[Scott K]

I bought my new truck, drove it home (12 miles), hooked up the boat, and pulled my boat to Canada. Just very your speed some, and dont over rev it in between shifts, you should be fine.

[Powerstroke]

I was gonna say what Scott said. If you vary your speed and keep the engine and tranny moving so it doesn't rev in a single spot I think you'd be fine.

I've also towed in the first 1000 miles and never had a problem. I never kept any of those vehicles for 10yrs so who knows if they had long term effects, but you never know.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I wouldn't be surprised if your fuel mileage sucked on your way up!

[Dusty]

When you tow anthing the milege sucks. Don't really care about that, just don't want to mess up a new truck engine or tranny. Thanks for the replies folks.

[scott b]

Not worth the chance.

[ottertailguy]

If it's your boat don't you have something to tow it up this weekend? But if you guy's don't have any other option then I would use his new truck only because it's not your truck. If it was my truck than that would be different.

[1johntimm]

It's a ford, take your chances!

[Loose]

I have always been told high loads are good for a new engine.

Engines dont get broke in before they hit the dyno do they???

[Jim Almquist]

Go for it!!!!

The only thing that I would watch for is it shifting a lot ?

If that was the case I would drop it one gear or take it out of overdrive.

Or you could take a 300 mile road trip today

[Dusty]

Jim, I talked to the truck owner yesterday evening and he did as you suggested, put a couple hundred more road miles on it.

[Jim Almquist]

Always nice to have a new ride for any trip!

Good luck and have a good time.

[TooTallTom]

What are the implications for the warrany if you don't follow the break-in procedure? It would suck for this to cause problems. It would suck much, much worse if the warranty was voided...

[LightningBG]

What are the implications for the warrany if you don't follow the break-in procedure? It would suck for this to cause problems. It would suck much, much worse if the warranty was voided...

I don't know how they would ever know. I sure as heck wouldn't bring it up.

[echotrail]

I have the truck in question on this thread and Dusty was asking the questions for me while I was putting on some more miles last night and this morning. I got it up to 950 and got 21.5 avg mpg. After talking to the dealership service manager this morning and explaining the next 300 miles would be towing he suggested changing the oil first, so I did that to.

Thanks to all for the responses.

[RebelSS]

I have the truck in question on this thread and Dusty was asking the questions for me while I was putting on some more miles last night and this morning. I got it up to 950 and got 21.5 avg mpg. After talking to the dealership service manager this morning and explaining the next 300 miles would be towing he suggested changing the oil first, so I did that to.

An excellent decision. Happy fishing!

[Capt. H (Ret.)]

Man this is the truck that Ford is beating the [PoorWordUsage] out of it to see how it holds up. It will be fine.

[DRH1175]

It will be fine. I have the same truck and engine. I have already towed my boat with mine a couple times starting at about 650 miles. My engine and truck is rated at 11,200lbs so towing my 2000 lb lund isn't going to do much. Matter of fact it didn't even no it was there. My fuel mileage slipped a bit but the truck didn't shift any different than when it was empty. I deffinitly will wait past 1000 should be closer to 2000 to pull my 7700# Travel trailer, but most boats are easy work for a full size pickup these days. Hope you caught some fish the weather sure does stink today!