Mountain Towing

An interesting tip...2nd QUICK TIP down the page:

https://rvtravel.com/rvdt926/

Then read this interesting article on Ford and other manufacturers about mountain driving...

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2015/09/should-your-pickup-tow-less-at-altitude.html

Is your truck up to the challenge? 🙂

My Cummins has no problem with the mountains in Colorado....

Never had any problems with my Duramax/Allison either. Even my '05 without the exhaust brake did a great job.

Can't say my 2013 Fod had any issues with mountains in Wyoming or Utah.

Drove the Raton Pass in New Mexico and the Monarch Pass in Colorado; had no problems with our Dually and 36FB.

(As a side note.... why oh WHY aren't there more guard rails on these roads?!! I have no fingernails left, they're all gnawed off!)

I do not anticipate any problems up or down......LOL

Living in Vancouver we have the Rockies and water on the other, so we have completed many thousands of miles through the Rockies, both in Canada & US.

We have used the original 2012 F350 SRW & now 2016 F-350 DRW. The SRW was maxed out at sea level and although it had no issues in the mountains, this was part of the reason we changed to DRW.

I found Greg's article very interesting that Ford are starting to acknowledge the obvious, can only assume their lawyers are more diligent than the others, or they have already received lawsuits.

Hasn't that little "discount" formula for altitude been around since the 60s? It does not seem new to me, I ignored it back then like I do now. Just like your lung performance, that only matters if 12,000 feet is your habitat, it's not a concern for the occasional visitor.

Living my whole life with some of the tallest mountain passes in my back yard, I can tell you fuel injection and turbochargers practically level the performance issue at altitude. In the 70s, pulling a 25' trailer over Trail Ridge Pass in a wheezing, burping, rich burning carbureted big block Chev tuned for Denver was a task, and it was always amazing how much thin air killed performance. You only had three gears to play with, so you turned the air conditioner off and you took a run at those hairpins or you were afraid you might not have enough power to actually accelerate at all once you came out of the turn. 4 mpg was good economy.

Compare that to today, when the only thing really slowing you down are the sightseers.

Had a couple inline 6 cylinder auto transmission Ford's in the early 80's that couldn't pull your hat off at only 600' elevation.
As Brad pointed with the fuel injection, turbo charged, computerized engines today I don't think 99% of us would ever notice any lose of power at any elevation.
I was told years ago if traveling in the mountains to stop at the bottom & fuel up, that fuel has been oxygenated for higher altitudes & by stopping & restarting has reset the computer to also adjust for altitude, true or not.
Also, sorry Ford guys, that new F150 with 3.6 EcoBoost hauling a 30'+ rv is still a little engine in a light weight truck regardless of what they rate it at. Just my .02 cents.

Danny, the absolute worst, most pathetic vehicle I ever tried to tow with was that Dodge Lazy 6 or "slant 6" (225 ci). My 14' boat would bring that old Sweptline to a stop practically. I got a Jeep pickup with an inline 6 later, and the kids asked where the pass was in Wyoming that we had trouble climbing because they wanted to get out and walk, and I told them about 20 miles back.
🙂

I heavily debated your concern with the 3.6 ecoboost in an Expedition for the DW to tow our boat. I just couldn't grasp that tightly wound V6 doing the job, so we defaulted to the last V-8 made in the Expedition and it does fantastic. But I will say, my buddy got the ecoboost in his pickup with a similar size boat, and he outperforms me. That Ecoboost is a rocket. The F150 is a great tow for boats or small trailers, but I agree with you, they keep pushing it for heavier hauls and it is just not enough truck to handle it safely.