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Old     (hatepain)      Join Date: Aug 2006       03-25-2010, 2:45 PM Reply   


Journalists Squeeze 2011 Ford Super Duty® For Impressive Fuel Economy
March 12, 2010
Fuel efficiency and heavy duty trucks haven’t traditionally been talked about in the same sentence. That’s changed now, thanks to the 2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty®.

Ford recently invited journalists to test-drive the new Super Duty in Arizona. During the program, Ford challenged these reporters to a contest to see who could achieve the best fuel economy while driving a the Ford-built 6.7-liter Power Stroke® V8 on an 80-mile stretch of surface roads and highways. The winning media team on the first round achieved 29.2 mpg and the second an astonishing 34 mpg!

Three-person media teams drove from Buckeye to Glendale, Arizona, in an F-250 or F-350 with 1,000 pounds of payload. Depending on vehicle configuration, media teams were expected to meet targets of 26.5 mpg (pickups with 17-inch wheels and a 3.31:1 axle ratio) or 24 mpg (pickups with 20-inch wheels and a 3.55:1 axle ratio) while driving the 80 miles in a time frame consistent with what Ford engineers achieved.

Drivers were given fuel economy tips from the Ford vehicle energy engineering team and a few ground rules: stay on the specified route, follow the provided turn-by-turn directions and drive at the posted speeds (no speeding and no crawling).

Winning the first wave was the team of Bob Plunkett, Chuck Bowen and Sue Mead. Plunkett, a syndicated auto journalist, drove; Bowen, managing editor of Lawn & Landscape, and Mead, a writer for newcartestdrive.com, navigated. The team achieved 29.2 mpg.

“I was in awe of what that vehicle was able to do,” said Plunkett, who has participated in fuel economy challenges before. “It’s a huge machine and to pull those figures is very impressive.”

Bowen echoed those thoughts. “I was very impressed,” he said. “My car does not get much better mileage than that.”

Fuel economy on the all-new 2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty equipped with the Ford-engineered and Ford-built 6.7-liter Power Stroke V8 turbocharged diesel engine averages an 18-percent improvement for pickup models and up to 25-percent improvement for chassis cabs versus 2010 models.

Renowned hypermiler Wayne Gerdes, owner of cleanmpg.com, won the second round at 34 mpg. He had the Ford optimizations as well as his own techniques in hand as he looked to better the mark during the second wave of media drives. He drove a Super Duty with 17-inch wheels.

“Honestly, when I heard they got 29 the first day, I thought I’d be lucky to get 25 mpg,” said Gerdes, who was an important adviser to the Ford team that achieved 1,445 miles on a single tank of gas in a 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid last April. “I was hoping to get 25 to 27 mpg.”

Gerdes used several different techniques, including keeping the revs around 1,000, slowly accelerating and using the drafts of other cars and trucks. The result: an astounding 34 mpg for the route, beating the target by 8 mpg.

Gerdes followed that up by driving the F-250 from the Phoenix area to his home north of Chicago. He covered 1,907 miles on 68.094 gallons of fuel for an average of 28 mpg. Gerdes said weather conditions – rain, fog and strong winds – caused him to drive about 6 to 8 mph slower than he anticipated. Still, Gerdes completed his journey on less than three tanks of fuel and blended his own B20 biodiesel to use the whole way, another testament to the 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 turbocharged diesel’s performance story.

“I’ve never driven anything like this – this was fun and a great challenge,” said Gerdes. “I’ve driven SUVs half this size and not achieved this level of fuel economy. This is just incredible and world-class.”

Leading the second group using the 20-inch wheels was the team of Tony Swan, Car and Driver, Joe Szczesny, Oakland Press, and Mark Vaughn, AutoWeek. They achieved a stout 26.5 mpg.

“It was a good test of the engine and of the overall efficiency,” said Szczesny, who did the driving. “We heard that someone had achieved 26 mpg, so we were definitely shooting for better than that.”

To verify the fuel economy numbers in the media challenge, the 2011 Super Duty diesels were tracked with CrewChief™, a component of available Ford Work Solutions™, a technology package that can help owners manage their business from the work site.

CrewChief is a fleet telematics and diagnostics system that allows fleet owners to efficiently manage their vehicles, quickly dispatch workers to job sites and keep detailed vehicle maintenance records.

Gerdes also took advantage of another Ford Work Solutions component, namely the in-dash computer. Developed with Magneti Marelli and powered by Microsoft Auto, the in-dash computer provides full high-speed Internet access via Sprint Mobile Broadband Network and navigation by Garmin. It’s the first broad-band capable in-dash computer in production and is operated when the vehicle is stationary.

During breaks, Gerdes tweeted (www.twitter.com/cleanmpg) from the truck’s in-dash computer and posted text and photo updates of “Wayne’s Excellent 2011 Ford Super Duty Adventure” to his Web site.

You can find more information on the 2011 Ford Super Duty at fordvehicles.com.
Old     (tyler97217)      Join Date: Aug 2004       03-25-2010, 2:52 PM Reply   
Pretty interesting and exciting stuff. Hope the reliability is not similar to the 6.0. Could be amazing if all this happens in real life use. Might have to jump on the Ford bandwagon.
Old     (motorcitymatt)      Join Date: Feb 2007       03-25-2010, 3:56 PM Reply   
They forgot to mention two other improvements. The first is how quiet the new diesels are and there is almost no diesel stink coming out the tail pipe!

Old     (jimmy_z)      Join Date: Jun 2009       03-25-2010, 4:11 PM Reply   
Those numbers may get affected a little bit. New HP war between Government Motors and Ford.


http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/03...v8-diesel.html


"Is Ford about to power-up its all-new 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 diesel engine in response to GM's recent announcement of best-in-class power ratings for its 6.6-liter Duramax V-8 diesel? Sources say we could see Ford do exactly that within the next year.

In February, Ford announced the 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 for its 2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty will pound out 390 horsepower and 735 pounds-feet of torque; earlier this month, GM announced that its 6.6-liter Duramax V-8 diesel for the 2011 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra HD pickups will make 397 hp and 765 pounds-feet of torque.

According to our sources, Ford isn't about to settle for second place.

The 6.7-liter PSD is a clean-sheet design with lots of headroom for higher power settings, while the 6.6-liter Duramax is based on a legacy architecture that's right at the limit of its performance envelope.

Bragging rights in the heavy-duty segment are critical because almost every truck is used for towing and hauling on a regular basis. More power can mean greater confidence in moving big loads.

How high might the 6.7-liter V-8 jump to? We're told to more than 400 hp and over 775 pounds-feet of torque. The difficulty is striking the right balance between any power increase with fuel economy and emissions regulations.

The 2011 Ford F-Series Super Duty is expected to go on sale in April with the power ratings already announced. If a power jump does occur in the next year, early buyers might not miss out. We're told that it may only require a reflash of the software in the 6.7-liter's engine control unit.

Stay tuned."
Old     (jimmy_z)      Join Date: Jun 2009       03-25-2010, 8:42 PM Reply   
Old     (monroeyd)      Join Date: Jun 2006       03-25-2010, 9:23 PM Reply   
If the numbers are legit and the powertrain is reliable, all I can say is that's niiice.
Old     (hatepain)      Join Date: Aug 2006       03-26-2010, 10:38 AM Reply   
We had a service trainer here yesterday that was driving a F-450 with 4:30 rear ends he was getting 19MPG on the highway unloaded. Thats insane on a truck that size. So the tranny is a big new deal too and Ford was basically willing to admit that the baddest boy on the street is the Allison. They went out and bought several of them from new to a 500,000 miles and just tore them apart to see how they were doing what was working, what wasn't in order to glean as much as they could. They took all the good changed any bad ,or improved I should say, to build the new tranny. It should be damn tough and matched perfectly to the new HP and torque of the new motor.

Wait until the all new F150 motors come out they're gonna be sick too!
Old     (xaggie)      Join Date: Nov 2002       03-26-2010, 11:48 AM Reply   
I'm Impressed.
Old     (guido)      Join Date: Jul 2002       03-26-2010, 12:21 PM Reply   
Hate.... are we going to get the new small diesel yet? If so..... I'm in line. That said, the new 6.7 is sweet, too. That'd be a tough decision.
Old     (hatepain)      Join Date: Aug 2006       03-26-2010, 4:38 PM Reply   
No its been put waaaay on the back burner but the 3.5 eco boost is testing out real well in the F150 posting mid 20 to upper 20's fuel economy with 365 HP and 350 tourque. The torque is available as always with Fords very low in the RPM range. I'm guessing Ford is gonna put a lower tow rating on these because they will have the 5.0 and 6.2 available as well.
Old     (jimmy_z)      Join Date: Jun 2009       03-26-2010, 6:10 PM Reply   
Quote:
Originally Posted by guido View Post
Hate.... are we going to get the new small diesel yet? If so..... I'm in line. That said, the new 6.7 is sweet, too. That'd be a tough decision.
The have had a 4.5L powerstroke diesel in LCF trucks for a while now. Since that is a Navistar design, its a dead duck for any light truck application now.

As Hate stated, the new ECO Boost gassers are turning out to be more than adequate. Ford is content to leave the little diesels to the European/Global markets for now.

Last edited by jimmy_z; 03-26-2010 at 6:17 PM.

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