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DistantDavid · 05-09-2025, 09:35 PM

I'm looking at picking up a 2011 F150 with a 3.5 liter EcoBoost V6 engine for towing. 108,000 miles on the truck (single owner, no accidents, per CarFax). 3.73 ratio and 6-speed transmission.

My trailer will be around 7000 lbs loaded up. I won't be driving a whole lot (vacations), but some trips will be over the Continental Divide. Seems like that should test most any engine.

This is outside my experience. (I spent years with a cabover on top of a Chevy 3500 dually with a 454. No issues.)

• Is this a reliable engine; it's almost 15 years old, but that seems kind of a long-in-the-tooth truck.

• Should I shy away from the EcoBoost engine?

• Any wise counsel for a rookie to the camp trailer world?

Thanks a great bunch.

db4570 · 05-09-2025, 10:36 PM

That engine is supposed to be very reliable, with a lot of low-RPM power (often mistakenly referred to as "torque".) Some say it doesn't have much engine braking power downhill, which I think is a bit over-rated. I'm not personally really crazy about turbos, but it seems that if anyone has figured them out it is Ford with the Ecoboost.

Your trailer at 7000# is a bit heavy, but not extreme. Can you check the payload capacity of the truck? At 7000# your hitch weight must be a minimum of 10% of that or 700#, so that needs to be subtracted from the truck's maximum payload capacity before you load anything in the truck.

Chances are that combination will work just fine if you don't mind taking it a bit easy on long, steep hills, both up and down.

DistantDavid · 05-10-2025, 07:05 PM

I confess, I'm estimating very high with the 7000#.
Real world is likely under 6400, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Thanks for the perspective @db4570.

zrock2010 · 05-11-2025, 08:34 AM

Drove one of those for a few years and their was 2 issues with them that drove me nutz. In a hard rain and you were trying to pass someone water would enter the intake and toss you into limp mode easy to clear the code shut it off and restart, im pretty sure they issued a fix for that. THe other one is if you had cruse control on and were heading uphill and it had to down shift it was quite aggressive and would drop you 2 gears, they had a reflash for that issue but did not really fix the issue to well.. Other than that they were a great truck and engine. Never had issues towing anything.

Dave Pelletier · 05-12-2025, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by db4570

That engine is supposed to be very reliable, with a lot of low-RPM power (often mistakenly referred to as "torque".) Some say it doesn't have much engine braking power downhill, which I think is a bit over-rated. I'm not personally really crazy about turbos, but it seems that if anyone has figured them out it is Ford with the Ecoboost.

Your trailer at 7000# is a bit heavy, but not extreme. Can you check the payload capacity of the truck? At 7000# your hitch weight must be a minimum of 10% of that or 700#, so that needs to be subtracted from the truck's maximum payload capacity before you load anything in the truck.

Chances are that combination will work just fine if you don't mind taking it a bit easy on long, steep hills, both up and down.

Ditto on all this, though I personally prefer 12 - 15% TW for stability.

Dave