Trip report from June 24th to the 30th

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bw56

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Left Wahweap the morning of the 24th and headed to Padre Bay with 11 other family members. Most notable observations. The water was very comfortable. The first couple days we dealt with a lot of smoke from the Ceder Ridge fire? No clouds at all. Some strong afternoon winds, in fact so strong that it blew our houseboat off the shore. The anchors held but the houseboat was spun parallel to the shore. With my crew there was nothing I could do but wait for the wind to die down. 5 or 6 very nice from a house boat across the cove swam over and we had a great time getting it back on the beach. The lesson it to keep your lines tight when the water is rising. No monsoon. I really missed the beautiful clouds. Catfishing was great off the back of the houseboat but slim pickings for stripers. We didn't seem to spend too much time fishing. It seems there was always something else to do. I have been to the lake on houseboats 10 or 11 times and this was by for the most crowded I have ever seen. We normally come in mid July or August so perhaps the pre 4th week crowd?
We did have a family member have a serious medical emergency and they ended up at the hospital in Page and received very good care.
We left Page on the 30th and headed to Flagstaff and then down the 17. We saw several fires on the way home.
The traffic was the worst I have ever seen but we never stopped and got in to San Diego at about 9p.m.
I have a new Ford 5 150 with the the 3.5L ecoboost engine. It is very strong towing but got hot several times on the grades on the 17. I always turn the air off going up a steep grade and I was only towing about 5500lbs.
The engine temp got up to 233 degrees on one occasion.(110 degrees outside) As soon as we leveled out the digital guage went off and all was well. It seemed like the engine like to run with more boost than RPM? Perhaps more gas with the boost keeps the cylinders cooler?
Anyway a great family trip that worked out well with a 1 year old and a 4 year old.
 
Thanks for the report.
As a complete subject shift, Tell me more about the F150. I have a 2012 F350 diesel, which tows effortlessly and amazingly, but it is a giant behemoth, and I wonder if a half ton would tow my 8100 pound boat up and down the mountains of Colorado very well? The overheating part worries me.
Cliff
 
Leardriver said:
Thanks for the report.
As a complete subject shift, Tell me more about the F150. I have a 2012 F350 diesel, which tows effortlessly and amazingly, but it is a giant behemoth, and I wonder if a half ton would tow my 8100 pound boat up and down the mountains of Colorado very well? The overheating part worries me.
Cliff
Click to expand...
The truck is new to me. 5,000 miles. It does fine with the temperatures in the 80's or 90's. Plenty of power. The 110 degrees was too much with a 6%+ grades on highway 17. Some if the blogs I have read talk about the intercooler being shielded. I am talking to Ford but don't hold much hope of an answer that makes sense. I normally travel early in the morning and try to time the hot steep grades to early or late. Overall, I love the truck. I saw a lot of f 150's towing big boats to Lake Powell.
 
My 3.5 has never heated up, but my 18' bass boat isn't much of a load. I have seen the tranny climb to around 230 towing long grades at 100+ degrees.
 
Thanks for the feedback and the thread semi-hijack. I wondered about two turbos jamming hot air into an engine.
If I only tow to Powell once a year, I could survive the rest of the year with a 150. The diesel is great, but it's like driving a dump truck in the Walmart parking lot.
 
bw56 said:
Left Wahweap the morning of the 24th and headed to Padre Bay with 11 other family members. Most notable observations. The water was very comfortable. The first couple days we dealt with a lot of smoke from the Ceder Ridge fire? No clouds at all. Some strong afternoon winds, in fact so strong that it blew our houseboat off the shore. The anchors held but the houseboat was spun parallel to the shore. With my crew there was nothing I could do but wait for the wind to die down. 5 or 6 very nice from a house boat across the cove swam over and we had a great time getting it back on the beach. The lesson it to keep your lines tight when the water is rising. No monsoon. I really missed the beautiful clouds. Catfishing was great off the back of the houseboat but slim pickings for stripers. We didn't seem to spend too much time fishing. It seems there was always something else to do. I have been to the lake on houseboats 10 or 11 times and this was by for the most crowded I have ever seen. We normally come in mid July or August so perhaps the pre 4th week crowd?
We did have a family member have a serious medical emergency and they ended up at the hospital in Page and received very good care.
We left Page on the 30th and headed to Flagstaff and then down the 17. We saw several fires on the way home.
The traffic was the worst I have ever seen but we never stopped and got in to San Diego at about 9p.m.
I have a new Ford 5 150 with the the 3.5L ecoboost engine. It is very strong towing but got hot several times on the grades on the 17. I always turn the air off going up a steep grade and I was only towing about 5500lbs.
The engine temp got up to 233 degrees on one occasion.(110 degrees outside) As soon as we leveled out the digital guage went off and all was well. It seemed like the engine like to run with more boost than RPM? Perhaps more gas with the boost keeps the cylinders cooler?
Anyway a great family trip that worked out well with a 1 year old and a 4 year old.
Click to expand...



My friend has a 2015 F150 with the max tow package. The thing try's to overheat every time he tows to bullfrog (5500-6k) in the 95-100 ambient degrees. The last trip he removed the grill and it stayed cool. Not enough flow. Ford wasn't much help.
 
Thanks for the Trip Report! Your trip is like a mirror image of my trip starting with my drive this Friday out of Denver to Bullfrog. Will have 11 people total, 5 adults 6 kiddos. Gonna be a blast, really looking forward to it. I too am hoping for a little monsoon clouds to start up.

Sorry but I too am about to hijack the thread about the F150. I sold my beast of a 2007 Dodge 3500 Cummins 6.7L in January and replaced it with a new body 2015 F150 Super Crew, 3.5L Eco with Maxtow, 6.5 bed. I've put a little 2.5" level kit on it and one size larger tires as well as rear spring helpers. I wanted most of the capability of the Dodge but with much more comfort and so far so good. But your post and the replies after it have me worried! I too will be towing about a 5500# boat, but also about 1000# worth of gear, coolers, kids, etc.

Before the Dodge I had a 2005 Duramax Crew and it was an overheater. HATED that truck going to Powell. Nearly melted it on those rolling hills into Bullfrog Those 2004-2005 LLY Duramaxes were known to overheat. So when I got the Cummins it was a relief to have a truck I could pull as fast and as hard as I wanted to in 105 degree heat and 11,000 foot mountain passes. I don't want a repeat performance of the Duramax, I guess I'll have to watch those engine and tranny temps closely, especially on those climbs out of Denver, over the Divide and Vail Pass. Another thing I'm worried about is the engine braking or lack thereof. My Cummins had the Exhaust brake which is a lifesaver. My trailer has surge brakes, but I usually lock them out because they will get so hot coming down the mountain passes that it will liquefy the grease and sling it all out of the bearings. That 3.5L while it has good pull has like ZERO engine braking capability. I guess I'll just have to slow down my drive a bit from what I'm used to on the Dodge Cummins.

I suppose I should do a trip report here in a couple of weeks and include my experience with the F150 3.5 Ecoboost.....
 
Sparkin said; I suppose I should do a trip report here in a couple of weeks and include my experience with the F150 3.5 Ecoboost.....

Sounds like a good enough reason to go to the lake. Sq
 
Simple answer is, NO. The smaller truck and tow ratings are designed for flat land tow, not mountain hill climbing. If you were over heating on a 6% grade, even in 110 degree heat, you are driving too small of a package for 8800 lbs. Your fuel mileage must be pretty awful as well. But, if you can choose your time of travel for the cooler part of the day you can minimize the damage to the drive train. However, you are hitting the xmission temps along with the engine temps. So, you may be good for 10000 more miles or 30000, but you are going to be wearing out the drive train ahead of schedule pulling 8800 lbs under the conditions you described. My practice after 50 years of buying and using trucks to tow if I want maximum drive train life is to de-rate the published tow capability by a minimum of 25%, keep tow speeds at 60 mph average and 65 maximum. I drive a 2006 Dodge diesel that books now for the same used price I bought it for in 2008 I love the ability to pull any hill and the temps stay where they belong. Tow ratings are hooey based upon easy flat land driving. De-rate, de-rate is the song to sing when buying a tow vehicle.
 
potter water said; I drive a 2006 Dodge diesel that books now for the same used price I bought it for in 2008.....

I bought my 2007 Dodge Megacab in 2009 with 64k miles during the recession and $4 diesel. I sold it in January with only 115k miles for $1000 MORE than I paid for it in 2009. One of the reasons I decided to sell it.

I'd be interested to know if these 3.5 Ecoboost Fords mentioned here have the Max Tow package with the additional trans cooler and whatever other bits that improve it's towing capability. I believe mine does, it at least has the extendable mirrors which I think indicates it does. I used to tow 80 mph in Utah with 100 degree temps with the Cummins. Might have to rachet that back to 70 or 75 with the Ford. I can't drive 65!!
 
My Ecoboost does have the max tow package. It seems to tow fine on level surfaces but the hot grades get the temp up. I noticed today that the front license is right in the middle of an air intake for the grill.
 
I don't have a front license plate, that may be helping.

I also had one of those 2005 duramax's mentioned above. That POS would get almost to the overheat mark on every summer road trip, even towing my little boat. I was sure it would break down, but was still going when I sold it with around 140k miles. The 2007 ram that I replaced it with never heated up the Cummins, but the tranny recorded some crazy high temps. So far, the little 150 has been drama free.
 
So actually right this very moment, I'm fueling up in Green River. I've been streaking across the I-70 Corridor near it's 105 degrees. I'm running close to 80 miles per hour with zero overheating zero drama whatsoever. This thing is pulling exceptionally well my 6000 or so pound boat plus a ton of food gear Etc. For the life of me I can't find a digital engine temperature readout but the analog one has never gone over half in my transmission temperature is generally running about 206 with an occasional rise up to 210 or 212 on a incline. Tranny temps quickly go back down wants done climbing on the flat even with it 105 out. Also what's surprising when it's in tow haul mode the engine braking is actually fairly adequate. I'm loving driving this thing knock on some sort of wood lol! Not there yet about another hour and a half to go to Bullfrog. Overall it seems just about as capable as my Dodge Cummins was just a lot more comfortable. Sure it probably wouldn't tow a 10000 lb trailer but for what I'm doing it's fine....
 
bw56 said:
The engine temp got up to 233 degrees on one occasion.(110 degrees outside) As soon as we leveled out the digital guage went off and all was well.
Click to expand...


I'm interested to know where you are reading the 233 degree engine temp? Do you have an aftermarket gauge, or something that reads the temps from the ECU like the "Scan Gauge" product? I often suspect my analog gauge is spoofed, as it never moves even when climbing long grades, which cannot be right...
 
This is a shameful thread hijack. To continue along those lines, my 2012 Powerstroke is a beast of a tow vehicle. I just start laughing when it charges up a hill, because the power is seemingly limitless. but....I don't need it except for once a year. It sounds like the jury is still out on the cooling capacity of the Eco-boost.
 
Grant Stevens - USBR said:
I'm interested to know where you are reading the 233 degree engine temp? Do you have an aftermarket gauge, or something that reads the temps from the ECU like the "Scan Gauge" product? I often suspect my analog gauge is spoofed, as it never moves even when climbing long grades, which cannot be right...
Click to expand...

Yes very sorry about the hijack.
Curious how the 1 yr and 4 yr old did. We're leaving for bullfrog Tuesday and told our cousins with similar age children to leave them back. I'm a nervous nelly about kids and boats (always adhere to safety guidelines) and the constant worrying would drive me mad and very unrelaxed.

On my friends 2015 it only shows a digital readout of the temp when it gets to 230-235ish or above. Other than that just analog

Sparkin- what year is your truck?
 
I have the new body aluminum 2015 Supercrew with the 3.5 ecoboost. And Ive also added a 2.5in front 1in rear lift with one size bigger tire on stock wheels. Lift amd tires usually puts more strain on a truck but in this case doesnt seem to phase it. Even launched the boat last night to make a run to the houseboat to load before dark. It not showing digital readout till it gets hot makes sense now. I never saw that digital readout on my long hot Drive yesterday so I guess it never overheated.

As far as your questions about kids.....bring them!! I know many others here say don't do it but I think thats what a good Powell trip is all about. Well have a 5, 7 and 9 year olds and everyone of them we took to Powell as infants and they even slept in Pack N Play cribs on the top deck at night.

I too am nervous and they basically have to live in a lifejacket unless sleeping. Keep and eye on that 1 year old, that might be the hardest age.

Probably sounds like Hell to some people but my trip starting this am out of Bullfrog will be 5 adults and 6 kids ages 5, 7, 8, 8, 9 and 11. If you see a 60' pontoon houseboat in the Escalante area this week with a Party Island, water trampoline, kayaks, standup paddleboard and of course my ski boat you'll know its us! Paradise Found II.
 
Heres a pic of my rig at Ticaboo last night. Boat behind it is 2006 MB B52 23' wake and ski boat with a 6.0L ZR6 motor. Don't be fooled Ive equipped it a fish finder and I don't minds getting fish guts in it! Ive had several do it all boats over the years most I/Os. I miss the ability to trim prop up but having the prop below is much safer for kids and we do a ton of behind the boat watersports.

20170707_174844.jpg
 
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